Gatsby’s Style and Pageantry, Fitzgerald Would be Proud

Today, I want to talk about the movie The Great Gatsby currently in its second week of Screening nationwide. However, before we get into that, in keeping with my last several posts, I checked in to see how Dan Brown’s Inferno is doing on the bestseller’s list. He is solidly holding the number 1 spot with an incredible 253 reviews of which only 26 are 1-star. The percentage of one star to total reviews is lessening. I think this means those people, who rush to write bad reviews for the attention, or feeling of superiority, or for whatever reason, have lost their initial momentum. It will be interesting to continue tracking this percentage over the coming weeks.

One other aside, my friend and fellow author Marlayna Glynn Brown is ranked number 61 on Kindle bestsellers with her memoir Overlay. Marlayna has several books out, of which Overlay was her first. It is a candid, uplifting story of overcoming the difficulties of an alcoholic, abusive family. Congratulations Marlayna, keep writing and selling those great books.

Now let’s examine our topic, The Great Gatsby. I am a huge F. Scott Fitzgerald fan. I have a leather bound copy of The Great Gatsby, which I reread before going to see the movie. Having done so I went to the theatre with great trepidation because my past experiences have typically resulted in disappointment in the way movies fail to capture the essence of books. However, in this case I was thrilled at the result. With very few minor variations the movie closely followed Fitzgerald’s story.

The cinematography was incredible. We have already discussed the importance of authors seeing their characters and surroundings in their minds’ eye as their stories play out. I think Fitzgerald’s mental image of Gatsby and his environment, the house, the parties, the people, and the cars must have been very close to what we saw on the big screen. In fact, the movie was shot and edited in such a way to make it feel as though you were reading a book. The scenes and point of view POV changed just as it must on the written page.

I left the theatre encouraged by the experience and proud because F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous book finally got the big screen treatment it deserves. If you have not seen the movie I encourage you to do so. Let me know what you think!

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

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