When I subbed a few
years ago, practically every ninth grade read F. Scott FitzGerald’s “The Great
Gatsby”. That came back as a lavish
period (almost comic-book) 3-D film from Australia (Village Roadshow Pictures
and Warner Brothers) from Baz Luhrmann this week. I do recall the 1974 film, a Francis Ford
Coppola production by Jack Clayton, with Robert Redford as Gatsby and Sam
Waterston as the scribe Nick Carraway.
This was the definitive, relatively “real” film, which I saw in New
Jersey about the time that I “came out”, and it was very popular then in the
gay community.
Tobey Maguire, the soft-spoken “Peter Parker” fills the bill
for “Nickie” in the new film. It’s 1922, and the Nick wants to be a writer but
really has to make a real choice in these pre-tech days and becomes a bond
trader. He is lucky enough that the
cottage he rents on Long Island is next to the Gatsby mansion.
Leonardo Di Caprio is somewhat the extension
of the plantation owner in “Django”.
Once he tells story of his poor background, we of course know that all
this money came from Prohibition-era bootlegging (and Ken Burns’s film on the
topic is mentioned in the credits).
Nick is the one friend that Gatsby has, as the unfortunate
web of betrayals and mistresses around him revolves. After the ending, nobody cares enough to come
to the funeral. I think there are times
when there should be no memorial service at all, and that we can learn from
that.
The visual portrayal of the "Valley of Ashes" on Long Island gives the environment a kind of "other planet" look, almost characteristic of David Lynch. I don't think the Long Island Railroad had steam trains then.
Ezra Klein (Washington Post columnist) wrote a piece
critical of the ending of the book and movie.
I had somehow misconstrued his piece and tweeted that the movie changed
the book, but it seems that the ending is the same, at least in areas that
matter. I’m not sure that I agree with
Klein that it is all coincidence and accident.
The piece is here. I suppose a lot of English themes get written
about this ending (or it shows up on a lot of quizzes).
I do remember that a teacher for whom I subbed asked the
kids to write a piece about Nick’s quote “I am one of the few honest people
that I have ever known”. Here's a link for quotes from the book.
The official site is here.
The opening of the movie shows the corporate trademarks in “1930s
style” and the 3-D and color develop gradually.
I saw this film in a small auditorium (digital) at Regal in
Arlington. They don’t always “Go Big”
but we don’t “go home”. I wish the
theater would announce on its website which shows are in large auditoriums.
The other novel that everybody reads in ninth grade is “Lord
of the Flies” by William Golding, an MGM film in 1990 by Henry Hook. I saw
plenty of reading quizzes on this book.
Picture: Far Rockaway after Sandy, my picture
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