Although I know that The Great Gatsby had an adaptation come out not too long ago (in 2013 directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo Dicaprio), and had a quite iconic adaptation come out only a number of decades ago (in 1974 starring Robert Redford), neither of these adaptations did the coveted "great American novel" justice. For some reason when people have gone to adapt The Great Gatsby, they have focused too much on the distracting love story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. While this adds a nice amount of fluff to the story and might sell to some viewers, what makes this novel great, and what would make it a particularly relevant adaptation of a film to come out now is its themes on the American Dream, gender relations, and class inequality. These themes are what make this novel intriguing, and done right, would make a wonderful film.
While debating the ideas of this adaption, I wondered if I should change the time of when it takes place. The Great Gatsby *is* the essence of America in the 1920s--lavish, excessive, and glamourous. However, as much as many traditionalists would possibly hate this idea, we are in the 20s yet again! Set this story in modern times, to make a stronger argument on how this novel's themes are still largely relevant. Plot-wise I think this story should largely follow the original novel (which focuses less on the love story than the films!) with modern alterations where necessary, of course. Put the financial struggles in modern settings to show that we still largely have the class struggle now as what was portrayed in the original novel.
The character of Jay Gatsby is quite an iconic one and maybe shouldn't be messed with since I'd likely ruffle so many people's feathers by modernizing the adaptation. Gatsby as a character would largely remain much of the same, while the other characters would have a similar essence with slight modern twists:
Daisy Buchanan is still married to a loaf and stuck in an unhappy marriage, but she does have a job to give her other satisfaction in life.
Nick Carraway is still largely naïve and optimistic at the beginning of the film, only to be slowly lost as he witnesses greed and hardship lose his faith in others--except maybe now he has more of a backbone and doesn't flirt with his cousin!
Tom Buchanan still sucks. He will always just be a womanizing control freak.
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| Leo was perfect casting for Gatsby... I'll give Baz Luhrmann that and that alone. |
Emily, I agree that it isn't difficult to translate the opulence and flagrant excess of the 1920s to today - one glance at reality television like "The Real Housewives" and we're essentially transported to the set of the Great Gatsby (except way less interesting). I wonder, too, how exactly to capture the carelessness and disconnect of the story without it turning into some kind of dystopian movie. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what I was thinking, I could see how this could translate to some of the reality tv shows out there. I wonder what would happen if you made the setting in Malibu or something like that. I could see some sleezy plastic surgeon making money off the poor people who come to try to make a name for themselves.
DeleteWould you try to change the source of Gatsby's wealth? Maybe he made his fortune selling people's information to advertisers. Maybe he's always been a trust-fund kid. I do think this would play out pretty well as a portrayal of the modern day upperclass.
ReplyDeleteI do think changing the way he got his wealth would be interesting. I don't think Jay Gatsby should ever be a trust-fund kid, I think the essence of his character is that he is "new money" and that his goal was always to obtain wealth after growing up impoverished. Keeping the corrupt aspect of how he gained his wealth might be essential--what's a modern example of that?
DeleteHow about a corrupt real estate guy - buying and renting cheap apartments and driving up rent prices so that he profits off of people who are very much like who he used to be!
DeleteOof--so topical and relevant, too real! D:
DeleteI think there are plenty of real-life people we could model Gatsby after. Real-estate tycoons, media moguls, software developers, the list goes on. I think that as long as he seems wholesome enough at first glance, any role Gatsby takes will work.
DeleteI definitely think doing a 21st-century Gatsby update is in order. We find ourselves in a world that has honestly forgotten whatever lessons about inequality that we learned from the 1920s...
ReplyDeleteI love this idea- it would be super intriguing to see how exactly you translate the power and wealth in the 1920s to the 2020s, considering how much of the novel's ambiance lies in its specific time period. i also agree with your point that focusing on the other aspects of the novel that AREN'T the love story between Gatsby and Daisy would make this remix more accurate and much much better.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea and I do have to admit that when you first mentioned the fact that it wouldn't take place in the 1920s, I was a little upset (I'm a traditionalist at heart!), but I think it would be really interesting to place it in modern-day, especially because, as you said, we're in the Roaring 20's once more! One of the aspects I think you could really play with is the emphasis on the "eyes of God" in the novel. Now that we have all of this technology, there are so many options for you to adopt as a "Big Brother" kind of thing. Amazon Alexas? Drones? Birds? (The last one was a joke, but some people seriously think birds are just surveillance devices...) I think there are a lot of directions in which you could take this.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great point Kelsey and something I hadn't even thought about! Technology is definitely something that would come into play for that reason, and of course with just how wealthy so many of the main characters are, they would have the latest technology in everything. Gatsby himself and all of his "new money-ness" would probably try and show off his status with the latest gadgets.
DeleteI think in this Trump era we are living in a remix of "The Great Gatsby" is not only a great idea, I think it is completely relevant to what we see happening in our own culture. It's a new gilded age we are living in, filled with no boundaries, no center, no normal, no filters. If that's not "The Great Gatsby" today, I don't know what is!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! We have many parallels between the 1920s and 2020s, it's startling!
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