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Great Gatsby Movie | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

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Civilization’s Going to Pieces

Reserving Judgments is a Matter of Infinite Hope / Dustin Rowles

Trade News | December 19, 2008 | Comments (21)

Look: I don’t have a problem, really, with a movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. From what I can gather, the previous attempts weren’t particularly good, and I haven’t bothered to have my fondness of the novel tainted by a hack job (even one written by Francis Ford Coppola). But if you’re going to do another Great Gatsby movie, you need the right director for the material. And The Great Gatsby deserves somebody like Whit Stillman, maybe Marc Forster or maybe Jonathan Demme or Noah Baumbach (if you’d seen Mysteries of Pittsburgh, you’d know that Rawson Thurber would’ve been a great choice, too).

But Baz Luhrmann? I got no problem with Luhrmann, who bought the rights to Gatsby and will be working quickly to get it on the screen to erase the box-office disaster that has been Australia. He’s great at what he does. As long as what he does isn’t The Great Gatsby. Lurhmann does big films - epics with glitter and swish. He does tuberculosis musicals and war epics about bombing the shit out of sheep. He makes Shakespeare schmancy. But The Great Gatsby isn’t a schmancy book.

Oh, sure: There is a lot of period details Luhrmann could capture, and he’d undoubtedly do up the Jazz Age excesses. But I almost feel like Nick Carraway would become an afterthought in his movie, and that Luhrman wouldn’t properly deal with Gatsby’s private internal struggles. And he’d probably press hard on the theory that Carraway was gay. And that doesn’t really have a place in a Great Gatsby film.

F. Scott Fitzgerald warrants a more intimate treatment, and Luhrmann wouldn’t understand intimacy if it slapped him with its dick.

(How great would Jon Hamm be as Gatsby, though? Ryan Gosling as Nick and Rachel McAdams as Daisy, just to bring some real-life conflict to the story.)


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Comments

Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll be more like Strictly Ballroom, which was a very intimate film, the only film where he used restraint with his over-the-top fantasy sequences (and the only Luhrmann movie I actually like)??? Maybe? Please???

Posted by: Tammy at December 19, 2008 9:46 AM

Yeah, he'll probably blow it, but it could be worse. He could be adapting The Grapes of Wrath.

Posted by: Clee Shay at December 19, 2008 10:12 AM

I hope he picks no-names as stars.

Posted by: Cindy at December 19, 2008 10:13 AM

Gosling and McAdams in a film together again? God, no. I don't think anyone needs those psycho McGosling people hanging around, going nutso like last time.

'Sides, McAdams isn't that great at drama. There's something about her that screams RomCom Queen. Whenever I see her, it's HER. Bah.

Posted by: Sara at December 19, 2008 10:30 AM

Ooh! Maybe he could do Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

Posted by: Clee Shay at December 19, 2008 10:36 AM

the previous attempts weren't particularly good

Objectively speaking, that's probably true, but I sure have a soft spot for the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version. Bruce Dern is horribly miscast, Sam Waterston is somewhat miscast, but overall everyone is game, and Robert Redford is simply perfect for the part.

Posted by: rikkitikkitavi at December 19, 2008 10:49 AM

For the record, I just bought a Jonathan Demme movie for 99 cents. It's about bikers and the girls who take them on and stars a very young Gary Busey. I laughed out loud in the store for a solid 2 minutes before some of the other patrons starting pointing and rambling on in Spanish. Man I'm glad I don't speak Spanish.

Posted by: KatSings at December 19, 2008 10:52 AM

Oh, oh, OH! Oh my GOD your casting suggestions! The cum is just a-flyin'.

Posted by: Sapphiar at December 19, 2008 11:34 AM

Gatsby is one of my favorite novels of all time, and Hamm would be excellent as Gatsby. He's great at projecting inner struggle. I kind of think Amy Adams would do well with Daisy.

Posted by: très cool at December 19, 2008 11:52 AM

Lurhrman sucks. Okay I said it. I hate all is films except Romeo & Juliet, I did not mind it when I was 17 or 18 years old when it came out, it was on my wavelength of dramatics and Shakespearen oevre. But Moulin Rogue was a pain in the ass and gave me a throbbing headache when I first watched it. He puts his movies all on overkill and overdrive so quickly and then expects you to catch up visually. I don't even want a movie version of The Great Gatsby, it's like doing The Catcher in the Rye (and I'm so glad Salinger is still alive to nix any attempts of adapting it to a film version, Hollywood would so ruin it!) and especially by this hack. Although I haer Strictly Ballroom was great, but that's his dramatic MO. Ditto for R&J...it's theatrical and he's decent at it. But everything else...stay away BAZ!

Posted by: ph at December 19, 2008 1:24 PM

Actually, when I read The Great Gatsby, I kept picturing Brando as Gatsby. I know, it's weird. It doesn't really fit the description. But, as far as personality, I think a middle-aged Brando could have done a great Gatsby.

And I think maybe Brad Pitt for Nick and Kate Winslet or Cate Blanchett as Daisy. Just a personal thing, I think that would be amazing. But, who cares what I think, right?

Posted by: Audiosuede at December 19, 2008 1:32 PM

I'd like to see what he could do...if he can somehow revert to his mid-1990s mindset. I loved his Romeo & Juliet and I am a huge shakespeare fan.
If he ruins it though, I might be done with him. Australia looks like it blows dead donkeyballs and I'm only willing to give him two strikes.

Posted by: VeinsRHiways at December 19, 2008 2:21 PM

Aaron Eckhart as Gatsby. PLEASE.

Posted by: Shaun at December 19, 2008 2:22 PM

Baz Luhrman needs to stay away from the classics, although I did enjoy Romeo & Juliet when it came out because I was pushing 18 at the time it came out. I actually dislike him greatly as a director because all his films are in overkill overdrive. Moulin Rouge gave me a headache for this reason, aside from Kidman and MacGregor singing cheezy 80s songs (oh man the humanity!) and everything being so over the top made it virtually unwatchable and I wanted to get off that cinematic rollercoaster immediately. Sounds like Australia suffered the same fate. Hopefully Baz will stop ruining movies and just stick to music videos, which I believe he would be pretty good at judging from his cinematic repertoire.

Posted by: ph at December 19, 2008 2:56 PM

Dustin, do you want us to set you up on a date with Jon Hamm? Be sure to wear the black dress.

Posted by: Lucas at December 19, 2008 5:55 PM

"How great would Jon Hamm be as Gatsby, though? Ryan Gosling as Nick and Rachel McAdams as Daisy, just to bring some real-life conflict to the story.)"

Great idea.

And to the person who said McAdams can't do drama, have you seen Married Life or The Lucky Ones?

Posted by: Joyce at December 19, 2008 8:14 PM

I think if Luhrman dialed it back a little, he could do justice to The Great Gatsby. He's got talent for sure, he's just prone to giving in to excess.

And Jon Hamm as Gatsby would be FABULOUS. He's also my second choice as Max de Winter in the movie that runs in my head whenever I read the book. Clive Owen is number one, and it's directed by Alejandro Amenabar. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

Posted by: Mimi at December 19, 2008 9:29 PM

I second the Aaron Eckhart as Gatsby idea. I always pictured Gatsby as someone all-American and blonde and generically handsome. Aaron Eckheart has that standard hunky look about him.

Posted by: Manda at December 19, 2008 11:49 PM

I agree - if there's going to be a movie version of this story, it has to be good.

After finishing Gatsby last year in my English class, my teacher asked us who - living or dead - we'd cast for the roles if it was made into a movie. Like yours, Mr. Rowles, my initial thought was Ryan Gosling as Nick Carraway. I suggested Naomi Watts for Daisy, Brando for Tom Buchanan, Keira Knightley for Jordan Baker, and some Kevin Spacey/Cary Grant hybrid for Gatsby. I don't know; I can't really explain why for the last one.

Posted by: KP at December 20, 2008 12:40 AM

I think I might be the only person who did not like that book. All I can recall is a left breast getting ripped off.

Posted by: NotBlonde at December 21, 2008 1:32 AM

Oh, I think I reflect Dustin's fear ,too. Yes, Gatsby has glitz and jazzy buzz for which I'm sure Luhrmann would be splendid and make it really appealing. But the story is more about intricate and intimate relationships and falsehood of humanity. I mean, this is the man who modernize La Bohem/Traviata type tale and made it even more flashy and glitzy than Opera! It would kill all the subtlety and metaphors!

The man's dramatic amp is always on 11, I tell you.

Posted by: yocean at December 21, 2008 11:44 AM





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