Movie Screening- The Great Gatsby

Hello readers, this blog is a response to the task assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. This blog deals with the various questions allotted based on the novel The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925 and The Great Gatsby movie by Baz Luhrmann in 2013.  

THE GREAT GATSBY

The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrman is much faithful to The Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Movie has used modern narration techniques but has certain loopholes in it compared to the novel. Cinematography and editing of the Movie is extraordinary. Watching this movie gives the best scenario of 20th century America and its culture. We belong to a completely opposite culture (eastern Culture) so it becomes difficult to understand some satires of western culture for e.g. Tom’s comment on Gatsby for weaning Pink suit. Now let us discuss some questions With reference to the screening of film

How did the film capture the Jazz Age - the Roaring Twenties of America in the 1920s?

The western had the worst experiences in the first world war and after it the generation is known as the ‘lost generation’. There was great  technological, economical and cultural evolution in the 20th century in America. It was moving towards prosperity that is gaining more and more economy. Fitzgerald explores the major developments of the Roaring Twenties, including the birth of jazz, the women’s suffrage movement, economic prosperity, and the rapid growth of Manhattan as a cosmopolitan city.

This period of roaring twenties is also famous as Jazz age, this term was also coined by Fitzgerald in his collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age (1922). Jazz music was very popular in that period. It was very popular among Black people, it was initiated by African American. So the whites considered it to be music of black or lower status they heard and enjoyed but never socialized with the blacks. 

FitzGerald has explored jazz age greatly in the Novel. Baz Luhrman’s movie has very faithfully captured Jazz age/ music. The contemporary soundtrack in the movie features songs by Bryan Ferry, Jay-Z, and Florence and the Machine. 

From the beginning of the movie we do find the loud music which lightly indicates the madness of the jazz in that period. 

People danced and bounced on the jazz music in Gatsby's parties. They seemed to be a lost society, careless people and rich class society. 

When Tom was having an apartment party which revealed his cheating over Daisy, which is mirroring inferiority of ‘Roaring Twenties’ was also indicated by the loud jazz music. The man was playing a loud trumpet in the scene. 

Next, when Gatsby went to an underground bar from the barber’s shop, the bar had a Jazz group playing jazz music which also indicated the negative side of 20th century America.

How did the film help in understanding the characters of the novel?

Baz Luhrman’s 2013 film is immensely faithful to Fitzgerald’s novel. Thomas Doherty writes in his movie review Luhrmann “remain[s] faithful to the spine and spirit of the novel while giving himself plenty of room to move”.  Although he was faithful to the novel he has made many alterations and characters are minimized accordingly. Here are some examples of change in characters.

• Gatsby’s character is well developed throughout the movie. The mysticism around his character is greatly managed by Luhrman. 
• Nick is problematic as a narrator. In the novel we find that Nick is not talking about incidents in which he is not present which are Gatsby’s and Myrtle’s murder scene. But in the movie both these scenes are narrated by him. For eg. first we were shown the Myrtle’s murder scene later it was shown in flashback when Gatsby’s narrated truth of murder to him. 
• Nick and Jordan are a couple in the novel while in the movie we don't find any major role of Jordan in the movie. It seems she is just to deliver a message about Daisy to be invited for tea. Audiences could find Nick- Jordan Chemistry in Movie only if they have read the novel.
• Nick’s character is also flattened in the movie. Throughout the movie he shared his views of Gatsby's life but no light was thrown on his personal life.
• In the novel daisy is not only smart and lovely but “her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth” and she had “an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget” while in movie she is stupid blonde girl who doesn't understand the world. While her recklessness and carelessness is held flawlessly
• Luhrmann has managed to downsize all the characters and their personalities but the characters seem to be interesting because the movie had heavy focus on visuals, effects and ivory of 20th century America.  

How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleberg' and 'The Green Light'?

The Valley of Ashes:

The Valley of Ashes is a stretch between west egg and New York. This valley had a colour scheme of gray in Luhrmann's movie. The movie is successfully capturing the bizarreness that is described in Fitzgerald’s Novel. Valley of ashes is dumping of industries, it is as important a scene of the movie as the glamorous part. Valley of ashes also shows the failure of the American Dream. The American dream of becoming economically strong is bringing a spiritual drought. It's a failure for America because America is growing but is failing to balance, the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poor. Valley shows how the rich are disconnected from the source of their wealth.

The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleberg 

The Valley of Ashes is watched by the gigantic blue eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg,in the middle of a strange, gray landscape. This giant billboard without a face which are the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is an ad of optometrist. The billboard is dirty and faded which can be interpreted that the billboard is watching the moral failures, America as a moral wasteland and meaninglessness of the world for a long period of time. As the camera says more than words, the camera moves over the billboard to tell something hidden. When Daisy and friends were going for lunch to New York the billboard was shown which is interpreted as something terrible is going to happen. George Wilson also considered it to be the eyes of God’s who is watching everything.

Today This billboard with eyes which is watching everything can be said to be replaced with a CCTV camera. ‘ you are under surveillance’ 

The Green Light

Green light seems to be always shining on Daisy’s dock. Gatsby had a mansion on the opposite back of the sea. He used to watch this light everyday which symbolizes hopes and dreams of Gatsby to have Daisy in his life and the American dream. It can also be interpreted as the shine and glamour of inherited wealthy people and their intolerance and unacceptable to new rich society.

How did the film capture the theme of racism and sexism?

Racism

In the Great Gatsby the theme of racism and sexism is not prominent but we find them in dialogues and ideology of Tom Buchanan. Tom had an regressive mentality he felt white’s to be a dominant class, he could expect back or other then white turning rich because if it happened they would start ruling, according to tom. Tom Buchanan declares The Rise of the Colored Empires a prophetic book that admonishes whites to “watch out or these other races will have control of things,” Nick sees a Limousine “driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.” And he announces that “Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge.” All these minor incidents show racism in movies.

Sexism

Sexism is discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex. In the movie we find three complete opposite female characters, Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle. Daisy is the most important one,Daisy belonged to a wealthy family but was dominated by Tom. Tom had a mistress but when Daisy started loving Gatsby she was forced to choose any one. Similarly, Myrtle was an ambitious woman who wanted materials and her husband couldn't achieve her dream and so he had relations with Tom. Here we compare Gatsby and Myrtle- when Gatsby achieved material wealth through bootlegging it was the American dream and for Myrtle the question was raised directly on her. Jordan belonged to Flapper society, a new women group towards whom the society saw with discrimination, considered to be immoral and dishonorable. 

Nick Carraway as a narrator. [Click here for source video]

Luhrmen is using a framing device which is different from the book, Nick is committed to sanitarium for morbidly alcoholic, anxiety, insomnia and it is the catharsis process he writes the Great Gatsby. And this is root for him being an unreliable narrator. The major question arises that how trustworthy can a narrator who is suffering from a morbid alcoholic psyche issue.

Apartment party scenes, when Nick was drunken, were also smoothly narrated by Nick which are also questionable . Because a drunk person could rarely see or remember the acts he/ she has done or seen.

At another instance we find that when Nick is writing about his depression we find haste, cancelling of words and rewriting to what extent we can think of him narrating everything perfecting even when he is not able to write perfectly.

In the scene like myrtle murder scene and Gatsby’s Murder scene, Nick is absent still he is narrating both the scene which is also contradictory to novel. It's like a prophecy, neither being present nor knowing about the plan yet able to describe the happening.

Psychoanalytical study of Jay Gatsby. [Source video psychoanalytical study and Character study]

American dream, a dream in which a man works for nothing but to be Richer and Richer than God themselves. Gatsby from the Great Gatsby can be seen as an allegory of America. Gatsby is a fascinating insight into American people; during the second world war when it was devastated. Transition from carefree naivety to hard hitting reality. Obsessiveness in the Gatsby work as a poison and brings downfall to him is his obsessiveness was to be rich, be on his legs and have Daisy in his life. To complete his obsessive wishes he learnt to act a respectful life from the Sailor and became rich by the business of illegal alcohol. It is obsessive nature which forces him to have a house on the other edge of the river and through which he feels in closure to Daisy. This forced him to throw lavish parties that showed his excessiveness. We also see excessiveness in the American people by buying unnecessary things because they are affordable and cheap because of mass production. excessiveness is seen in Gatsby's life when he throws the unnecessarily lavish parties to show off his wealth and with the hope that Daisy will visit the party and he will get a chance to meet her. His excessiveness is compensating for lost time he would have had with Daisy. He dreamt to be richer, he lived away from the people in his Mansion in a bubble like he is the perfect man. He had a dream to have a perfect life with Daisy. When he and Daisy were together it was a dream to them. They knew that after this quality time between them they had to come to the world and face the reality of life. Valley of Ashes turns out to be a symbol of reality hitting. in the movie that no rules applied to the Gatsby because he was a richer person he could over speed his vehicle but in the valley of Ashes when his car made an accident with Myrtle. The reality hits him there was no one with him in the hard times, only everyone present around him was supporting him when he was throwing parties.

Through Analytical study of the Gatsby we find that his character was filled with the two primary emotions that word shame and guilt. No one had the power to challenge his fire. Everyone has a natural attraction towards wealth, money and glamor and that was the reason why everyone attended his lavish parties. We find shame in Gatsby, the shame of belonging to the small town, lower class, esteemed of belonging to the small farmer family which was unsuccessful. so he created a fake Persona he changed his name and gave all other fake identities of gaining medals in the war, being an Oxford man. He gave a great answer to his shame by being richer. He gained through bootlegging and showed us how ashamed he was of being poor. The feeling of guilt in, guilt is about doing something Immoral or breaking of the moral law. Since childhood he has wished to be a richer, wealthier person. He wanted Daisy because he feel felt that Daisy was an ideal person and he didn't want to have a with Daisy by doing anything wrong became wealthier by breaking the law of moral but he did want Break any moral law to have Daisy so he forced daisy to break her marriage with Tom.

I hope this blog was helpful to you. Thanks for visiting.

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