Great choice of music or poor advertisement for Gatsby???

Great choice of music or poor advertisement for Gatsby???

Great Gatsby Soundtrack

Lina Uzunhasan

17 February 2016

The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film is the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby (film from 2013), an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. The album was produced by Baz Luhrmann and Anton Monsted, while Jay-Z served as the album’s executive producer.

The album was released two weeks before the release of the movie and netted an amazing 51.1 million dollars before the release of the movie (1 week after the release of the album!). The film was an incredible hit for the year since, alongside the dream actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the film also features Toby Maguire, Carey Mulligan and like its not enough, it was shot in 3D.

The Gatsby , in case you guys haven't studied it, is a story of a bootlegger millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbour Nick Carraway. It took place in 1920’s, a prohibition era when jazz music considered to be very valuable. Jazz music was considered to be a cultural movement that played a big role in the book itself as well. 

The record was reportedly worked on for two years. During those years the pair worked on translating the Jazz Age to the music of our times. The duo did this by mixing hip-hop, Jazz and other music types. The production would be more sensible if modern musicians that could be translated into ‘modern’  Jazz would make the match of the music and the movie more aesthetic than arbitrary. Instead, singers like Will.i.am and Fergie made the theme get ruined. The movie seems to be separate to the music. 

It is very important that the soundtrack is modern and known by the audience of the movie; however, in this case the theme to be ruined is more important of a problem than advertising the movie to the audience.

Think of it, you are watching Gatsby drink whiskey and suddenly you hear Jay-Z playing. I personally think that it would be a confusing scene after all, making it hard to understand the actual meaning of it. Gatsby wouldn't allow black people in the building anyways. 

It makes sense to add Kanye to the soundtrack because he also came from the bottom to the top of the line just like Gatsby himself. But his tracks not only don't fit the ‘jazz’ music but also it sounded like it was not even recorded properly. For example, the cover for Back to Back also sounded quite bad, (Beyonce and Andre 300 struggle through the entire song) why not use the original song from amy Winehouse?  

Of course the reason behind all this is money. They are trying to advertise the movie and the people homage the soundtracks and of course Luhrmann want to make money out of the situation. Considered that they worked on Jazz Age for 2 years might mean that they tried to make the situation less effective (less damage). This whole situation made the movie more popular and the soundtrack sold more than it would have. So we could say this was a decision of money eventually but not for art.

Jay-Z Rapping At Gatsby's Party?

Mar Yepez
19th of February, 2016

It doesn't sound appropriate, a rapper in charge of the soundtrack of a movie so classy like The Great Gatsby, but, was it really a bad decision?

Although the soundtrack got some negative feedback arguing that the songs selected weren't the right style, Director Baz Luhrmann highly praised the rapper on his work. And he is right! Jay-Z did make a good job!

"He totally nailed that the book was aspirational, that the book was really about, if you've got a cause, you can move towards a green light. That you don't reach it isn't the point; that you aspire is." said Luhrmann, director of 'The Great Gatsby'.

http://www.enstarz.com/articles/14670/20130315/the-great-gatsby-soundtrack-jay-z-produces-performs-trailer-release-date.htm

They couldn't have chosen a better person for the job. Jay-z earned his life the hard way, he was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Marcy Houses, he work his way to the top just like Jay Gatsby did. With his personal experience, who would understand the struggles of the though life better than him?

It's clearly shown in the songs included what Jay-Z felt was important about 'The Great Gatsby". The most recurrent one is "Young and Beautiful" by Lana del Rey. 

Although the beat of the original song was adapted and changed for the movie, we can clearly see that it was chosen for its lyrics. Doomed love, money, parties, and beauty are the topics discussed in the song and in the film. 

The tracks included by Jay-Z in the soundtrack were strongly linked to the mood. "The Great Gatsby" has an overall dark and heavy atmosphere full of toxic love and thirst for success. Songs like "Love is Blindness" by Jack White, "Into the Past" by Nero, "Kill and Run" by Sia, "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)" by Fergie, reflect the meaning of the film. No wonder why the soundtrack got so high up in the charts!

Buchanan: The Mirror of the Golden Ages in "The Great Gatsby"

Luisa Fernanda Yépez
18th of February, 2016

Tom Buchanan is a big, strong and muscular man, even his physical appearance represents The Roaring Twenties: abundance, strength and a contemptuous glance. 

But what about his opinions? How does this character represent the social views on race and culture at that time?

From the first Chapter, Buchanan is defined, especially through a specific phrase, as a white supremacist. He believes that the race he and his closer friends belong to must "be careful" about the rebellion of the minorities: "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things." This illustrates faithfully the ideas conceived at that time: other races represent a menace to white people, and they should be kept a level below them. By other races, the character actually means New Moneys (humble beginnings);Tom is rather afraid that the rising of these people threatens his lifestyle. 

Another particular element is that Tom defines himself and his race as Nordic; he states that they have been the ones to build modern civilization. What he actually means, is that the Old Moneys (people  born rich) have made the most meaningful contributions to society. 

A quote from Buchanan that defines this whole Black/New versus White/Old conflict is the following: "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. [...] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have marriage between black and white." Of course, he is questioning his wife Daisy for having sex with a humble background man. It sounds even as if he wouldn't have minded that much is it had been a man born rich like him rather than Gatsby. 

A Jewish shadow of Meyer Wolfsheim

Nikita Mosidze
19th of February, 2016


«At lunch today, I'm going to introduce you with one of New York's most distinguished businessmen, in Mr. Meyer Wolfsheim» - the first mentioning of Mr. Wolfsheim by Mr. Gatsby. A small flat-nosed Jew they called him. Meyer Wolfsheim still remains a mystic, shadowed figure of the movie. He is not talked about neither before nor after the scene in the underground complex, where most of the wealthy gathered. Mr. Gatsby, being one of the wealthy, showed his new friend Nick the surrounding, where most of the corrupt figures could be seen. The place was full of high-positioned, well-paid individuals that had a great impact in the area of their influence, including the Jewish Meyer Wolfsheim.

Criminal underworld is the dark side of the wealthy community in The Great Gatsby. Most of the wealthy are infamous for the evil actions, which had put them into the place they are in. With human molars on his tie, Meyer Wolfsheim is surrounded by mysterious rumors and unfinished tales, which made him a man to be feared of. Surprisingly enough, in the movie Meyer has an Indian look, which makes it confusing for the viewer about his Jewish identity. Mr. Wolfshein has some illegal business ideas, that are linked with alcohol distribution in the Prohibition era. However, running into illegal problems would not be an issue for our Jewish character – he has enough money to bribe the whole police department of New York; though it might be unnecessary because of the police connections he has in the criminal underworld.

If a viewer observes Meyer from a stereotypical viewpoint couple of factors could be outlined – he is rich. Jewish people were always known for their business ideas that were well-thought and highly successful. The biggest stereotype regarding Jewish people states that they never share material and value money very much. One could assume that Meyer used his “skills of being a Jew” to put him on that high point without having a great attention from the surrounding.

He was described as a “business associate”, “a gambler”,” the man who fixed the 1919 World Series” and there is much more, but the more descriptions the viewer gets – the harder it is to gather a pure image of the Meyer Wolfsheim. A certainly mysterious figure will remain in shadow, while accomplishing all the black transactions he had planned.

The Beautiful Fashion Betrayals in the Great Gatsby

Mathilde Panis-Jones
18 February 2016

The Beautiful Fashion Betrayals 

in the Great Gatsby  

We have all seen The great Gatsby and then have wanted to throw a nice twenties-themed party, right? Well, not so fast. You maybe shouldn't be basing yourself off of the great work of director Baz Luhrmann. It turns out the fashion in The great Gatsby isn’t so accurate.

However, this can be justified. In some cases, very accurate costumes that are truly representative of their era will be unattractive or even awkward to a modern eye. Although The Great Gatsby delivers the fashion clichés of the 1920s we all were dying to see (fringe, feathered headpieces, long strips of beads…), they are not quite what they are supposed to look like. Sometimes, very stylised costumes can frustrate viewers who were hoping to see elaborate reproductions of the Roaring Twenties. In the movie adaptation, colours are richer, the dresses more sparkly, and the flappers less lively. 

For example, Daisy is the central female character in the story, and it is her clothing that is the most criticised and accused as ‘’inaccurate’’. In the movie, Daisy is soft, romantic, and wears a lot of lavender (true to the book!). However, this is not so close to the typical image of the streamlined, short 1920s dresses women typically wore.

The costumes of The Great Gatsby will not stand up to a rigorous standard of accuracy, but, Old Sport!, this movie delivers an accurate representation of the social and cultural meaning of clothes in the 1920s, contrary to a boring documentary on PBS.

Unsolvable Problem Of Gatsby's Business Partner

18 Feb 2016
Edward Na 

Is it destiny for any writer or director of "The Great Gatsby" to up bring the issue of 'anti-Semitic manner'? After F.Scott Fitzgerald first published his novel called "The Great Gatsby" it acquired a non detachable name tag called 'anti-Semitic manner'. It is due to one character called, Meyer Wolfsheim.

Who is this guys called 'MeyerWolfsheim' the source of this debate? He is a mysterious business partner of Gatsby in all thing illegal. However he was also a Jewish man.

Now, our new director himself knew that the writer of the book by setting the wrong characteristics of 'Meyer Wolfsheim' created some what in a boarder sense, 'anti-Semitic manner'. He said in the recent interview, "I was trying to solve the issue of Meyer Wolfsheim because there's a big question there." He tried to solve this issue by placing an Indian actor in a place of Jewish role according to the book.

Although the intention of this move was to remove any racial or religious bias that people would have on this fine piece of work, it back fired on him instead. Now he risks offending both Indian and Jewish viewers. It looks like he is stealing jobs from Jewish people and he is giving bad impression of Indian people by assigning one of the most famous Indian actor such a 'illegal character'.

The selection of character also changes a lot on the way that book could be comprehended. Quite significantly it reduces all the mysteriousness of Gatsby compared to original book. Meyer Wolfsheim was described as a Jewish man and this also lead a suspicion to readers that Gatsby himself might have been Jewish once or he is still a Jewish but he is hiding it from everyone. 

The new character also diminishes the thrill in the plot. In the new movie released, Meyer Wolfsheim now seems just a corrupt business man. In the original book he seemed more dangerous man, who is the 'big hand' in underground business. By changing the image of the character, now Gatsby just seems like another business man who earned money like any other business man just with corrupt partner. There is no thrill that Gatsby is working with the big underground boss and rising question how he managed to get along with such a dangerous person.

There is also a small doubt that whether Indian person could have been a successful business man at that time of American history. As a fan of both book and movie "The Great Gatsby", there is little bit of a disappointment on selection of the character different from original book.