The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann, 2013)

[ianungstad]

I'm not liking the look of The Great Gatsby at all.

[Jeff]

Not sure what to think. Looks very, um, Lurhmanny.

[The Narrator Returns]

This features one of my least favorite trends in trailers these days; songs that aren't appropriate for the film's period. Playing some generic hip-hop song over The Great Gatsby is just wrong. It's as bad as playing N.W.A.'s Fuck Tha Police over a trailer for a Civil War movie.

[Cde.]

Why not? Contemporary film scores aren't contextually appropriate for period films either, but no one complains about those.

[domino harvey]

I'm not liking the look of The Great Gatsby at all.

Ugh, the novel's glitzy spectacle is joyless to reflect its emptiness whereas what we see of Gatsby's parties here looks like a grand old time at Adult Chuck E Cheese. If any source should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the excesses of the era...

[Mr Sausage]

This features one of my least favorite trends in trailers these days; songs that aren't appropriate for the film's period. Playing some generic hip-hop song over The Great Gatsby is just wrong. It's as bad as playing N.W.A.'s Fuck Tha Police over a trailer for a Civil War movie.

It's a heavy-handed attempt to draw in the younger audiences to a 'stuffy old book' by drawing a (not unfruitful) comparison between the roaring twenties and the lavishness that hip-hop culture celebrates. Kind of a "see, they're just like rap artists!" thing.

My reaction is the same as Jeff's. Still, it has to be better than the '74 version.

[Jeff]

Ugh, the novel's glitzy spectacle is joyless to reflect its emptiness whereas what we see of Gatsby's parties here looks like a grand old time at Adult Chuck E Cheese. If any source should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the excesses of the era...

I know what you mean, but I think you could possibly go too far in that direction. I think you have to give the audience the appearance of Gatsby's parties as being "a grand old time at Adult Chuck E Cheese." Otherwise when you reveal the emptiness later, it doesn't mean anything. If you portray the parties as being hollow illusions of pleasure from the beginning, the ending loses all its power. There has to be a reason that all of Gatsby's guests want to be there, and we need to see him as Richard Cory. I think you have to make the audience think they want to be there too -- at first. We don't know that the film will serve as "an endorsement of the excesses of the era" until we see how Luhrmann handles the denouement.

[domino harvey]

Still, it has to be better than the '74 version.

Both feature Gatsbi who are far too old, though. Curious about that new actress who's playing Jordan Baker and why she looks like a Hirschfeld doodle of Louise Brooks...

Jeff's right, it could perhaps all mean something in Luhrmann's hands, but CGI car chases and the overt stylization of the non-party glimpses make me skeptical. The ash pits looked promising, how's that for faint praise!

[Mr Sausage]

the overt stylization of the non-party glimpses make me skeptical.

Same. The excessive opulence of stuff like the meeting with Daisy (all ringed with white flowers) just make it seem like Luhrmann is mythologizing the story, confusing the stature and value of the book with that of its contents. Again, just a trailer, so who knows, but I get the feeling that Lurhmann's sensibility is going to be inherently at odds with the themes of the story and end up working against them.

[zedz]

So the trailer makes the film look tacky, shallow and garish, with an inappropriate look-at-me soundtrack? Didn't you guys get that message already from "Directed by Baz Luhrmann"?

Those ten ghastly hours I spent subjected to Moulin Rouge have convinced me to shun anything else the guy does.

[JMULL222]

This features one of my least favorite trends in trailers these days; songs that aren't appropriate for the film's period. Playing some generic hip-hop song over The Great Gatsby is just wrong. It's as bad as playing N.W.A.'s Fuck Tha Police over a trailer for a Civil War movie.

Sorry to be the off-topic ballbuster, but a "Django Unchained" trailer cut to Fuck Tha Police is the best idea I've heard all week

[colinr0380]

This Gatsby looks abominable. (And it's not even Fitzgerald's best book, nor I think the best candidate for a movie screenplay.)

I'm a little biased against this work as I took a 'Text Into Film' module whilst at university which, along with Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye To Berlin being adapted into Cabaret, also had The Great Gatsby and the 70s film as a set text to compare and contrast. I don't think my examiners appreciated my essay saying that I felt that the film of Gatsby failed to capture any of the tone of the book (with the book being almost totally reliant on the tone of events more than the physical actions themselves), and instead treated most scenes in a borderline hysterical fashion!

Is this the one that will be in 3D? I cannot see the trailer whilst at work, so I don't know if it turns up in that, but I would admit to being casually interested in watching the film just to see how they handle the sequence where Gatsby in an ostentatious display of wealth throws the contents of his wardrobe around Daisy! I think that scene (and the plaintive reaching out for the light of the dock) would be highly amusing to see created in a garish 3D format!

[domino harvey]

"Good" news, that's actually in the trailer

[Michael Kerpan]

I rather like John Harbison's Great Gatsby opera -- which will finally get its first Boston performance (unstaged concert version only, alas) next year. ;~}

[Zot!]

This actually looks fairly restrained for Mr. Luhrmann, but horrific nonetheless. I think Moulin Rouge is a lot of peoples least favorite movie.

[colinr0380]

Perverse it may be, but I often think that the most effective screen adaptation of Gatsby was when it turned up in a somewhat modified form as the Rip Torn/David Bowie corporate betrayal subplot in The Man Who Fell To Earth!

[Fred Holywell]

Based on the trailer, I can't exactly say I don't like the look of the thing. I do have to admit it made me a little nauseous, though. Maybe because it seems that Lurhmann took a MixMaster to the Jack Clayton version, not a bad thing in and of itself, but I don't know if I could stomach it in a theater.

[HistoryProf]

Why not? Contemporary film scores aren't contextually appropriate for period films either, but no one complains about those.

i sure as hell did. moulin Rouge was one of the most painful movie going experiences of my life.

I was very excited about this until I saw Baz was at the helm. nothing says 1922 NYC like Autotune.

and i'm not entirely sure what it is, but Tobey MaGuire has yet to not feel awkward in a film for me. Do not like him cast as Nick at all. And then he casts the crazy girl from Wedding Crashers as Myrtle. This has garish disaster written all over it. And yet people will continue to lavish inane and inconceivable praise upon his amazing style like they always do. He's even more of a one-trick pony than M. Night Shamylan....I don't get it.

Zedz beat me to it but what the hell did you expect? A rational, intelligent distanciation between subject, tone, style and engagement?

Luhrmann is simply a talentless hack with access to too much money. Somebody told me (in all seriousness) he watched Renoir's French Cancan before making Moulin Rouge. It miusta gone straight through the hole in his head.

This Gatsby looks abominable. (And it's not even Fitzgerald's best book, nor I think the best candidate for a movie screenplay.)

Bravo David!

[colinr0380]

Having now seen the trailer it does look like an amalgam of the riotous partying of Moulin Rouge! with yet another doomed romance and Di Caprio to invite comparisons to Romeo + Juliet. Though I wonder if this story of shallow, unlikeable people would be a more difficult sell to audiences, driving away those who loved Romeo + Juliet and who just want another lavish, simple love story?

Here's the scene from the 1974 film that this one needs to top!

[Finch]

I'm with zedz. As soon as I heard who's directing this new film, I thought, Pass. The trailer only reinforced that stance.

[mfunk9786]

Moved to Summer 2013

[Fred Holywell]

Moved to Summer 2013

“Based on what we’ve seen, Baz Luhrmann’s incredible work is all we anticipated and so much more. It truly brings Fitzgerald’s American classic to life in a completely immersive, visually stunning and exciting way. We think moviegoers of all ages are going to embrace it, and it makes sense to ensure this unique film reaches the largest audience possible,” said WB's president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman.

Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.

Do things like Christmas and Memorial Day openings really matter any more, nowdays? Most people won't see this thing until it's on DVD/Blu, anyway. How it does at awards season would seem to make a bigger impact than whether it opens in December or May.

And that shot of Tobey and Leo makes them look like the cutest gay couple the '20s ever saw. Of course, with Baz, maybe that's the point.

[Niale]

And that shot of Tobey and Leo makes them look like the cutest gay couple the '20s ever saw. Of course, with Baz, maybe that's the point.

Homosexuality should be apart of the film, as it is apart of the book. The character of nick being a homosexual.
I could really care less about this movie though, and I consider the original great gatsby film (obviously not the lost silent) to be an absolutely terrible film!

[GaryC]

At the very least, this gives me an excuse to reread the novel. I read it nearly thirty years ago, while I was doing Tender is the Night for English A-level, and don't remember very much of it.

[Fred Holywell]

And that shot of Tobey and Leo makes them look like the cutest gay couple the '20s ever saw. Of course, with Baz, maybe that's the point.

Homosexuality should be apart of the film, as it is apart of the book. The character of nick being a homosexual.

That was Truman Capote's interpretation. His version of the Redford/Farrow screenplay, the one the producers threw out, portrayed both Nick and Jordan as gay characters.

I can't remember what, if anything, Fitzgerald had to say about the characters' natures, but most literary critics seem to view them both as heterosexuals.

There's a third (or is it fourth, now?) film version of "Gatsby" (not counting a couple of TV-movies), the 1949 Alan Ladd one. In that, Nick was portrayed by Macdonald Carey, and Jordan by Ruth Hussey. I didn't notice anything especially 'subversive' in their portrayals, but it's been a while since I've seen it.