I did something that I was very reluctant to do the other night. I went to the theater and saw the latest version of The Great Gatsby. I was reluctant to do it because I did not want to ruin the visions that I had of the 1975 version of the movie starring Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby. I was apprehensive about viewing the latest version because I felt that it might take away from Redford's stellar performance and destroy my adolescent illusion of what I saw to be a perfect adaptation of the novel.
I approached this new version with a sense of caution caused by this idea of perfection. I was wrong about the movie and the entire concept of the hip hop version of the Great Gatsby. After sitting down and putting on my 3-d glasses and settling in for the show I realized that this movie was well beyond a hip hop Jay-Z produced version of a classic.
I think that Sean "Jay -Z" Carter took on this project as a way to show the public at large that he has risen well beyond that role and his talents far exceed the implications. I like, I am sure many of the other viewers, were coming to hear hip-hop but what we saw was a fusion of jazz hip-hop and pop music of both the 1920s and 2013. The scenes and the characters were well enveloped by this blend of music and magic that transported us from our seats into the world of Jay Gatsby taking Jay-Z our music genius of the 21st century to George Gershwin the Jay-Z of the 1920s.
This was clearly evident with the introduction of Gatsby on the heels of Rhapsody in Blue, delivering the character from enigma to reality and face to face with Nick Caraway who to this point had only had brief glimpses of his elusive neighbor and whiffs of evidence that he actually exists . Rhapsody builds up to a crescendo and there is Gatsby face to face with Nick. I have not seen as spectacular a meeting since Spenser Tracy said to Cedric Hardwicke " Dr. Livigstone, I presume?" Leonardo DeCaprio simply says Jay Gatsby . At that point the torch was passed from Redford to DiCaprio and Gatsby was his.
What I liked about DiCaprio's performance was that by the end of the movie you truly believed that Leonardo DiCaprio was Jay Gatsby not the Redford version but the Fitzgerald version . He showed what Redford did not Gatsby's frailties, his insecurities and his downright weakness. Particularly in the tea party scene where he walks outside in the rain to avoid Daisy afraid to confront her after a 5 year hiatus from her life.
Tobey McGuire gives an excellent performance as Nick Caraway . By the end of the movie I was wishing that he was my friend. His performance took him far beyond the Sam Waterson version of Caraway who in my opinion was more of an observer and by the end clearly unaffected by the events of the summer and the death of Gatsby. Waterson was clearly upset by Gatsby's death but McGuire was completely changed by his experience with Gatsby and led to a nervous breakdown and a recovery through literature. McGuire like DiCaprio is a consummate actor, who becomes the character he is playing and because of is nondescript persona he is like modeling that enhances a movie rather than overshadow it. These two actors to my knowledge have never been paired up before and may never be paired up again but they are foundation that this quality movie is built upon.
The rest of the cast follows the lead of DiCaprio and McGuire and complement one another including Carey Mulligan and Elizabeth DeBicki playing Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker respectively. They transcended the roles played by Mia Farrow and Lois Chiles in the Redford version . They brought more personality and aggressiveness to their roles and showed they were in Daisy's words not just little fools but complemented DiCaprio and McGuire.
All in all the new version of the Great Gatsby has a place right up there with the 1975 Redford version . This version was more blunt and sassy and makes Gatsby greater and gives us a real sense of the character that Fitzgerald labored so hard for us to get to know. By the end of the movie I agreed with Nick Caraway that he was better than all of them put together.
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