The Great Gatsby - Trailer

People seem to be quite divided over this trailer! This person liked it, saying

When Baz Luhrmann announced he was tackling Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, I was one of the only people who seemed delighted by the news. Here’s someone who does everything on a too-big scale, and doesn’t a book that is essentially the definitive American opera deserve to be told on a big scale?

Jonathan, on the other hand, is “hesitant, yet hopeful”, and wants to see more jazz.

Here’s what I think: I like this trailer. I am hopelessly biased. I am a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio (I even liked the mess that they made of The Beach because he was in it, Tilda Swinton notwithstanding). I have a hopeless crush on Carey Mulligan. I don’t care about Tobey Maguire, but then I never really cared about Nick Carraway either, so the fact that someone so nondescript is playing the role actually kind of suits me. And - and - I’m not sure that jazz would work, though it’s quite possible that Baz Luhrmann will end up going down that route and the snazzy trailer music is just that.

The Great Gatsby is weird because it’s a book written nearly a century ago and it still affects people. Cultural references and historical located-ness aside, it could fit into a modern book collection. It manages to feel up to date and quaint at the same time. It isn’t Jane Eyre, or Hamlet, or The Divine Comedy. And music is a big deal for me in films - Clint Mansell carried the slower parts of Moon, Vangelis is absolutely integral to Blade Runner, and that track that opens up Brazil (it’s called The Office, and it’s been used in a lot of places) sticks in your head for months after you first hear it. So maybe daring soundtrack choices will make this film for me. Or maybe the misspellings on Times Square. I don’t know. I’m excited, anyway.