I could go on for days about how badly Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby adaptation missed the mark. Just a few points:
🙄 Nick’s characterisation was ridiculous, he came across as a vacuous idiot instead of the shrewd observer he has to be for the story to make sense. They also made him an alcoholic for no clear reason when in the book he makes a point of stating he has been drunk twice in his life.
🙄 Gatsby’s bouts of explosive rage made no sense against his characterisation at all. This isn’t the Gatsby Tom mocks for his pink suit and general impotence in handling his “presumptuous little flirtation” with Daisy.
🙄 the implications that Daisy was in fact trying to call Gatsby before his death. Dude, no. Careless drivers. It’s right there in the book.
🙄 why introduce Owl Eyes at the party and then not bring him back for the funeral? That was the entire point… he’s a Chekhov’s gun.
🙄 similarly, why introduce Klipspringer at all, and give him a stupid, made-up backstory, then just abandon him there like a red herring?
🙄 and alllll the party scenes seeming to be the point of the movie. That’s… not the point of the story.
Sons and Lovers, by DH Lawrence.
Basically a treatise on hating women.