The Great Great Gatsby Movie

So for those of you who haven’t seen The Great Gatsby movie, stop reading, and go see it. Although I don’t think it will make my list of all-time favorite movies ever in the history of time, it’s definitely worth the 8 bucks.

Like many of you, I read this book in my high school English class. As I was reading it, I felt like I was supposed to love Fitzgerald’s most famous book a lot more than I did. To be honest, I thought the plot was slow (until the end, of course), the characters were unlovable, and Fitzgerald’s overuse of symbolism felt like someone was hitting me over the head with the book again and again and again. So why go see the movie?

My first reason for seeing this movie was the trailer. Holy mother of trailer heaven, from the heavy beat to the snapshots of the most beautiful party scenes ever filmed, I was hooked. Those 8 bucks in my wallet were gone as soon as the trailer came out.

Reason number two: in the back of my head, I was thinking, “Oscar contender, Oscar contender.” How could a movie based off of one of the most well-known books of all time NOT be an Oscar contender? Normally, I don’t choose to see a movie just because it might be nominated for an Oscar. However, since I’m planning on filling out a bracket next February, I might as well try to educate myself.

The movie was pretty much what I expected it to be. The green light analogy was overdone, as was it overdone in Fitzgerald’s novel. And there were too many characters that you wanted to get to know better, but there wasn’t enough time in the film (aka Meyer Wolfsheim.) But then why am I telling you all to go see it?

One: Leonardo DiCaprio made Gatsby a lovable character for me, when I couldn’t stand him when reading the book in English class. And it’s not just because he was Jack Dawson in the Titanic. Whether it was the writer or the director or Leo, the positive spin on Gatsby was a successful adaption that made the plot seem more important to me. Since I was rooting for Gatsby this time around, the ending was thus infinitely more tragic (spoiler alert—Gatsby doesn’t get his happy ending! Sorry guys.)

And two: the soundtrack, the soundtrack, the soundtrack. Jay-Z hit it out of the park. I should have guessed from the quality of the trailer. Song after song fit seamlessly into the film. Somehow, the intense rap seemed completely ordinary in the 1920s NYC setting. The music made each scene so much more dramatic, forcing me to completely invest in the movie, despite already knowing the ending. It was phenominal. I don’t know how else to explain it. For nothing else, go see this movie for its soundtrack. You won’t be disappointed. One of my favorite songs in the movie—so fitting too, was Lana Del Ray’s Young and Beautiful. Just, wow. So here it is for those of you who haven’t heard it before!

            MOVIES WATCHED: 21

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            NOVEL PAGES WRITTEN: 76

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