The Great Gatsby is Indeed….Great!!!
By Maria V. Luna
“No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
Funny thing about literature is that classics, as many of them as possible, are presented to high school students, yet when reintroduced to much of classic literature one finds a completely different understanding—appreciation even—in adulthood. I was lucky enough to read two classics, not as a teenager with a short attention span, but as a focused adult thirsty for artful sentences, verisimilitude and drama. My two adulthood classics were Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. With The Catcher, Holden will always fascinate me with his apathy and the vulnerability from which it is engendered. With Gatsby it will always be something intangible, ethereal as the scene where we first meet Daisy and Jordan Baker. “A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as a wind does on the sea.” In my mind’s eye, the scene may as well take place afloat a cloud or on Mount Olympus, so when I first heard of the novel’s film adaptation all I could think was…but how? How can the magic that is flanked by East Egg and West Egg be captured and contained on a mere screen? And then I heard the director’s name, Baz Luhrmann.
You know his work. Director, Baz Luhrmann was the mastermind that brought you Romeo + Juliet (1996) completely reconfigured for our time, yet uncompromised and true to the core of the timeless tale. I knew then, that if he could do for Gatsby what he did for Romeo and Juliet, the film would be an epic success. And it is.
I waited months to see this film and I finally got my chance. 3D and too fabulous, that’s my recap! The ever-shinning Adonis that is Leonardo DiCaprio could be the only possible choice to do Jay Gatsby any justice and Carey Mulligan, all radiant and divine, delivers the complexity and charm of the fragile Daisy Buchanan. I promise this film will shower you with glitter and champagne, cars racing, women dancing wildly and all the glamour and raucous parties framed in unfathomable high style that only F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Roaring ‘20s could produce.
This Friday, May 10th, there is no other place, no other seat that you should occupy if it is not one of velvety softness, with popcorn salting your fingertips and 3D glasses sitting neatly on the bridge of your nose, watching the very and truly Great Gatsby.
