The Great Gatsby.

I've always loved films.

They are another version of storybooks, where fantasies and your favourite characters come to life.

I've seen many great films, and a lot of times I wanted to write about how I felt about them, and what I took away from them. But doing that requires answering the difficult question of "Why?"

Why do I like this movie? Is it just for what's on the surface? Because a boy and a girl met and fell in love? Because they lived happily ever after? Because the music was good and the main character was hot and the props were cool?

Or was there something deeper that I related to, found solace in, or gained deeper understanding and enlightenment through? Perhaps I recognised them in brief flashes of thought, or perhaps I acknowledged them unknowingly. 

Many times, asking myself these questions and then going forth to try and articulate my answers into proper sentences and words, often puts me off because of my pure laziness to think.

But hey, I thought I'd finally get off my butt and write about a film that I fell in love with.

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The Great Gatsby.

I watched this yesterday and part of today(went through midnight hehe), and yes it was a Christmas special on TV. I have heard raves about the book and the movie, and I was excited to watch it. I had completely no idea what it was about or what I was to expect.

To know what the storyline was, one can find it on any book/movie overview/review online, but here I am only going to write about what resonated with me in the movie.

Character Development

The impressions of the characters change drastically through the movie. The way the characters are portrayed, it almost seems obvious and evident who is the 'good guy' or who is the 'evil guy everyone hates'. In this case, in the beginning and through most of the movie, the 'good guy' seemed to be Nick and Daisy, and then slowly going on, we fall in love with Gatsby as well. In my head, I thought of Gatsby as a charismatic and mysterious guy, that almost seems like every girls wish come true. He is romantic, dedicated, and you can just see how much he loves Daisy and is willing to do for her. And then on the other hand, the 'bad guy' was Tom, who was always out with women, always getting drunk, not treating Daisy right etc. But it's pretty amazing how the story unfolds and all your initial impressions of the characters change. Nick is more of a neutral party because he is simply on the sidelines and you see everything happen through his eyes and his point of view. Halfway through the movie, you kind of see another side to Gatsby and you feel like you are losing hope in him and you're just like 'ugh no! why?! I thought you were perfect?!" You kind of question his actions and then it's that point when you hate him for a split second. But then plot twist, you realise he wasn't guilty and he is just trying so hard to protect Daisy. (Trying so hard not to spoil anything lol.) After that, you see Daisy, you see how she's treating Gatsby after everything that has happened and you wonder how she could do that to him. And then, the horrible thing happens, omg can I just say it, Gatsby dies. (Yep sorry kids. ) Daisy doesn't seem to even give a damn about him, and Tom and her just leave. At this point came a quote I love - "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

The greatest change was definitely Daisy, because of the way you just saw her as this innocent girl who's husband had a mistress and didn't treat her very well. We felt sympathy for her. We thought she was made for Gatsby and that she would love him just as much as he loved her. But you realise that she is just weak, too weak and cowardly to face what she has done, to face her mistakes and to let go of her pride. I almost had a hope that somehow she would come back and apologise to Nick and talk about how much she regretted everything, but then I realised that so few people would actually do that because of the pride that they hold. Especially with people of such a status, such wealth and such stability in their life, everything else is almost disposable. She can almost live without Nick and live without someone she once loved so much whom she wronged but she could never make up to. I guess that was one of the reasons why the film was so incredibly real and relatable, because you see the real sides of people and how fast things can change and get out of hand. You see honesty and genuineness, and at times the hard truth.

I say the 'impressions of characters' change because the characters themselves don't change, it's just that at the start of the movie we come to conclusions, conclusions about who this person is, and how we feel about them. It is only that as the story continues, we see new sides of the characters come up and our conclusions shift and take new forms. It's very much like how it is in real life, and like how unexpected things can happen simply because you lay out expectations based on the things you already know or have seen. 

Gender Roles & Daisy

There are a wide range of reactions towards female characters in films. Sometimes they are either 'ugly', mean, a control-freak annoying housewife or a wife that commits adultery, other times, they are sweet, innocent, never-wrong girls that get hurt and need protecting. In this case, there was something that I realised was very much related to gender discrimination and gender 'expectations'. The movie portrays Daisy as the sad and sweet girl, and also shows a little bit on how women are not seen as and taken on the same level as men. At the start, Daisy says "that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a little beautiful fool." To me, that encompasses what many girls feel they need to be. Society tells girls that they should be submissive, and that they should just do what they are told and not ask questions. Most of the time, this is just sugar coated but I think overtime through culture, it just becomes a normal expectation that is rarely questioned or challenged. It describes the role that women play, especially in the context of the movie, where they are small and fragile, and they have to be beautiful. They can't know too much or be too smart, or else their life will be miserable and they would not be happy. I feel like it was also Daisy's way of telling us how she felt about herself and her life, because she was in a bad place and she felt like she knew too much, she wishes she didn't know about her husband and his mistress, and she wants herself to stop wishing and hoping for all the things in the world that she may never have. 

Gatsby

 I absolutely love Gatsby as a character. There is a lot of depth and complexity in this one person. On one hand, yes, he is almost the definition of perfect, his love for Daisy is almost endless and he is just this guy that so badly wants the woman he loves. He is a good friend to Nick, he is grounded and a gentleman. But just as people do, he makes mistakes. And in my point of view one of those mistakes or 'let-downs' was how we was so desperate to get everything back to how they used to be. He was living in the past, in denial that years passed, things happened and people changed. He refused to accept that the Daisy he knew was no longer who she was completely, and that new people came into her life and her feelings for him had faded. But I guess that is because of his love for Daisy and again, him wanting her. He also doesn't want to accept that there is a possibility that his dream of having Daisy may not come true, and is always trying to convince himself that he is the only one Daisy loves. As they say, Love makes us blind and desperation clouds our vision. Also, he spent so much of his life trying to get something else. When he was young, he wanted wealth and status. Then he met Daisy, and from that day forward did everything possible to get her back and his life revolved around it. He failed to live in the moment. He tried to keep a low profile because he didn't want Daisy to know he was still alive, and because of that knew only a few certain people. He was still obsessed with money, spending most of it on the parties he threw in hope that Daisy would attend them and see him and on the huge house that was exactly across the river from Daisy's house. He only got to know people he could make money with, and people he used. He never really gave himself or gave much love to the people around him, he was always looking at somewhere else. And that's my reasoning behind his loneliness, his lack of company in his death, where no one attended his funeral except Nick. It's a sad truth, because sometimes you get so caught up in something and you just can't help it, but at the end of the day you find yourself struggling to find a balance.

Nick

Nick, we find out at the start of the movie, has several mental health problems. I forgot exactly what, but they were just really associated with someone who is very troubled and who has seen some of the darkest parts of life. As I watched the movie, it was evident to me the reasons why Nick turned out to be this way. It just covered some of the saddest things about humankind and life, it showed how people are not how you may expect them to be, it showed how good things come to an end, it showed shock, disappointment, death and loss. It showed betrayal, it showed how dreams, no matter how hopeful you are, may not come true. It showed the indescribable tragedy of loving someone so much but only having them let you down. It showed the terrifying possibilities and results of putting everything you have on the line. It featured complexity, confusion, contradictions and just everything that makes life as hard to understand as it is. Through it all, Nick had been present and had seen it all happen. Nick probably through a whirlwind of emotions and feelings, sometimes he probably felt torn, because he was unsure of what was the right thing to do, whether he was really helping Gatsby and Daisy or whether he was ruining lives and families. He, along with the audience, probably felt the same way about Gatsby, where he didn't know how to feel about him. He didn't know why Gatsby had reached out to him, and then later on he lost faith in Gatsby but regained it. He built a close relationship with Gatsby, only to have him leave. He cared so much for Daisy, but she only disappointed him and showed him the darkest sides of her. He probably couldn't understand why someone so full of love, someone so kind and hopeful, someone who indirectly brought so much happiness to so many people - Jay Gatsby, could ever not have a kin, and be so alone in his death. He must have felt that it was unfair that someone who was just so blinded by love, someone who tried to protect the women he adored, had got killed in cold blood because she could not own up to it. He must have felt that it wasn't right, because love was such a wonderful thing, but it brought so much pain and suffering. He probably also felt the burden of social status, because of everything he was surrounded by so often - big houses, nice clothes, jewels, expensive cars. He probably thought of how sad it was that the world was so obsessed with all these things they could not see the simple and important things. It probably angered and upset him at the same time. It also must have been hard for him to accept how Daisy had just gone with Tom, someone who hadn't treated her as well as Gatsby did. He must have wondered why she had to take such an easy way out, and throw away everything that was valuable. He must have been so frustrated and disappointed in her, knowing her for so long, thinking the best of her. He said "Digusted, with everyone and everything, only one man was exempt from my disgust... Gatsby."

Everything in the paragraph I just wrote was entirely on what I thought was going through his mind as a person, and it may be completely different. But to me, that is what I felt and would have felt if I was in his position. And I just think Nick is so relatable in that way. If someone had seen so much and was thrown into so many complications and hard truths, they probably wouldn't have been able to handle it either. I know I wouldn't.

I know this blogpost was a mouthful but I'm really proud that I was able to get all these into words! Thank you all so much for reading. (:

Signing off,

With Love,

CLL