Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" The Jokes On You

"Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. ...I come to the admission that it has a limit."

F. .Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is only 189 pages long.  Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of his novel is over 2 hours and 23 minutes and is a loud, bright, and vivid extravaganza of color, action, and drama.  Unlike the four previous versions of this classic of American literature, Luhrmann's vision is lively wild and fresh.  As we have all have experienced when our favorite books come to life on the silver screen there are certain scenes missing, some characters are blurred or eliminated altogether that is also the case in this film.  Does this mean that this Mr. Luhrmann has not stayed faithful to Fitzgerald's novel, no, not really?  Does he capture the spirit of the 1920's Jazz Age, no, not necessarily?  Does Baz Luhrmann capture the spirit of longing of lost love, and the shattering of the American Dream, absolutely he does.  Is "The Great Gatsby" worth watching, most definitely it is.  Will you be entertained?  Yes, I believe you will.  "The Great Gatsby" stars Leonardo DiCaprio ("Titanic," "The Aviator," "Shutter Island," "Inception"), Carey Mulligan ("Drive"), Joel Edgerton ("King Arthur," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"), Isla Fisher ("Now You See Me"), Elizabeth Debicki, and Tobey Maguire ("Spiderman," "Pleasantville").  The film comes in two flavors, 2D, and 3D and has a PG-13 rating.

Moulin Rouge!" director Baz Luhrmann who along with Craig Pearce ("Moulin Rouge!," "Romeo + Juliet") took some artistic license in several places in the setup of the narrative.  Using the concept of Nick Carraway writing a memoir from a sanatorium in order to rid himself of the demons from his time in New York, allows the audience to see the summer of 1922 through the emotionally strained, morally drained, yet gilded eyes of disillusionment.  Cinematic ally, the scenes become more intense, more colorful, surreal, louder, garish, vulgar, and yet strangely beautiful.  Another device the director uses, in his attempt to stay honest to Fitzgerald's words is that at times when Nick is thinking aloud about what he remembers, Fitzgerald's words appear as if typewritten upon the screen, word for word.  In the film, as in the book, Luhrmann reminds us "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.”  Nick goes on to say, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, you remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you have had.”  With this, Nick recounts for us his move to New York, leaving behind a literary career and the Mid-West for the promise of New York and the easy money of a bond salesman on Wall Street.

The actual plot of Fitzgerald's Gatsby is really not very remarkable.  It is Fitzgerald's prose and elegant phrasing that makes "The Great Gatsby" great.  Fitzgerald’s words don’t necessarily transfer to film easily unless it comes in the form of dialog.  In many cases in the book, it was Nick's descriptions where the prose flowed easily and fluidly.  Luhrmann attempts to do this visually and with his choice of music.  What happens sometimes is too overpowering visually but nonetheless exciting.  For the most part Luhrmann maintains many of the symbols and motifs that are prevalent in the book and in some cases embellishes them.  For instance, after moving into a cottage in the West Egg district of Long Island, where the new money lives, Nick's description of life take on a certain hopefulness that are repeated symbolically throughout the film.  Nick introduces us to Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) a classmate from Yale, and his wife Daisy (Carey Mulligan).  Nick and Daisy are also cousins and childhood friends.  Our introduction to Daisy is surreal and filmed in almost a haze.  Tom and Daisy live in a mansion on the old-money East Egg section of Long Island, coincidentally just across the bay from Nick's Cottage.  Major plot points are covered such as the dinner with Tom, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki), Daisy's Golf Pro friend.  During dinner the phone rings and Tom gets up from the table to take it in private.  Unlike today's cellphones, telephones in those days, were large stationary and sometimes graceful apparatuses that people used for communication.  The phone motif occurs at various points in the film indicating trouble or change.  In this case, as Jordan tells Nick, after Daisy has gone after Tom that it was Tom's mistress from New York calling. 

Luhrmann retains the theme of class inequality throughout the film.  When Tom takes Nick into the city by way of the Valley of Ashes, that place between West and East Egg, a desolate place where the poor George (Jason Clarke) and Myrtle Wilson live.  With Nick as a witness Tom and  Myrtle journey to New York where Tom has an apartment where he and Myrtle can party.  Some may disagree with Luhrmann's casting choice of Tobey McGuire as Nick Carraway; however, I think McGuire still maintains that deer in the headlights naive look, and that sense of wonder and desire that we remember from "Pleasantville."  The party that Tom and Nick have with Myrtle is loud, outrageous, and in many ways over the top, reminiscent of my own decadent youth.  Joel Edgerton portrays the aristocratic entitled Yale Graduate and former Polo player Tom Buchanan as a careless, surly, racist, pig.

We are introduced to the main character by way of the green light.  The green light is a beacon that shines at the end of the Buchanan's pier across the way from Nick's cottage and Gatsby's castle next door.  Standing forlorn at the end of his dock reaching out, as if to grasp the light across the bay stands Jay Gatsby who throws elaborate parties on the weekends and who remains a mystery to all.  Some say he is this, some say he is that.  A spy one says, of German royal blood says another, all an illusion Gatsby is.  Leonardo DiCaprio is almost 40, yet he still imbues a man of fewer years, but with energy, that drives the character of Gatsby as Alexandre Dumas's Edmond Dantès in "The Count of Monte Cristo.”  Like Dantès, Gatsby is a self-made man and we meet him in all the celebratory pomp that we first met Edmond Dantès, fireworks and all.  Jordan and Nick meet Gatsby at one of his parties and unlike Dantès, Jay's introduction is a bit more subtle.  Gatsby greets Nick with one of the many "old boy" that we will hear throughout the film.  Already Nick finds himself caught knowing the truth about Tom's affair with Myrtle and his loyalty for his cousin Daisy.  Nick will find himself in a similar situation between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom.  Jordan Baker's part in the film is reduced to somewhat of a narrative facilitator, filling us in where Nick cannot.  The tall, lanky, lithe Elizabeth Debicki is very reminiscent of a 1920's flapper, but all her characteristics portrayed in the novel are gone from the film.  She is just there.  Another interesting casting choice was that of Meyer Wolfsheim.  Like the real life Arnold Rothstein, who actually did rig the 1919 World Series, is Jewish.  However the casting India's Amitabh Bachchan in the part is divine. 

In order to make the Jazz age relevant to a modern audience Baz Luhrmann's choice in music is somewhat anachronistic.  Using will.i.am's "Bang Bang" to drive the rhythm of the party, the deep booming of the drums that drives the Charleston Flappers into an orgiastic frenzy, in my mind works perfectly.  Illegal booze flowing to the sounds of Fergie + Q Tip's "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)," or the wistful somber scenes to Lana Del Rey's "Young And Beautiful.”  My only issue with the music is with Beyoncé x André 3000's rendition of Amy Winehouse's "Back To Black.”  I found it disturbing and the only song out of place, otherwise the mix of hip-hop and the pseudo Jazz sounds play well with the images and move the mood and the picture in the direction that I think Luhrmann desired.

Visually the images that Luhrmann presents are somewhat stunning in way that they evoke the style of the 1920's Art Deco Jazz Age that probably never was.  The images of throngs of people in a debauched revelry inundate the mind and senses.  Images that take your breath away of Gatsby's driving through Long Island into New York that could momentarily nauseate the viewer.  Images of Gatsby's beautiful castle and the opulence within, reminds one of Xanadu when laid empty and void in the end.  Views of Ash Valley that is mystical in some ways yet utterly desolate.  Or, images such as the Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg on the billboard, watching as God watches when Tom and Myrtle commit their sins.  Or when, near the end, Gatsby and Daisy come racing through the valley and there is a terrible accident.  Images throughout the film of African Americans in the background either laboring with pick axes in the rubble of the valley or in the city playing the Jazz trumpet longingly in vivid color on a balcony.  We see splendid images of characters in their fine tuxedos, and the women in their dresses, short hairstyles, and flapper hats showing off their newfound freedom and a new sense of feminism.  By the end of "The Great Gatsby" I was inclined to think that, I too, should own a Tux.  Luhrmann's editing and pacing keep the story from plodding, however, he treads slowing and taking time during the moments that require the attention they deserve.  Like the scenes that display the awkwardness between Gatsby and Daisy at their initial encounter about half way through the film. While at other times, the film’s pacing is fast and almost exhausting, particularly during the party scenes.

Watching "The Great Gatsby" for the sake of pure entertainment is how one should approach Mr. Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel and to try to enjoy it for what it is. It is a film that depicts the decline of the American Dream in the 1920s, however, it can also stand for our own times as well.  Even today, Americans are still suspicious of what we feel of the one percent and the hollowness of the upper class.  What we can all get from this adaptation is that in the world even today there is much style, opulence and over-hype that is but a facade hiding the decadence and the emptiness that lies below the surface.

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The Great Gatsby - Preview

Movie Data

Genre: Drama

Year:  2013

Staring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Producer(s): Lucy Fisher, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Douglas Wick

Writer: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearc, 

Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 143 minutes
Release Date: 5/10/2013

The Great Gatsby - A Preview

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have established social connections and who are prone to garish displays of wealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night.

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Although Fitzgerald is telling us a story about love and rejection, on a different, darker level, he is telling us a tale of decay and decadence.  Perhaps this is the perfect time for this classic story returns to the minds of the American people.  For many years just the name Gatsby always had the connotation of opulence and decadence.  Now that the United States has just come through a recession due to a certain amount of financial decadence, we head into a new era of social and moral renewal. The world is a point where technology is racing ahead, faster than our souls can keep up.  We have new opportunities for the younger generations to make money with the new leaps in technology.  The question we all must ask ourselves is with this new technology, will the American people realign their goals to focus on discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness, or, will we allow ourselves to slip into a some sort of decay.

Also staring  in "The Great Gatsby," is British actress, Carey Mulligan who has had staring roles in  "Shame," "Drive," "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," and "Never Let Me Go" to name a few, as Daisy Buchanan -- Gatsby's love interest.  Playing Daisy's husband Tom, is Australian actor Joel Edgerton of "Star Wars," "The Thing" and "Zero Dark Thirty" fame. As Tom's lover and mistress, Myrtle Wilson, is played by the beautiful Isla Fisher ("Confessions of a Shopaholic"). 

At the helm of "The Great Gatsby" is the director of 2008 film "Australia," Baz Luhrmann. Writing credits go not only to Luhrmann, but also to his ofttimes collaborator, Craig Pearce. Pearce's resume includes  "Charlie St. Cloud", "Romeo + Juliet" as well as "Moulin Rouge!." 

"The Great Gatsby"  is scheduled for release in the USA on May 10th 2013.




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Movie Data

Genre: Drama

Year:  2013

Staring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Producer(s): Lucy Fisher, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Douglas Wick

Writer: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearc, 

Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 143 minutes
Release Date: 5/10/2013

Review: Red Riding Hood

Twisted Tales and Fractured Fables

I  go into films hoping for the best but, I can usually tell within the first fifteen minutes if the film is going to keep me interested and has potential. I can tell you honestly, that within the first ten minutes I knew I was in trouble with "Red Riding Hood." I was with my wife and she seemed interested, so I kept my seat. Starring Amanda Seyfried ("Letters to Juliet," "Dear John," "Mamma Mia"), who plays our heroine Valerie. Gary Oldman plays the quasi-bad guy as usual in this 42 million dollar mess of a film. Battlestar Galactica's Michael Hogan appears as the medieval village's Reeve (elected land supervisor), in a pretty small and pathetic part. Walking through his part as Valerie's father is Billy Burke ("Twilight" series, "Drive Angry") who is capable of better, isn't. "Red Riding Hood" is just over an hour and a half, and is rated PG 13 for stupidity.

Twisting and fracturing the classic "Le Petit Chaperon rouge" as told by Charles Perrault, who is turning in his grave as I write. "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke seems to be doing what she thinks what fans want, instead of turning something classic into a film with class. Drawing from the familiar tale, Hardwicke takes a liberal literary license with the material and tries to add the teen romance elements to "Red Riding Hood" and fails. Living in a medieval village on the edge of the forest during the winter, we see the superstitious villagers preparing for the full moon. Valerie (Seyfried) wanders around introducing us to the various town characters in somewhat of a haphazard way. In a flashback we see Valerie as an eight year-old girl, and her slightly older boy pal, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). In this scene they are trapping a rabbit in the woods, and showing Valerie's primal nature, she holds the trapped rabbit as she urges Peter to cut the white furry bunny's throat. Nice huh. But they don't show it, instead the camera blurs and we are whipped forward ten years and Valerie's hormones are pumping for Peter who is now a woodsman like her father. I suppose David Johnson ("Orphan"), is alluding to "Peter and the Wolf" in naming the love interest Peter? However, we find that Valerie's parents arranged for her to marry Henry (Max Irons), the Blacksmith's son. Virginia Madsen as Valerie's mother, Suzette was the force behind the marriage arrangement between her former lover's son and her daughter. Henry's father is killed during the classic scene were the villagers with their torches track the wolf into the forest and over the hill and through the dale and into a dark and dank cave.

Needless to say, Hardwicke and Johnson weave a twisted tale of love, lies, deception, and in the process they drag just about everyone in the village into view as suspects as the werewolf. Even Grandma as played by Julie Christie is a suspect, and I must say she plays a pretty damn good one. If there is any shining light in this dark, cold film, it is Christie's performance as the Grandma who lives in the woods. Now, I am sure the Johnson and Hardwicke probably sat around a lunch table in some posh Hollywood restaurant, and were tossing around ideas and said to each other we need a villain that we can show during act two and part of act three, so we don't have to show who the werewolf is before the very end. Enter Gary Oldman, as Father Solomon, along with his black knights (pun intended), to lead the investigation into whom the werewolf is. Oldman's performance is weak at best, and passionless. While explaining how he killed his wife who he claims was a werewolf, I just don't find his performance believable. Seyfried's performance during her conviction as a witch too is unconvincing and soulless, Max Iron's (Henry) is just there to look good, and that is about it. Shiloh Fernandez's (Peter) is a bit better, but not by much, dressed in black, Fernandez gives a bit more life into his part, as he professes his love for Valerie.

Being that the film is PG-13; the film is tame and lame all the way through. Soulless and passionless also describes both the visual effects and the musical score (see, I can kill two birds with one description) - nothing special or memorable here. The images of the village in the distance, truly look like matte paintings, and are uninspired. Ask me what the music sounds like. Epic? Bold? Heroic? Nah, nothing. I took notes, but for the life of me the score is so unmemorable I can't remember if there was even music. Even the beloved Col. Tigh from Battlestar Galactica, Michael Hogan (the Reeve,) couldn't save this film. "Red Riding Hood" is doomed to end up on the SyFy channel with the tag line A SyFy original motion picture.

Movie Data

Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller 

Year:  2011

Staring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Producer(s): Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Julie Yorn

Writer:David Johnson

Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 100 minutes

Release Date: 3/11/2011

First published on 3/14/2011 Yahoo Voices

Inception: Through the Memory Darkly

"True inspiration is impossible to fake"

Every day we wake from our beds with the warmth of the sun kissing our cheek and we sit up and stretch.  We head to the bathroom to brush our teeth, and then at some point we realize that we have not woken up at all.  We are still slumbering away in our dreams.  Philosophers from Plato to Descartes have questioned reality and the dream world for thousands of years.  Christopher Nolan brings these questions and drops it on our doorstep and then steps back and laughs.  Like the Greek Myth of Theseus and Ariadne, sometimes the myths just don't make any sense, oh well.  What Christopher Nolan does in Inception, is walk the fine line between madness and sanity, between greatness and confusion.  The ultimate concept of that permeates Inception that one must take away from this film is trust.  As the characters must trust each other when entering the dream world, the audience must trust the world that Nolan creates on screen will not crumble before our eyes leaving us in limbo.  Nolan is not above a prank or two.

Inception is a Science-Fiction Action film starring Leonardo DiCaprio ("Shutter Island"), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), and Ellen Page ("Juno") as dream weaving con artists that work directly through a person's dreams.  Dreams are like a prison, either you are breaking in, or you are breaking out.  Like the WW II film the "Great Escape" from 1963, members of the team is brought in for their specialty.  DiCaprio plays Cobb, the mastermind of this organization; Levett is Cobb's right hand man Arthur, in charge of security and fact checking.  Page is the architect Ariadne, like the daughter of Minos; she holds the secret of escaping the maze of dreams.  Tom Hardy ("Star Trek: Nemesis"), Eames, is the Forger, both in the real world and the dream world.  Rounding off the team is the chemist, played by Dileep Rao ("Drag Me to Hell"), as the creator of dream inducing drugs that keep the dreamer sedated until woken at the proper time.  Ken Watanabe ("The Last Samurai," "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant") is along for the ride is as Saito, the corporate executive who is insistent on keeping a rival energy company from becoming a monopoly.

Held in a trance by the visual effects, during the first act, it is near the end of the first act, that the story starts coming together.  Saito (Watanabe) wants Cobb (DiCaprio) and team to plant a thought into the mind of the heir of the Fischer Energy Conglomerate.  The thought, the inception, that Saito wants Cobb to plant into the mind of Robert Fischer ("Sunshine's" Cillian Murphy), is the thought of breaking up his father’s corporation, and create his own destiny.  How the team accomplishes this mission is complex but not very confusing, and like the maze of the Minotaur, Ariadne is there to help us weave our way out of the maze.

Incredible Passive Income!

The beginning of the film is jumps from scene to scene and from one concept to another with little explanation at first but eventually the pieces of the puzzle start coming together.  Cobb and team typically steal intellectual property directly from a person's mind by joining the victims in their dream, and tricking those victims to divulge their secrets.  Plots within plots, dreams within dreams, each time the story goes deeper Cobb must explain to Ariadne how the dream world works and how to navigate it.  Not as straightforward as the Matrix, there is no virtual reality, but the deep virtuallity of dreams.  Good stories have good plots, but they also have solid main characters; characters with flaws.  Like Teddy Daniels, DiCaprio's character in "Shutter Island," and Leonard, Guy Pearce's character from Nolan's Memento -- the lead character suffers from the guilt of a tragedy that leads to his wife's death.  In Inception, Cobb suffers from guilt as he lives on the edge of madness and his visions of regretted pasts.  The guilt that haunts Cobb from the first scene to the last is the death of his wife.  Like characters from the TV series "Lost," while traveling though time need a constant, something to hold their sense of reality together, otherwise they would die.  Inception characters need a constant as well, which comes in the form of a totem.  A totem is a small item that only the owner knows how it works.  DiCaprio character's is a top, that if it never stops spinning, then he knows he is in a dream.  Page’s totem is the bishop in a chess piece, and Arthur's is a loaded die.  Arthur (Levett) is the man behind the scenes pushing the buttons, and supporting the characters and his cast members, I liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this role as it gives him the opportunity to show off his diverse set of talents.

Creating an M.C. Escher like visual effects nightmare, Christopher Nolan defies physics and our sensibilities.  This is where the trust comes into play; Nolan takes us deeper down the rabbit hole of dreams leading us directly to where Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra ended up in Richard Matheson's "What Dreams May Come."  DiCaprio’s dream-wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), come together in the madness of limbo, forgetting the difference between madness and sanity, between dreaming and reality.  Nolan, is pulling the best elements of a James Bond film (snow chase from "The Spy Who Loved Me"), adding the dream state (Matrix), and city towers rearranging themselves ("Dark City").  While explaining the concept of inception, director Nolan also gives us a lesson on advertising, reminding me of Don Draper and Roger Sterling brainstorming an advertising idea with a client, eventually allowing the client to believe that the concept that they proposed was their clients all along.  Han Zimmer's driving score adds additional layers of depth and emotion driving the suspense as the characters rises from the depths of their dreams toward the conclusion of the film.  Leonardo DiCaprio is getting older, and his once baby face recedes into maturity.  Since the day he played Howard Hughes, he showed the world that he is ready for mature parts, and solidifying that fact with the "Departed," "Shutter Island," and now "Inception."  Ellen Page adds her usual spunkiness to the team, and is there to make sure the audience is kept informed.  Ken Watanabe as Saito brings a sense of dignity to the film that without him the team would lack.  Tom Hardy is excellent in his role as Eames, forging alternate identities, and the third level of the dreamscape.  Dileep Rao's Yusuf the chemist character, although small, but performs it well.  Double Negative's visual effects are stunning and mind-blowing, enough said.

I mentioned at the beginning that "Inception" has elements of a Greek Myth, and that some things just don't make sense, there is one question about the story that bothers me.  How do they  achieve synchronous dream state, or is this something like "Nightmare on Elm Street" -- where one character's dream ties them all together?  Don’t let this thought or the many questions dissuade you from seeing this film on the big screen.  There are many things in life that are not explainable, but then again that is the wonder of it all.

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Movie Data

Genre:  Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller 

Year:  2010

Staring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine

Director: Christopher Nolan

Producer(s): Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas

Writer: Christopher Nolan

Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 148 minutes
Release Date: 7/16/2010

Original published on Associated Content on 7/18/2014