Well, the reviews are out.
Rotten Tomatoes assigns this much anticipated film a 38%. Cue the sad violins. Granted,
these are movie critics, who virtually hate every movie unless it wins Best
Picture. I’ll admit, reading the broken record of comments was depressing. When
I first raw the trailer in theaters, my heart was beating out of my chest with
excitement. “Style trumps substance”, “all about the glitter but has no soul”
and my personal favorite, “just as boring as sitting through 8th
period English”. Now I don’t know about you, but I loved reading this book in
high school.
If this movie does indeed
focus heavily on visual elements, is this necessarily a bad thing? One critic complains
that this movie is “tethered to Fitzgerald's words while failing to approach “Gatsby's
romantic, heartbreaking soul” (Caryn James from James on screenS). While I
haven’t seen the movie, and could very well form a completely different opinion
after watching, I think that modernizing the movie to reach a different
audience is great. From a teaching perspective, I would never be able to show
this version in a classroom because of the rating (who knows, with how much
children are exposed to in the media this may change in five years). But I
think it would make for a great discussion on how to look at a text through
multiple perspectives, or critical literacy.
Like I talked about in my
previous post, sometimes visual elements are necessary to get students reading.
The student I worked with at Centennial, who loves graphic art, would see this
movie and analyze it through a graphic art perspective. Therefore, if I asked
him to read the novel, he could use visualization to understand the plot,
improve his reading comprehension, and connect with the text.
So while rotten tomatoes
sees this film as a visual nightmare, I think it could be a great way to connect
classic literature with modern visual appeal.
I have no opinion to add to the Gatsby talk, but I'd like to comment and connect to another adaptation of a popular story starring Leonardo DiCaprio: Romeo + Juliet. In my freshman year class in high school we read Romeo and Juliet, watched the more legitimate version of the movie with the correct time period, and then watched the Leonardo DiCaprio adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece. It was an interesting experience watching Shakespeare's text modernized with a different time period, yet retaining all the same diction and syntax. It lead to some interesting discussions. I'm not a huge fan of film adaptations - that's no secret if you know me. For instance, I have a strong hatred for the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice because of the way Elizabeth is portrayed. I could explain now, but that isn't the point. The point is that adaptations are never going to be the actual piece because the art forms have different constraining factors - different values. What is valued by avid readers is not the same thing that will make avid film watchers "ooh" at the screen. So, I can completely understand how it won't please both crowds. I have high hopes for Gatsby, but I admit, I am afraid it will let me down as other adaptations before it have. But I shall try with an open mind!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I never take critics too seriously. Like you said, they are bred to hate almost every film that appears unless its extremely family friendly or gets a best picture nomination. A main example I giddily give is Cloud Atlas. Critics hated this movie and gave it horrible scathing reviews. I went to the opening premiere and loved every minute of it. The same may happen with Great Gatsby. I saw the trailer multiple times and yes the movie is completely different from the novel from what I've seen. Gatsby is more out of control now than he ever was in the 60's, but that won't hinder me from going to watch just to watch. Some eye candy never hurt anyone and I believe the story will remain just as powerful in this movie as it did in the older version. Gatsby may not have the same emotional element in this version, but that won't make the plot less entertaining.
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