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Boats Against the Current Baz Luhrmanns The Great Gatsby

Boats Against the Current Baz Luhrmanns The Great Gatsby

Ive seen Baz Luhrmanns version of The Great Gatsby five times now. Im not even ashamed to admit it. If I were to somehow become Alien out of Spring Breakers, it wouldnt be Scarface Id have on repeat, it would be The Great Gatsby. Anything remotely Gatsby I snap up - whether it be reblogging my 100th gif of Jordan Baker or changing my cover photo on Facebook or finding something pretty to adorn my bedroom walls with.


Despite all this, I dont actually like The Great Gatsby as a film all that much. Lets put all of this into context: last term I did this huge research project about modern adaptations of classic films. Now, I wont bore you with the gory details since that thing ended up being like, 40 pages long, but The Great Gatsby was my main focus. This was because I had never seen so many people around my age go absolutely nuts for this one movie. Admittedly, this was mainly because of the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is descended from angels and were all materialistic magpies that will swoop in on anything that glitters (so you can imagine the field day we had with this). Lets just say, I wasnt the only one reblogging, cover photo-ing or adorning everything Gatsby.

However, I was the only one who had actually read The Great Gatsby, the great American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was the only one who originally hated Tom Buchanan, knew the tragedy of Gatsby and frowned upon Daisys decisions. And now I had a whole lot of people joining the party because it never killed nobody. Okay, so Im not a thick-rimmed glasses wearing hipster. But Baz Luhrmanns version - no matter how much I love the guy and will defend his work until the bitter end - is not a good representation of the book. It is just a good representation of how to get the youngins in to watch something that doesnt have (many) explosions or robots and the like, and even perhaps read the book.


The conclusion I came to in my really long research report was that The Great Gatsby is not a book that can be translated to the screen. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an absolute master with his words. So much so that it is almost like he is speaking in his own language. Theres one particular quote that I found by Anne Margaret Daniel of Huffington Post that said "Fitzgeralds language has already done all the cinematic work for the actors, directors, set designers and producers. The Great Gatsby is an interior book, little concerned with externals. Fitzgerald conjures what he wants to say by way of description with only a few delicate strokes of words...We use our imaginations to fill out the pictures for ourselves, where a camera cannot". Which would leave you in a pretty sticky spot if you were thinking of giving Fitz the cinematic treatment. Even moreso if youre adapting a book often lauded for its subtle writing...and your name is Baz Luhrmann, the king of excess.


Yes, I have sat there watching The Great Gatsby rolling my eyes at Luhrmanns feeble attempts at tackling the great motifs of the eye of T.J. Eckleburg and the green light. Theres only so many scenes of Leonardo DiCaprio reaching out to the distant, likely CGI green light at the end of Daisys dock that one can take. I love how Michaelis pops up in the background for no obvious reason, but hes quite the big part of the book. I have made some vociferous, angry statements about the end and how mangled it is compared to the book (what is worse that it was originally similar to the book, including the final scene with Jordan Baker - why would you cut a scene with the flawless Elizabeth Debicki in it?!). But if theres one thing that this film is very good at being, it is extremely faithful to the novel. 85% of the plot remains intact, save for the ending. 75% of the very limited dialogue from the novel remains intact. Yet, it feels like a very loose adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel. And again, thats because we have Baz Luhrmann, the king of excess, throwing glitter literally everywhere, putting a huge gold organ in Gatsbys house and, well, introducing New York to a song thats most expressive line is "coke on her black skin made a stripe like a zebra".


Dont get me wrong, reading about Luhrmanns decisions was actually quite interesting - his heart was certainly in the right place - but lets not keep this film and the novel in the same universe. What Luhrmann has realised is how much times have changed since the jazz age, and how making a film with the same sensibilities as the novel wouldnt have got him the audience, nor boosted F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel back into Top 10 glory. Perhaps a subtle film by Sofia Coppola with jazz music would have been in a closer range to the novel, but Luhrmanns film is truly something different. Where else would you get a 3D 1920s set film with people riding in cars to some hip hop tunes? You can either take a glass half full or glass half empty approach: I think The Great Gatsby is about as fresh as you can get in a blockbuster. Not perfect, but lets just say it is a damn fine rose in amongst some rusty franchise thorns.



Then again, thats just my teenaged heart acting up. Every day is Leo-Mania for me.

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