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karen's Reviews > The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
i love this book. yes, it is a story about vapid and shallow people who live selfish and hedonistic lives and treat other people like playthings, but there is an elegance, a restraint to the prose that manages to discuss, in the same tone, both doomed love and the breakdown of the american dream. and it is masterful. some may say the great american novel.
and so this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OULhla...
makes me want to tear my eyes out with my hands and stomp on them forever and ever.
yeah, you thought this was going to be a book review, didn't you? and maybe goodreads will choose to make this a "hidden" review under their new policies, but i don't care, because it makes me so angry that this is happening in this way that i have to scream about it, even if no one hears me, and there isn't enough room in a status update for me to vent my rage, and this is a book community, and i feel like you should all feel and share my outrage...
WHO THOUGHT LEONARDO DICAPRIO WOULD MAKE A GOOD GATSBY?? AND WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE HE IS IN THE GAP WHEN HE IS FLINGING ALL THOSE CLOTHES AROUND???
it is unbelievable. i haven't read this book in years, but i know that it did not take place in some art deco-themed casino in vegas.
and i assume the commentary on over-the-top consumption is just as relevant to our times as fitzgerald's, and the makes-you-squint way it is shot and the soundtrack (what is that soundtrack all about???) is a modern-day reinterpretation of jazz-age glam; a reversal of the futuristic sci-fi films of the seventies, but it is making me puke and i want to stop puking, please.
this is not my american dream.
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
i love this book. yes, it is a story about vapid and shallow people who live selfish and hedonistic lives and treat other people like playthings, but there is an elegance, a restraint to the prose that manages to discuss, in the same tone, both doomed love and the breakdown of the american dream. and it is masterful. some may say the great american novel.
and so this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OULhla...
makes me want to tear my eyes out with my hands and stomp on them forever and ever.
yeah, you thought this was going to be a book review, didn't you? and maybe goodreads will choose to make this a "hidden" review under their new policies, but i don't care, because it makes me so angry that this is happening in this way that i have to scream about it, even if no one hears me, and there isn't enough room in a status update for me to vent my rage, and this is a book community, and i feel like you should all feel and share my outrage...
WHO THOUGHT LEONARDO DICAPRIO WOULD MAKE A GOOD GATSBY?? AND WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE HE IS IN THE GAP WHEN HE IS FLINGING ALL THOSE CLOTHES AROUND???
it is unbelievable. i haven't read this book in years, but i know that it did not take place in some art deco-themed casino in vegas.
and i assume the commentary on over-the-top consumption is just as relevant to our times as fitzgerald's, and the makes-you-squint way it is shot and the soundtrack (what is that soundtrack all about???) is a modern-day reinterpretation of jazz-age glam; a reversal of the futuristic sci-fi films of the seventies, but it is making me puke and i want to stop puking, please.
this is not my american dream.
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Comments (showing 1-50 of 167) (167 new)
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by
Esteban
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rated it 3 stars
Aug 01, 2012 04:48PM
Why couldn't it have been Johnny Depp? Why?!?
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Oh. Wow. That does look awful.It's the same guy that directed Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, huh? I kinda liked R&J, never watched Moulin Rouge, and will pass on this.
I won't see any more photos, trailers or clips of this. I don't want to taint the perfect images I have of all the characters in my head. No never!
He'd never be in this something this bad.** Offer not valid in Independence Day, which, to be frank, still looks better than this.
jeff goldblum would be fine, honestly. a little older on the gatsby scale, but fine.dicrappio could not be more wrong for gatsby. and he isn't even dreamy.
Stephen wrote "taint." See what Dicaprio does to people?
i like independence day. which i guess means i have bad taste, and even i know this looks like shit.
Independence Day is a solid flick. Will Smith has got that "swagger".Tell me you didn't smile when he goes "welcome to earth!" and punches the alien in the head.
He did a good job as Hughes in "The Aviator". I'd say the vote is still out as to whether he can pull it off or not. I mean, it isn't like they selected Steven Segal or something. :DMovies rarely reflect a novel accurately anyway especially if you loved the latter. That's why it's called an adaption.
Independence Day was God Awful*, except for the part where Harry Connick Jr.** got blowed up. * The name of my imagined punk band
** I went to high school with a girl that was a distant relation of Harry Connick Jr. She said he was embarrassed by her part of the family, which, in retrospect, I completely understand
yes, it is a story about vapid and shallow people who live selfish and hedonistic lives and treat other people like playthingsPerfectly sums up my feeling about this book. No buts for me.
Esteban you're just lying!You didn't tear up at this beautiful piece of acting?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l31UUl...
i don't mind adaptations, usually. but i don't like it when someone says, "oh, were you reading this??" and then vomits all over your book.
Stephen M wrote: "Independence Day is a solid flick. Will Smith has got that "swagger".Tell me you didn't smile when he goes "welcome to earth!" and punches the alien in the head."
Well, that scene does come to mind when I think of that movie, and the part where Jeff Goldblum waves at the alien.
Why wasn't Will Smith cast as Gatsby? If you're going to be edgey, be edgey.
Stephen M wrote: "Esteban you're just lying!You didn't tear up at this beautiful piece of acting?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l31UUl..."
Brian! That should be the banner video for your banned books group!
dicaprio is NOT pretty. he is puffy and squinty and he has yet to impress me in anything. i have not seen the aviator, so i can't speak to his abilities there, but otherwise, bluck. he is no robert redford, who i personally do not find dreamy, but at least he looks like a gatsby.
i don't think fitzgerald would approve of the 3d either.
DiCaprio played a great George W. Bush in that Gilbert Grape movie...
The thing about "Independence Day" was that it was never intended as a work of art or even to be thought provoking. It was an homage to all the older sci fi films and an attempt to use the latest special effects to make a lot of money and be fun for the audiences. The latter agreed as it made an incredible amount of cash at the Box Office and that didn't include residuals.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independ...
It's fine to hate Leo for whatever reason but when people say he's can't act or pull off certain serious roles, well, then you start to appear ignorant (not saying anybody did that here). And he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for "Aviator".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiCaprio
Bird Brian wrote: "See, if I were making a Gatsby movie, I'd want a guy who gave the sense of being out of place in high society... somebody tougher and more cunning than the fat and happy trustfund kids who surround..."At this point in American history, I'd rather see Abe Vigoda. World weariness and all that, you see. Instead of trying to fit into high society, just cynical mocking of it from within.
Plus, the makeout scenes would be hawt.
The problem with casting is that typically the person everybody wants is also wanted in twenty other films so said person can pick and choose. I'd say Leo is a good choice even if not great but time will tell.
dunno, it's not like i haven't seen any movies he has been in. i have seen thirteen of them. i didn't see the one he won the shiny trophy for, but i feel like i have a sense of his acting abilities. my grief over the movie has more to do with the spectacle that is baz luhrmann than dicaprio.but i do maintain that he is not what i think of when i think "gatsby."
They never are if you love the novel, Karen. :)
I am not american but sure this is not my american dream either. The Great Gatsby is NOTHING like that trailer.
Talk about pucking..
well, i didn't hate the film version of revolutionary road, even though i love the book, and that had dicaprio in it. i thought it was fine, but i wouldn't go praising his acting - i suppose he is very good at yelling. michael shannon was very good in it, though. there are plenty of good film adaptations of books out there. this one does not look like one of them, is all.
I like Leo Decap. The Departed was great and so was Catch me if you Can. The latter is probably the best Leo performance that I've seen.
karen wrote: "he is puffy and squinty" Jesus, that made me laugh :) Not a fan of the book (sorry!) so I really don't have a stake in this one way or the other -- but I agree karen -- DiCaprio is a poor choice for Gatsby.
karen, what to you make of the Cloud Atlas trailer?
<<And he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for "Aviator"...."
I saw Aviator. That's why I think he can't act or pull off serious roles. >>>>
I'm going to side with the Golden Globes over your opinion, Elizabeth. Sorry. :)
Nope I think De Caprio is a good choice for Gatsby. Firstly I think he can pull off the whole spoiled, self-centred and grandiose character. Secondly I think that he can pull off serious roles if you see even recently his work with Inception for crying out loud. Not to mention other film credits...
Joshua Nomen-Mutatio wrote: "karen, what to you make of the Cloud Atlas trailer?"i haven't seen it yet, for crying out loud...
okay, now i have seen it. hugo weaving!!!i will definitely see it. it looks a little slick to me, but it could be good. again, i have shit taste in movies in general, and apparently because i don't like leonardo dicaprio, which i genuinely thought was a given. and yes i have seen inception, and i still think he has no range.
Trudi wrote: "karen wrote: "he is puffy and squinty" Jesus, that made me laugh :) Not a fan of the book (sorry!) so I really don't have a stake in this one way or the other -- but I agree karen -- DiCaprio is a ..."yeah, i get it. there are not really any likeable characters, but wuthering heights is one of my favorite books ever, and that thing is full of awful characters.
I've been sitting here trying to type a comment to amply describe my feelings of disgust for that trailer/that creature of a film's existence, but I just...no. Just no.
i won a shiny trophy!
StoryTellerShannon wrote: "I'm going to side with the Golden Globes over your opinion, Elizabeth. Sorry. :)"The Golden Globes is just opinion, also, isn't it? The opinion of a bunch of people and I have to add, committees don't often pick what I'd pick.
I'm not a fan of DiCaprio, either. I did like The Departed.
When I see Leonardo DiCaprio act I imagine it is on par with hearing angels singing. I can't believe my best friend hates him so much.
The Golden Globes is chock full of industry people who have a vested interest in advancing the career of DiCaprio. It's ridiculous to say because so-and-so received a Golden Globe s/he is a fine actor. The math doesn't add up. I don't necessarily have anything against the guy, but I can't say that any of his work has stuck with me. Except for Revolutionary Road, which sucked, but weirdly Karen likes; it's one of my favorite books, tho', so nobody could've done it "right."
THREE-D GATSBY? JESUS.That trailer is all kinds of wrong. And yeah, Titanic Boy is so not right for Gatsby. Redford was better, with that smile.
I still think filming this book is stupid anyway because all the magic is in the narrative prose. Once you take that out, it's basically about an hours' worth of dialogue about some pretty people, unless you resort to V.O. like the first movie did.
You know what would be a great adaptation of Gatsby? If in the midst of his hedonistic ways aliens attacked and he was Earth's only hope. And after he saved the world there was a great party with lots of bootleg booze, jazz and flappers.
for the record, i said "rev road" was okay.i prefer independence day. ka-BOOM!
is this where i reiterate that i also enjoyed armageddon?? no??
Greg wrote: "When I see Leonardo DiCaprio act I imagine it is on par with hearing angels singing. I can't believe my best friend hates him so much."i saw inception with youuuu!
Karen will say this is a lie, but she has a giant Titanic poster in her apartment.
speaking of film adaptations and wuthering heights... Karen, you totally need to see Andrea Arnold's film version. I saw it @ a festival... before I watched, I was all excited to sit through the next 2 movies playing after it. After, I just had to just sit outside the theater smoking and hugging my cardigan, until some other chick (who was smoking and hugging her cardigan) was like, "did you just get out of Wuthering Heights? Do you feel like you need a hug? Cuz I do..."
Instead of watching any more movies, I just got off the train and bleaked-out the rest of the night.
Effective!
