Top 3 movie list this year :
1. Life of Pi
3. The Great Gatsby
I am glad that among over 30 movies I watched this year, I came across these 3 powerful movies; Life of Pi, in early this year, Darjeeling Limited in the middle of this year and The Great Gatsby by the end of 2013.
I was speechless when I first finished watching The Great Gatsby and had taken time to watch it again to churn every bit of feelings I had. Among bad critics that I've heard about the movie, I can only say that it was no less than a great story. Maybe over-rating a movie is not a good idea for readers that have not seen the movie yet - but seeing that I am completely left speechless twice, phew, I just think I need to exaggerate a little bit more.
I consider The Great Gatsby novel as literature because it was written in the 20s, and I avoid reading literature *after those early years of trying to self-learn literature, instead I waited for the movie. I do that to all literature - skip the reading part and just watch the m ovie.
The movie was directed by Baz Luhrmann, the same person who famously directed Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge. He is also famous with his way of producing movies among great song list. What I was excited about before watching The Great Gatsby was its song choices. This time, he collaborated with Jay-Z in choosing songs for the classic literature movie which for my personal opinion, was an interesting mixture.
There were songs from Lana del Ray, Gotye, The XX, Florence & the Machine, Beyonce & Andre. All those singers and bands were not from the mainstream list, so I was beyond excited to watch the result of that. And it went well, although there were many critiques on that issue, for me, mixing alternative modern songs with a classic literature is something new and fairly different, and Baz did so well. Curi2 dengar.
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On Movie Theme Song : 
The movie was directed by Baz Luhrmann, the same person who famously directed Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge. He is also famous with his way of producing movies among great song list. What I was excited about before watching The Great Gatsby was its song choices. This time, he collaborated with Jay-Z in choosing songs for the classic literature movie which for my personal opinion, was an interesting mixture.
There were songs from Lana del Ray, Gotye, The XX, Florence & the Machine, Beyonce & Andre. All those singers and bands were not from the mainstream list, so I was beyond excited to watch the result of that. And it went well, although there were many critiques on that issue, for me, mixing alternative modern songs with a classic literature is something new and fairly different, and Baz did so well. Curi2 dengar.
*
On Narration :
I love movies with narration, and it is possible that my thought on the movie was highlighted with the fact that Nick Carraway (Tobey M.) narrated the movie by reading the book that he was writing. Or for me, I imagined I was reading the book instead of listening to the narrator.
Paragraphs and excerpt by a classic writer is so much different than our modern language, so for me it was beautifully written T^T
Paragraphs and excerpt by a classic writer is so much different than our modern language, so for me it was beautifully written T^T
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On the Movie Effect :
The movie was beautiful and vibrant. But it used exaggerated effects for my liking, the green screen set-up was a bit obvious in several scenes, so it disturbed me a bit. But all in all, I always thought watching a movie should be like watching a movie, and so those exaggerated effects was acceptable for me. I recommend watching the HD version.
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On Story Line and Message :
I hate to spoil any movies, so I'll try to be short.
In my opinion, the movie was a great movie, not because it was a love story with an awful ending, but because of how it was told and the message it brought.
It seemed to me that Fitzgerald (the book's original writer) created the story based on how their society was in the 20s. Fitzgerald wanted to tell something 'big' to the readers; that resulted the valley of ashes between the city and West Egg. Because for me, the valley's existence was odd. Why creating a desolated land between those two places instead of just show how they separated the lower and upper class society in the same city instead? What's with the eyes of Doctor. T.J.Eckleburg ? Those eyes was disturbingly out of place. There must be something in the 20s that triggered him as a writer to write it in symbols. Ditto the mention of the green light across the river.
Other than that were the love story between those two main characters, love and hate, betrayal, first love, expectation, hope, dream, and everything. One gave too many while the other gave too little. Why love had to be so hard and so easy both at the same time? I was touched by Gatsby undying love and I was also surprised by Daisy's materialistic mind.
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I'm going to rewatch the movie and update this review later when I have the time.
T^T
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