The novel The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 by the American writer Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.
Set in New York City and Long Island in the 1920s, this short semi-autobiographical novel shows the carnival scene of drunken gold fans in the United States after World War I, and through the mouth of a poor writer who came to New York, tells the story of the drunken New York rich man "Gatsby" in pursuit of love, and Gatsby's luxurious but illusory and desperate life.
It further reflects the lower class's yearning for high society, as well as the hypocrisy and cruelty of American high society, and describes the disillusionment of the American dream.
This period also produced "jazz", hence fitzgerald's name "Jazz Age".
The original novel is so well known that it ranks second among the 100 Best English Novels of the 20th Century by the American Modern Library and is regarded as a symbol of the "Jazz Age" of American literature.
As a result, it was brought to the screen in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000 and 2013.
As a masterpiece, it has been put on the screen several times precisely because of its profound ideological and cultural connotations, that is, it has an accurate portrayal of the United States in the 1920s.
Then whether the film can reflect the profound ideological nature of the original work has become the key to testing the success or failure of the film.
In the 1920s, under the influence of World War I, the American people felt extremely confused, disappointed, and spiritually empty, and began to transform into a blind pursuit of material pleasures, forming the idea of "money first" in society.
Gone are the pure "American Dream" that had been able to succeed through individual struggle.
As the author says:
"It's an age of wonder, an age of art, an age of profligacy, and an era of mockery."
Using fluent language, "The Great Gatsby" describes the hypocrisy, selfishness and arbitrariness of the upper class at that time, showing the reader a new era of drunkenness and impetuous illusion.
The novel perfectly combines the failure of various dreams of pursuing freedom, ideals, personal struggles, and success with the disillusionment of the protagonist's love dreams, and deeply expresses the theme of the collapse of the "American Dream".
In particular, it shows the huge gap between the fantasies and reality of small people, especially young people, and the disappointment, confusion and helplessness caused by it.
Fitzgerald was born into a merchant family that was not wealthy, and poverty caused him to suffer from self-pity during his studies, and did not even have the courage to pursue his beloved rich lady Sanda.
So he began to write angrily, became famous for his novel "Paradise on Earth", and his marriage to Sanda also came true. It's similar to what happened to Gatsby.
And the author himself indulged in the "Jazz Age" of the wine and food conquest, which is also an elegy of the "Jazz Age", which is an American tragedy.
The depth of thought has become the core of whether a film has become a classic, and the award-winning films such as the American Oscars and the German Golden Bear Awards have a grand or profound theme, which must have a profound ideological connotation.
The author wrote this novel to awaken people from the dream of money, from the dream of love, and to live a meaningful life.
This ideological core mainly reflects the words and deeds of the protagonist, rather than the magnificent film set can be fully expressed.
The 2013 edition of "The Great Gatsby" director Buzz Ruhmann's previous works "Australia's Troubled World" and "Moulin Rouge" are colorful, gorgeous costumes and unique personal styles.
Although the story takes place in the 1920s, the style of the film is very modern, and the addition of 3D effects, the luxurious theme is taken to the extreme, and the restoration of the New York cityscape in the 1920s is very stunning, and the art curtain looks like a series of oil paintings.
And use the most "trendy" music to set off the "Jazz Age" of the early 20th century; Invite popular rappers to lead the creation of the soundtrack of the film, using contemporary music to reinvigorate this work from a century ago.
In contrast, the 1974 version directed by Makarwitz and starring the famous actor Robert Redford, extremely pursuing visual effects, the scene is luxurious and publicity, and the film presents the flashy scenes of the song and dance at that time, rendering in place, the details are realistic, and the restoration.
It is characterized by the unprecedented party full of the brand of the "Jazz Age": the application of various props, music, scenes, costumes and other details is exquisite and in place, and the background narrative in the novel is fully film and television figurative expression, accurately restoring the various details and scenes in the book and the empty and impetuous social reality of the 20s.
This treatment is largely faithful to the original, and the effect is better than the 2013 edition.
In the 2013 version of the film, director Ruchmann chose to boldly use the most popular genres today, while weakening the musical characteristics of the jazz age.
In addition, there are more gorgeous sports shots, including drag racing, but also the use of a lot of special effects, CG, especially the huge gorgeous scenes, the madness and pompous in the banquet were vividly photographed by him, and the props and costumes were extremely gorgeous.
The reason why the director deals with it in this way is that he wants to reflect the drunken fans and spiritual emptiness of the United States in the 20th century, but although the film reflects the United States 100 years ago, it still has to conform to the aesthetics of that year and reflect the social problems of contemporary America, and the 2013 version is obviously more affected by the characteristics of today's American era.
This treatment dilutes the film's representation of the characteristics of that era in the 1920s, much to the chagrin of the book's loyal readers.
If you want to successfully put literary works on the movie screen, you need to give up a lot of the ideal space in the original work, and bring a whole set of artistic experiences to the audience in a limited length of time, and show the storyline and character personality to the audience faster and more directly, and there will be no acceptance barriers for the audience.
The 2013 edition of the stage drama look and feel, set, costumes, lighting, makeup, fashionable soundtrack frantically piled up, so that these scenes are too bloated, do not grasp the scale, so that the pursuit of form has been greater than the pursuit of ideas, so that the audience can not feel any real emotion contained in it.
Although the director commented on this: This is the modern technology to express the era of the time, but also to borrow the ancient irony of the present.
In fact, this is an excessive pursuit of commercial value, the profound ideological nature of the original has been completely submerged in this commercial pursuit, and the theme spirit of the original work has been weakened, so that the film as a whole has lost the focus it wants to highlight.
The Wrap magazine once said unceremoniously:
"The Great Gatsby" from the narrative method of the story, the original storyline uses interpolation, flashback narrative, this technique is more conducive to the author's confused and dreamy expression needs.
The original novel has 9 chapters, but the climax of the plot is arranged in the seventh chapter, from the number of pages, the 140-page novel, the climax part is about 85 pages, almost the middle part of the novel.
The plot of the whole novel is like a physical parabola, with the climax being an axis of symmetry, and its front and back halves echoing each other.
This structure differs from the general novel structure that appears in the last two-thirds or at the end.
This treatment is to let the reader see the attitude of the living to Gatsby after his death, so as to recognize the cold of the world and make it easier to understand how absurd the protagonist's dream is.
In the original, as the narrator, Nick is both a party upstairs and a bystander who looks silently downstairs, "both in it and outside, fascinated by and rejected this way of life".
This attitude of wandering on the edge of participation and bystander makes the original text carry self-reflection in a strong distinction between likes and dislikes, and has a sad and unscathed emotional tone.
Foster said
This treatment of the novel, the relationship between the characters from the beginning, has to be staggered, slowly laying and rising, not making people feel tired, but extending to the climax of the middle part.
Among them, after Gatsby's death, the fate of the characters mentioned earlier in the novel, the author has made an account, such as Wolfsim's attitude and thoughts that have nothing to do with himself, and Nick and Jordan eventually broke down; Even though Mrs. Wilson's sister, Catherine, appeared only once, the author still gave her a cold and indifferent mess.
In particular, the author also cleverly put the last page of Gatsby's father with "time schedule" and "general code" of the "Cowboy Cassidy" book, as well as from Minnesota, so that readers have a clear understanding of Gates's history.
In the end, after seeing through the drunken life of the New York people, Nick returned to the west, and the other end of the parabola also fell to the same height as the starting point, like a spiral, seemingly back to the starting point, but with a rise.
The director of the 2013 edition also adapted the film into a narrative and flashback narrative. The story is told from beginning to end using an omniscient perspective to ensure the fluency of the plot, while ensuring the unity of the rhythm of the story and the original work.
This is where the two versions are the same.
But the 2013 version of the director split the novel, starting with Nick in a nursing home, stringing stories with memories, a technique that the director used in The Moulin Rouge.
From the perspective of the storyline, this paragraph can not be, which does not affect the overall narrative, and can be described in a more concise way.
But because the climax of the novel appears at the end but the plot of the film only presents the first half of this parabola, after Gatsby's death, everyone has nothing to do with him anymore, and the curve on the right side of the parabolic axis of symmetry appears intermittent.
Among them, Nick's relationship scene with Jordan was cut, the indifferent attitude of Wolfsim and the like to Gatsby was canceled, and Gatsby's father was also doomed and did not get the embodiment he deserved.
Buzz Ruchmann abandoned the tone of the original when shooting the film, deviated seriously from the original, indulged in the display of audiovisual wonders, and thus lost in the logic of the era that he should have criticized; A large number of gorgeous sets and beautiful costumes can only highlight the superficiality and weakness of this film.
In particular, the second half of the film suddenly stops, and the front and back of the narrative rhythm are loosened and tightened, making the film tiger-headed and tailed, and the audience is like in the fog.
The highlight of the 2013 version is Gatsby's funeral, which is also where the conflict in the play is obvious, and it is also the sublimation of the theme of the whole film.
The director uses contrast here.
From the crowded night song at the beginning of the feast to the depression of the final funeral, only the tabloid reporter slammed into Gatsby lying in the coffin, forming too sharp a contrast, people can not help but sigh.
In the end, only Nick, the only friend, died for him.
This also reflects that the friends made by the protagonist are all for money, and in the environment of that era, no one is a real friend.
This is something that has not been seen in previous films, and this is the superb feature of this version of the director.
The process of adaptation, of course, is the process of re-creation, the adaptor can not blindly follow the original work, more inclined to treat the writer's work from the height of contemporary people's understanding, while adapting the original work, express the adaptor's own feelings and original ideas and the author's intention and connotation, and at the same time fit the aesthetics and values of contemporary people.
Therefore, if the film is completely in line with the original work, it is not surpassed and improved.
But if the director only wants to put the old bottle of new wine, but wants to show the profound theme of the original work, then in the adaptation, it is better to work harder to reflect the essence of the original.