The Great Gatsby Trailers

Hi everyone,

For you interest, I have posted the trailers for the Great Gatsby for your enjoyment.  I want you to note the contrasts in tone, mood, and atmosphere as well as the overall focus.  Despite it being the exact same novel and very similar scripts, the two movies could not be further apart.

The Great Gatsby (1974) Trailer

Notice how the focus seems to be more on the love story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.  It almost seems to ignore the message that Fitzgerald was trying to draw out for the reader, not focusing on the shallow aspects of the American Dream, nor the divide between Old Money, New Money, and No Money.  Unsurprisingly, the movie carries an overall approval rating of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, compare that to Baz Luhrmann's 2013 version.

The Great Gatsby (2013) Trailer

The differences are striking.  This version almost focuses solely on what Fitzgerald was trying to show the reader when he wrote the book as well as including all of the important symbols and motifs.  Notice how there is mention of a relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, but you can tell by the trailer that there are mixed emotions.  We see the seediness and vanity of the 1920s as well as the excess.  We see the class divide, the glamour and the wealth.  We see the decay.  Also, note the title-cards in the trailer - presented in the very popular Art Deco style - over-the-top to the extreme, but poignant and apt for the age.

Critically, the movie did not fair much better only achieving a 49% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  What makes it even more frustrating is that it is said that the visual aspects of the film take away from the actual message of the original book.  I completely agree, though I do find the movie very entertaining.  But, we will be viewing Baz Luhrmann's version once we have completed the book.  This way, you can be the judge.

As a side note, there is a third version produced by A&E for television, starring Toby Stevens (Die Another Day), Paul Rudd (This is 40, Anchorman) and Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite).  I have not seen it, but if any of you are feeling ambitious, by all means, check it out.

Feel free to make comments on the blog about both.  We would really like to gauge your opinions.

Today's Questions

1.   We see all the action of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of one character whose narration seems to be shaped by his own values and temperament. What is Nick Carraway like, what does he value, and how do his character and his values matter to our understanding of the action of the novel?

2.   Early in the novel, Nick says of Gatsby that he “turned out all right at the end” Later, however, after he tells Gatsby “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” he abruptly calls this “the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.” What does this curiously ambivalent admiration for Gatsby tell us about Nick, and especially about his relation to Gatsby’s “incorruptible dream?”

3.   From his first appearance, Tom Buchanan is a mouthpiece of racism. For instance, he sees himself as one of the “Nordics” who “make civilization;” and who must prevent “these other races” from having “control of things”. Elsewhere, he complains of the lack of “self-control” of people who “begin by sneering at family life and family institutions,” and threaten to “throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white”. How does Tom’s expression of such attitudes illuminate his character, his relations with Daisy, and his sense of his place in the world?

4. The introduction of Myrtle and George Wilson underscores the importance of social class in the novel. How does their presence sharpen Fitzgerald’s characterization of the rich, and what might the resulting contrasts suggest about the role of class in shaping social experience in The Great Gatsby?

5. How is Wolfsheim, along with the anti-Semitism informing his characterization, important to shaping the conflicts of the novel?

6. At the end of Chapter Five, Nick makes much of the power of Daisy’s voice over Gatsby: “I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn’t be overdreamed—that voice was a deathless song” (p.96). Later on, Gatsby observes that “Her voice is full of money,” and Nick develops the point: “That was it, I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.” Is it possible for characters in Gatsby’s world to disentangle different kinds of value: In particular, do the social conventions and self-understandings of the main characters allow them to disentangle the material value associated with economic wealth, the value attributed to a human object of desire, the aesthetic value of a beautiful object, and the moral values by which one assesses a person’s character? Why, if it all, does this matter?

7. An intriguing exchange between Nick and Gatsby takes place near the end of Chapter Six: “I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” Nick says “You can’t repeat the past.” “Can’t repeat the past?”  Gatsby cries out. “Why of course you can!” (p. 110). How does the past impinge upon the present in the lives of both Nick and Gatsby? Should we see Gatsby as eccentric in his view that one can not merely repeat, but change, the past by starting over?

8. "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion."  What does Nick mean by this?

9. Is Fitzgerald writing a love story that embraces American ideals, or a satire that comments on American ideals? Have students refer to passages and quotes to build a thesis.