I have started reading the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both, my boy Elroy and daughter Judy, the noms de blog for my two kids have been reading this book in English class. 
Last weekend we rented the original (1974) movie based on this book called.......The Great Gatsby. I remembered that my high school had organized a class trip to see this movie (in a movie theater) when I was a teenager and thought it might be interesting to see the movie again 32 years later. I, of course, knew that Robert Redford portrayed Gatsby and Mia Farrow that of Daisy, but was surprised to see Bruce Dern (miscast as Tom Buchanan), Karen Black as Myrtle Wilson (boy, is she odd looking or what?) and especially Sam Waterson as Nick Carraway. I didn't think Sam Waterson had been around acting for so long. Anyway, I'm no movie critic but the movie was paced a little slow for me and I found it odd that the actors appeared sweaty (the actresses glistening) throughout the movie. Okay, the movie was set in the twenties, it was summertime and there was no air-conditioning but it was little odd. However, the costumes and sets were fantastic and really captured high society in the roaring twenties. As I have been reading the book I've been struck how closely the movie script followed the novel's dialogue. A few scenes in the book were left out or changed in the movie, I guess that's no surprise, but the scriptwriters didn't change much of FSF's original dialogue. I would think that is unusual in moviemaking, but that isn't the focus of this post anyway.
I don't know how deeply I can plumb the imagery (the single green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg) that FSF employs to create mood and convey social commentary, but I would like to someday include the research papers that Elroy and Judy will undoubtably generate for their classes. Hopefully, if volunteered, those will appear in a later post. However, on the surface, I have really enjoy the writing so far. Last night, my favorite passage was Nick's very first impression of Gatsby.
"He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Sometime before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."
Wow, doesn't that presage what we later learn about Gatsby. I just had to read and re-read that passage when I came to it and later, as FSF slowly reveals more and more about Gatsby's true life, it echos to illustrate how Gatsby's transformation was only superficial. I think that is why the book is called the Great Gatsby, as if he is a trickster or illusionist. Here is a picture of the estate that was Jay Gatsby's mansion in the movie.
Last weekend we rented the original (1974) movie based on this book called.......The Great Gatsby. I remembered that my high school had organized a class trip to see this movie (in a movie theater) when I was a teenager and thought it might be interesting to see the movie again 32 years later. I, of course, knew that Robert Redford portrayed Gatsby and Mia Farrow that of Daisy, but was surprised to see Bruce Dern (miscast as Tom Buchanan), Karen Black as Myrtle Wilson (boy, is she odd looking or what?) and especially Sam Waterson as Nick Carraway. I didn't think Sam Waterson had been around acting for so long. Anyway, I'm no movie critic but the movie was paced a little slow for me and I found it odd that the actors appeared sweaty (the actresses glistening) throughout the movie. Okay, the movie was set in the twenties, it was summertime and there was no air-conditioning but it was little odd. However, the costumes and sets were fantastic and really captured high society in the roaring twenties. As I have been reading the book I've been struck how closely the movie script followed the novel's dialogue. A few scenes in the book were left out or changed in the movie, I guess that's no surprise, but the scriptwriters didn't change much of FSF's original dialogue. I would think that is unusual in moviemaking, but that isn't the focus of this post anyway.
I don't know how deeply I can plumb the imagery (the single green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg) that FSF employs to create mood and convey social commentary, but I would like to someday include the research papers that Elroy and Judy will undoubtably generate for their classes. Hopefully, if volunteered, those will appear in a later post. However, on the surface, I have really enjoy the writing so far. Last night, my favorite passage was Nick's very first impression of Gatsby.
"He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Sometime before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."
Wow, doesn't that presage what we later learn about Gatsby. I just had to read and re-read that passage when I came to it and later, as FSF slowly reveals more and more about Gatsby's true life, it echos to illustrate how Gatsby's transformation was only superficial. I think that is why the book is called the Great Gatsby, as if he is a trickster or illusionist. Here is a picture of the estate that was Jay Gatsby's mansion in the movie.
1 comment:
Another great Sam Waterston movie performance:
"Rancho Deluxe," a modern day Western with Jeff Bridges. Rent it today!
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