He Was the Single Most Hopeful Person I've Ever Met

In a measure of full disclosure, I should admit, I have never read The Great Gatsby or even saw the four previous movie adaptations. For some reason, none of my English teachers at any level required me to read it (although I had to read Animal Farm twice and Romeo and Juliet more than that) and when it comes to reading for pleasure, I tend to reach for the non-fiction, so I came into the latest adaptation as a clean slate with no preconceived ideas on the property. I did not even see the Paul Rudd television version from a couple years ago.

Though I came to it with no preconceived notions, I do not have a problem with properties being re-imagined, great stories should be told over and again and over different mediums. Nor do I have a problem with out of the time period music like when a children’s choir sang When Doves Cry during Romeo + Juliet. That movie was directed by Baz Luhrmann who also updated the most recent iteration of The Great Gatsby. Own The Great Gatsby on Blu-ray Combo Pack and HD Digital Download today.

Being that it is directed by Baz Luhrmann, you know what you are getting, a grand, if not completely over the top, version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald book. And if you do not like over the top, especially in your classic works of literature, you will probably want to skip this version. But if you do not mind grand spectacle, or really enjoy when directors go over the top, you will enjoy this fun ride through the 1920’s New York City elite. And Luhrmann went all out with the party scenes putting you right in the middle, wishing you would get an invitation.

Not surprisingly, the titular character is played by Luhrmann’s Romeo, Leonardo DiCaprio, although this time around Claire Danes is replaced by Carey Mulligan who seemed to revel in playing a campier role than she has played before. Of course the most important role is that of the narrator Nick Carraway, except Tobey Maguire never felt comfortable in the part, but then again, that may have been the point because Carraway just did not fit into the society he found himself in after meeting his neighbor. Contrast that to newcomer Elizabeth Debicki who plays Jordan Barker and is so striking you cannot take your eyes off her when she is on screen even when surrounded by much bigger stars (this may have been all wig because the actress is completely unrecognizable from her character in the special features with her long blond hair).

As well as most of the music worked in Romeo + Juliet, the music in The Great Gatsby just falls flat. Most of that blame has to be heaped on musical supervisor Jay-Z who spent the first half of the movie shoehorning in his own songs even when they just feel flat in the scene. But the most egregious song placement was the ill advised Beyonce cover of Back to Black which actually played during a party scene. And I hope you do not hate Lana Del Rey because her contribution to the soundtrack gets placed quite often. It is clear Luhrmann should have let whoever helped him with the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack helm the one for his latest film.

This review is for the Blu-Ray Combo pack that the special features are the same on all versions (there is also a Blu-Ray 3D combo pack which features the theatrical version of the film in 3-D high definition, hi-definition, and standard definition; and there is also a two-disk DVD version; all three versions come with an UltraViolet version). All told, there is almost two hours worth of extras that comes with the movie, most of which is your standard fair of behind the scenes specials and a couple deleted scenes. The most interesting extra is of a trailer to first movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby where you can see just how over the top Baz Luhrmann made his version almost a century later.




Full Disclosure Notice: This Blu-Ray was given to me by Warner Bros. for the purpose of reviewing it.