The Great Gatsby - An Artistic Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2013)

THE ELEMENTAL CHALLENGE
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald penned what one might arguably claim the elusive "Great American Novel." Such a peculiar magnum opus inherently challenges all but the finest film makers into a frenzied, trembling attempt (whether realized or not) at the long climb of a seemingly endless ladder, i.e., the crafting a worthy transformation—a transformation of the practically untouchable wonders effervescing from the words so carefully crafted and printed between the covers of Fitzgerald's American masterpiece—into the artistic medium of the silver screen. A roaring difficult transformation indeed, consisting of a mastering a series of complex moving images (both separately and comprehensively), which requires an impeccably accurate representation of that effervescing wonder, stretching out into the darkness toward the proverbial green light, and slowly rising from the immortal words of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Oh, what a titanic task!
THE FANTASTIC RESULT
Baz Luhrmann, producer and director of the sensational, dazzling "Moulin Rouge" (2001) stands firm as perhaps the only film maker free of any crippling intimidation limiting the proper transformation of Fitzgerald's palatial, avant-garde literary art work into an equally spectacular, stunning filmographic art work. Luhrmann, the producer and director of the "The Great Gatsby" (2013) expertly adapts the singular nature of Fitzgerald's brilliant, tantalizing, and imaginative prose into the rich, artistically cross-comparable, and almost intoxicating wonders of film and sound. In "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann skillfully breathes new life into that extraordinary effervescence that softly rises from Fitzgerald's written tour de force, but Luhrmann does so from the modern medium of amazingly high quality moving pictures and mind-engaging sound. This adept use of these moving artistic images combined with all but overwhelming sounds expands and magnifies the softly rising effervescence of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to encompass and thoroughly thrill one's senses in the simply wonderful audiovisual, artistic masterpiece that is Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby."
EPILOGUE
Artistic mediums innately present themselves in what humans interpret under vastly altering perceptions. Comparing a literary work of art to that of a film likens comparing a grizzly bear to a killer whale. While both animals carry similar traits such as the genus mammal and feeding by killing, they prove different in more ways than similar. So it is with comparing The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald with "The Great Gatsby" by Luhrmann. Hence, one must let preconceptions go. Enjoy the filmographic master's touch for what it is: a splendid work of art in film, not literature. When you honestly do this, "The Great Gatsby" will open for you a new world of dazzling artistic splendor and enjoyment.