The Music and Gatsby's Accent

I’ve seen so many complaints about how this movie SHOULD have played period music, or “better” music, or so on and so forth. I disagree. There were several reasons why BL chose to play these types of songs. The first one was that the race/class tension in the book was severely high; Fitzgerald chose to represent this culture by jazz music and jazz musicians. BL chose rap. Both genres are more populated by African Americans. By modernizing it, he was able to give that class a voice; there were several other small ways he did this within the film as well. In the book it’s subtle, but definitely an underlying theme within the text. The music wasn’t supposed to be “good” or “sophisticated” because the people were neither good OR sophisticated. Using modern music was a ploy. It was a way to make it even more obvious that these people, despite the timeframe, were no different than modern Americans. We’re superficial. We like lame music and lame parties and have no depth. The movie managed to showcase this superficiality well in the over-the-top costumes, scenery, mansions, cinematography, in a way that no other version has achieved. It’s supposed to be ridiculously lavish, opulent and tacky. THAT’S HOW THE CHARACTERS WERE. Everything in the movie is overdone because it matches the mindset of that time. Drinking. Partying. Living large and fast and the American Dream.

There are truly beautiful moments within the film that take place in locations/scenery that is extremely downplayed in order to showcase the dialogue rather than the over-the-top ridiculousness. Daisy’s hedges, Gatsby’s dock, Nick’s yard, ect. Watching this movie and whining about how “modern music ruined it” is silly. These characters are not deep. They are silly and childish; it’s the revelation Nick comes to by the end of the movie. He exempts Gatsby from this judgment, but this is a result of being an unreliable narrator coupled with the natural compulsion to to look higher on someone when you compare them to people like Daisy and Tom.

Gatsby acted in corrupt ways for a desire that was ultimately pure in nature.

Daisy and Tom acted properly and within their class but ultimately corrupted everyone and everything in their wake.

Don’t even get me started on the complaints about Leo’s bad accent. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE BAD. GATSBY IS A FAKE. He is not a British or an “Oxford man.” It completely makes sense (and is a good touch, imo) that he has a fake accent that comes and goes. He is not the hero Robert Redford makes him out to be in the earlier version. He is sleazy. He has demons. He has gigantic flaws and he has dabbled in criminal acts to work his way to the top.

Dig a little deeper. Maybe I’m giving this movie too much credit, but it does the book justice. It highlights all the themes that Fitzgerald worked so hard to illustrate.

The things I would change about the film would be:
- The fancy and unnecessary captions. FSF writes beautifully, but there’s no reason to SHOW ME the words.
- Myrtle’s death. I just didn’t like the way they did it.
- I wish they had kept the ‘her voice is full of money’ scene, because I feel it better explains Gatsby’s fascination with Daisy.