I know this review is several years late, but I finally watched The Great Gatsby in its entirety for the first time this week. I’ve seen the movie before, back when it was first released in 2013, but I’ve never actually paid attention to the themes and the symbolism. My first brush with Gatsby was back in 2011 when I read the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I remember thinking at the time “what the hell am I reading.” It took me several chapters to actually get into the story and even then, it was kind of hard to wrap my head around what I was reading. I wasn’t a big fan of the book even after spending many hours trying to dissect it for an essay.
The first time I watched the movie was pretty similar to when I read the book. I understood some of the plot points but a lot of it went over my head. The plus side to the movie were the visuals. Oh the visuals. The outfits, the parties, the estates, the cars! So many beautiful things took up my screen and it was glorious. I think I was too busy fantasizing about a lavish 1920s life to really pay attention to the characters and what they were going through.
Now, let’s fast forward to 2020 with my rewatch. This time around, I was determined to not just watch the movie, but really try to understand what was going on. Yes, the beauty still caught my eye, but there was more to the story than that. I truly believe that Baz Luhrmann did a great job with the movie. He captured the busyness and crazy joy during several of Gatsby’s parties and also the loneliness and isolation that Nick and Gatsby felt throughout the movie.
I also really loved how well Baz visually displayed Nick’s realization that the rich are corrupt and selfish. In the beginning, we are also enthralled and amused by the big parties, the day drinking, and the massive homes. But as we learn more about the Buchanans and the great divide between the rich and the poor, the rose coloured lenses become less rosy and more appalled. We’re on this journey with Nick as we discover the selfishness of people and their desire to protect only what is theirs.
Something that I found interesting (and noticed thanks to my film degree – just kidding) is the use of the book cover. In the movie, the book cover is a massive billboard that kind of watches over the miners while also acting as a divide between the rich part of Manhattan and the poor. The billboard is made up of two eyes and huge round glasses (please scroll further down to see it). Whenever God or “being watched” is mentioned, the movie will cut to a shot of the billboard. One such example is when Tom confronts Myrtle about cheating – he says to her “God is always watching” and the next shot is of the billboard. I believe that Baz used the billboard as symbolism for the eyes of God. There is a lot of sinning in this movie (cheating, selfish behaviour, murder) and through it all, God is observing. Whether you are rich or poor, God does not discriminate who is being judged.
The Great Gatsby is really about the corruption of the rich and the American Dream. For so many people, acquiring wealth is the ultimate goal. However, people don’t actually take the time to observe how rich people live. They may look like us and act like us, but they are not us. They are a peoples of their own who only look out for their best interests. Look at Daisy and Tom: they have a daughter. She is mentioned perhaps once or twice by Daisy and that’s it. We only see her at the end of the movie when the Buchanans flee. While watching, I really had to remind myself that their is a little girl in all of this who consistently remains unseen.
Daisy, who is often painted as this sympathetic character, is perhaps the worst of them all. Throughout the entire movie we are led to believe that she traded in her true love for a rich man that does not love her. He has cheated on her multiple times and she is expected to endure it all. Poor Daisy, so alone, hoping that maybe one day she’ll have a love like the one she had with Jay Gatsby. However when that moment arrives, what does Daisy do? She stays with the man that she says is so terrible to her. Never mind that Gatsby strived to be rich for her; or that she also cheated on her husband. When shit hits the fan, what does she do? She lets Jay take the blame for a murder and runs off into the sunset with her husband. After professing to love a man, she doesn’t even go to his funeral.
And no one does. Because in the end, the rich only care about the rich. And Gatsby, as Nick said, was better than the lot of them.
I truly think that so many of these themes resonate today as well. The rich are still in a completely different realm from the rest of us. When the bad things inevitably hit, the rich will look out for themselves and we common folk will have to try and make a living with the crumbs that are left.
It has already begun and yet we haven’t learned from our mistakes or history at all.
The Film Tease 