And to bring things full circle, I can’t help but come back to Baz Luhrmann and his 1996 adaptation of Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. This was one of those Shakespearean adaptations that set the story in modern day but maintained all the original dialogue. That in itself takes some courage, not to mention skill in keeping people engaged when they don’t know exactly what the characters are saying to each other. It’s an interesting piece of work though because it was received, understandably, as a teen romance and marketed as such, even though it’s a relatively worthy retelling of the play. If teen movies are considered the lowest market, and if Shakespeare’s plays performed well with the lower class folk as they are alleged to have done, then this seems entirely appropriate.
Luhrmann seems to be doing this again with Gatsby: envisioning a well-known story in a way that will have resonance for a contemporary audience and presenting in a way that frankly no one else is able to pull off. His style and interpretation of these stories is unorthodox to say the least. He may be using them as a mere platform to play with his own sensibilities, fetishes and ideas. But as far as I’m concerned, anyone who wants to use beloved material to hoist themselves up to achieving something as bold as The Great Gatsby deserves a degree of admiration. Artistic ambition is somewhat an end in itself, and completely reimagining something that everyone feels like they already know inside and out is a way of expanding vision and consciousness—something every bit as ambitious as inventing something purporting to be entirely original.
