i have now watched ART gatsby and... many thoughts head full...
it's so completely different from every other adaptation vibes-wise because the whole way through it has like... this melancholy air to it, it has this emotionally mature tone the whole time, makes you sit up like oh this is serious
makes PERFECT SENSE that this was directed by the same person as hadestown the hadestown vibes are PALPABLE
i gotta remind myself that this and broadway gatsby are from the exact same source material because they are SO different. like absolutely nothing in common it's almost comical how different they are
this nick is so sad!! this is messed up what happened to him!! like the one place that managed to make him want to live again is now haunted for him too... like what does he even do with himself now... very interesting interpretation of him i fw it. also the fireworks that was delectable 10/10 moment
most of these songs were total bangers like yes i CAN hear it roar (and by 'it' haha well. lets justr say my twenties)
the shirts scene was tremendous i love how they did that
i like how they did wolfsheim and showed jay's backstory via him... (unlike a certain other musical which barely even mentions his real backstory...)
the focus on the wilsons i didn't see coming, it's good stuff i like what they did with them and their relationship
idk why they all look like theyve walked through ankle-high dirt on their way to the stage like i'm sure there's a good reason for it but it looks kinda strange
am i losing it or was gatsby's car... not yellow?? it was silver right?? but then later on somebody said that it's yellow?? which seems weird like if you're gonna change the color at least be consistent (flashbacks to the 2000 movie)
it did make me cry which none of the other adaptations have done so gold star for that
every adaptation of anything has a tradeoff of accuracy to originality and i think they have struck a very good balance here, they added many elements but they all make sense and are incorporated well. they only directly quote the book dialogue occasionally but whenever they do they find a whole new meaning to the line or follow it up with something completely different. and a lot of the wonderful prose in the book is used in the lyrics in unexpected places it's very cool
and they actually had the mr mckee scene and had nick flirting with men at the party this is good stuff two thumbs up
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Having now watched every extant adaptation of the great gatsby (rip the silent film)... my tier list #mytierlist.
(Yes i included the fake nes game because it amuses me)
here is the link to make your own tier list I would love to see other people's opinions: https://tiermaker.com/create/gatsby-movies-18818932 if there are more adaptations that I didnt know about lmk i can add them
A lot of these were hard choices... everything in A and B tier could get shuffled around if my opinion develops over time. I hope I don't get flayed alive for where I placed these
I will now yap more about my opinions of each one. It got really long whoops
In order of worst to best:
2000: literally so bad. It's terrible. Watered down version of 1974. Every time Gatsby smiles I want to tear my eyes out. The only actor that was locked in was nick. The car is white need i say more. During most conversations it is obvious that none of the actors were actually in the same room at the same time. It's trying to be a james bond movie and it's not working. Dogwater
Broadway: Aggressively mid. Ok so it does have redeeming qualities. But I fear they are outnumbered by its... irredeeming qualities. Some of the songs are good, I enjoy the chorus of roaring on. Only tea is good, I like the costuming... Onto the criticisms. The jordanick is so bad they massacred my girl Jordan!! That is not jordan that's some other person! It's not inherently bad that they focused on jordanick, they could've done something cool with it. But they ignored everything about it that was in the book and instead put in a generic boring romance that takes screentime away from the actual plot?? Neither of them are liars here, they dont have any mention of the bad driver thing, there is no whiff of the dynamic these two had in the book. It's like the creators heard that jordanick existed in the book and were like oh ok theyre in love let's have them be in love. And it's like they did the same thing with daisy and gatsby too!! They never talked about gatsby's backstory at all, didn't talk about the actual reasons why gatsby loved daisy, it's like the creators just heard they were in love and so they just had them be in love in the musical. Some criticisms from my friend: "every song ends with them saying AAAAAA for a really long time" (true), "Nick is such a millennial i'm genuinely surprised he didnt say 'erm awkward' at any point" (scathing. Theres no coming back from that)
1949: This one really intrigues me because it's the movie that departs the most from the book, something that none of the other movies were brave enough to do. and a lot of the stuff they added is super interesting and a cool way to think about things! But other changes are kind of baffling. The expansion of dan cody and his impact on jay's life is very intriguing! Visiting gatsby's grave at the beginning was cool! This one also has somewhat generic jordanick but i dont care much because it has very little screentime. my biggest criticism is that everyone was way too moral!! the buchanans especially, they made tom into a decent fellow for some reason, daisy also is made way too moral (she wants to turn herself in??). Nick as well, he doesn't want to arrange the affair, it's jordan that does it instead. I think this one may have gotten hit hard by the hays code... Anyway this one is good. Unique among the movies!
1974: I need to rewatch this one i dont remember it as well... it's quite good but the pacing is so!! slow!! they did a cool thing with the ring that sees a bit of spiritual succession in the 2013 movie which i think is neat. i remember liking this george. note from friends: "daisy wrote the book on ragebaiting" (this is true)
ART: it's like if they made a gatsby musical that was actually good. i already made a post about it so i will summarize what i said there: it's awesomesauce, this nick is really good, the songs are bangin. one thing i forgot to mention there is that the set and lighting are absolutely scrumptious. i hate to say it, but the pacing in this one is also pretty slow... My friends' criticisms: "a lot of the songs were very repetitive" (true but it didnt really bother me), "i didn't like all the parts where they were rubbing each other while singing" and "the first party felt too much like an orgy" (i agree that it was all rather sexual but personally i was fine with it). I think it's just a little rough around the edges because this is the first time it's been performed and if they just polish it up a little bit it can be absolute peak!! it's already leagues ahead of the broadway one despite that one being broadway and thus having infinite budget. Honestly i think this one could easily switch spots with 2013. I like it a lot i feel bad criticizing it
2013: yes it's very basic of me to put it at the top but it's legitimately a good movie. this is the only one of the good ones that doesn't have super slow pacing. this movie has so many Natsby Moments, the creators were absolutely leaving out breadcrumbs to attract shippers, which makes it very enjoyable to watch with natsby goggles on. I very much enjoy post-gatsby alcoholic nick! yes, the cgi is way too gratuitous and the music is very anachronistic. But it's a great movie! I would go look at a specific part to check something and would get sucked in and watch like 20 minutes on accident! If I felt like rewatching a gatsby, i would for sure go for either this movie or ART gatsby, they're my top picks for sure it was tough deciding which one to put in front
NES: Ok this is a fake NES game, you can find it at greatgatsbygame.com and it gives me such joys i couldn't help but give it S tier. objectively it doesn't belong on this tier list at all but i severely enjoy it. It is so funny to me. There's literally a gold hat powerup. It has cutscenes. The music is unironically good. It feels like a strange lost media adaptation from decades ago. It's S tier for me and it does not belong there. I love it
the actual book: obviously at the top. It's the whole reason i went and watched all the other ones. It's my favorite book. I don't need to talk about why it's good. it's good! dareisay it's... great.
if you actually read all that please come and twirl in a field of flowers with me
Ok so I was reading the Wikipedia entry on nick carraway (as one does) and in the footnotes there was this quote from one of fitzgerald's short stories:
"[W]e are all queer fish, queerer behind our faces and voices than we want any one to know or than we know ourselves. When I hear a man proclaiming himself an 'average, honest, open fellow,' I feel pretty sure that he has some definite and perhaps terrible abnormality which he has agreed to conceal".
So this is literally describing nick right??? Nick "one of the few honest people I have ever known" carraway?? He's literally calls himself a "normal person" at the start of the book?? Like this sounds exactly like something he would say, i wouldnt bat an eye if somewhere in the book he word for word says "i am an average, open, honest fellow"?? Of course, we all know already that this guy has something wrong with him. Good to know that fitzgerald agrees. But yknow what fitzgerald (and nick) would probably consider to be a definite and perhaps terrible abnormality. Liking men. Send post
With how different the two gatsby musicals are, it's interesting to notice the few similarities that they do have. And there's something I noticed they both did differently from the book in their portrayal of daisy and I think it's interesting
So in the book, we know that daisy and gatsby were keeping regular correspondence after gatsby went to war. They wrote each other a lot of letters and such. Because of that Daisy knew that gatsby was still alive throughout and after the war, and that he planned to return to her. But, she married tom anyway, knowing that Gatsby still loved her. Tom felt like the safer and more immediate option, and she took it instead of waiting any longer. But she still has regrets about this choice--she almost calls off the wedding when she receives one of gatsby's letters. This is a pretty important decision that characterizes her, no? It's interesting, it's juicy, it's a questionable choice made in a difficult situation that shows where her priorities are.
What both musicals did in common was make it so that this regular correspondence wasn't happening. In the broadway one, gatsby was sending letters but daisy's father intercepted them so she didn't know. In an american myth, daisy doesnt receive any letters from him until the one on her wedding day, at which point it was too late to change her mind. In these scenarios, she has no communication with gatsby at all during her decision to marry tom. It's fair for her to assume that gatsby may have died at war, or for any other reason is not coming back. For all she knows he's completely forgotten about her. They made this change so that daisy's decision to marry tom seems more reasonable, more redeemable. Both musicals generally portray daisy in a more sympathetic light, and this is one way they did that. And I think that's an interesting shared character choice! I think daisy can still be portrayed sympathetically while keeping in this decision of hers, especially if you emphasize the pressure she was feeling to get married quickly. But the fact that they both felt the need to make this change speaks to how it is difficult to reconcile her choice with a sympathetic portrayal of daisy. It's not a choice that paints her in a very good light!
Back to the book. Tom... is a terrible person, and marrying him was not a very good choice for daisy. But would it have been better to marry Gatsby? I don't know! He would probably suck less as a person, but at this time he really can't provide for her financially (although he has been lying about how well off he is so she doesn't know that for certain). Neither of these are stellar choices! She had to choose one though, and she comes to regret her decision. The adaptors making this change so that she had much less of a choice, so that it seemed Tom was the only real option... I think that softens her character quite a bit! It's important that this was a deliberate choice that she made! Her choice also aligns with her later decision at the hotel to stay with tom; her priorities are consistent.
Anyway, that's what I noticed. I think it's an important aspect of her character and changing it to make her seem more redeemable is a bit lame... but i'd be interested to hear what other people think!!
ok so like. you know how jay gatsby kinda got that trans allegory going on (changed his name and identity because he did not dig what he was born with). take my hand let me yap about the trans gatsby that lives in my head where he's actually nonbinary but has a job so he cant think about that rn. So like he was born a girl and becomes a man because that's what he needs in order to acquire the privilege and success he wants, in a time+place where being a man was pretty much synonymous with having power (see: tom buchanan). And, later, because that's what Daisy would want--a man she can marry that will bring her safety, and the only way for him to have Daisy is to be a man. And aside from those reasons, he knew that being a girl was Not It for him. But we all know that in his pursuit of money and of Daisy he loses himself; he's so focused on getting what he thinks he wants that he doesn't pay attention to what he actually wants. And what he actually wants is to live out a beautiful genderqueer life but idk if he even knows that's an option. anyway thats my ted talk idk if it actually makes sense lmao
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My friends keep falling in love with me and on the one hand I'm flattered and on the other hand it sucks because it fundamentally changes the relationship on their end while I just feel the exact same (context: I'm aro)
And it doesnt help that I've been constantly fighting the "you two are dating/in love" allegations from all sides since the age of like 8 (because heavens forbid a man and a woman be close friends and not be romantically involved), only for the friend to in a way prove them right and. I don't fault my friends for this obviously it's out of their control but. I just wish it would stop happening or at least be confined to only acquaintances
Hello hello, you can call me Unknown or Blooky, but feel free to call me whatever I'm not particularly attached to either of these monikers
Any pronouns are fine, my gender is a mystery i'll one day solve but that day is not today
aroace 🔥🔥🔥
I love to yap and I don't bite!! If you want to talk to me just come and say hi I would love to talk and hang out! Asks and dms always open, but I may take a while to see it since I don't have notifs on
Expect many a reblog and an occasional post of my own. idk if i'm doing this queue stuff right but I do have one (mostly has fanart reblogs in it)
If I accidentally come off as mean I am so sorry that is not my intention, i am full of whimsy and joys!!
Current brainworms: the great gatsby
My ao3 is under the same username
Thank you kindly for reading! 💜💜💜
"There are few things more terrifying than one's own heart, and there is almost nothing more terrifying than sharing it with another. But the most terrifying thing of all is to leave one's heart unshared."
