Books don’t translate to film
In general, books don’t fare well as movies. There will always be a literary element that is invisible to the movie-watching eye
Life was a ball in the 1920s, even if you lived in North America, where unbeknownst to many, The Great Depression was just around the corner. The economy was flush with cash, thanks in part to the thriving bootlegging business, which had made millionaires out of the likes of Al Capone. As coffers swelled with ill-gotten gains, a culture of revelry took root, characterised by extreme hedonism and self-indulgence. The era became known as the Roaring Twenties, a period that author Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald would ultimately describe as the ‘Jazz Age’.
‘The Great Gatsby’ – Fitzgerald’s most famous novel – was written in 1925, when the desire for wealth, power and leisure was at an unprecedented peak, especially on America’s east coast. Expansive private parties and “speakeasies” – secret clubs that sold alcohol – thrived. The ravages of the First World War had left America in a state of shock, and the generation that had lost their souls to battle descended into absolute decadence to compensate. Where the decade before had been governed by the strictest moral standards, money, opulence, and exuberance became the hallmark of the 20s.
It is in this exuberance of the high life, that Fitzgerald places Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway – the stars of his definitive Jazz Age novel. The first is a sensitive young man, who idolises wealth and luxury. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp in the South. The second is a thoughtful fellow from Minnesota, educated at Yale, who moves to New York after the war. Both men find themselves immersed in a culture that feeds off unrestrained materialism and though drawn to it for different reasons, they find themselves struggling to reconcile their lives of lavishness with the moral emptiness and hypocrisy that sustains them. They are thinking/feeling characters and their existential angst propels The Great Gatsby to the top of the literary heap, making it one of the great classics of the 20th Century. On paper, the book is a masterpiece but it has consistently failed to deliver that same thoughtful feeling on film.
The Great Gatsby has been filmed for movie audiences a grand total of five times, the first being a silent picture in 1926 and the most recent being Baz Luhrmann’s 3D, 2013 extravaganza, which features an ultra-modern score by hip-hop artiste Jay Z, despite the screenplay’s ‘Jazz Age’ origins. Each Gatsby flick has been more underwhelming than the last, critics have said, including this last one, which was expected to make movie magic with the casting of superstar Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of Jay Gatsby. Even with Luhrmann’s signature grandiosity – which should have worked well with the sprawling party theme – some critics have panned the film as soulless.
It is expansive and indulgent but lacking in substance, much like the theme of the novel itself. There hasn’t been a filmmaker yet who has managed, with any level of success, to speak the Gatsby word in pictures. It is a story that does not lend itself to the screen, at least it hasn’t yet. Filming thought, feeling and perception poses an obvious problem, one that defies solution. It would take better actors than Leo DiCaprio and his good friend Tobey Maguire to portray Gatsby and Carraway convincingly.
But there is worse criticism for director Baz Luhrmann: “It’s hard for a man like Luhrmann, whose idea of cinema is rooted in instant gratification, to grasp, let alone translate, the Gatsbyesque notion of longing to be somewhere you can’t be,” writes David Edelstein for the New York magazine. “He makes miracles cheap.” But perhaps, it’s not Luhrmann’s fault. Or the actors, producers et al. In general, books don’t fare well as movies. There will always be a literary element that is invisible to the movie-watching eye.
IN BRIEF: ABOUT THE GREAT GATSBY
The Great Gatsby’ – Fitzgerald’s most famous novel – was written in 1925, when the desire for wealth, power and leisure was at an unprecedented peak, especially on America’s east coast. Expansive private parties and “speakeasies” – secret clubs that sold alcohol – thrived. The ravages of the First World War had left America in a state of shock, and the generation that had lost their souls to battle descended into absolute decadence to compensate. Where the decade before had been governed by the strictest moral standards, money, opulence, and exuberance became the hallmark of the 20s.
