The Great Gatsby: Movie Review

Note: This is a review at first, but afterwards it turns into a rant about societies ills...as I see them...so read on with caution!

   The other night, I was able to finally see the summer movie "The Great Gatsby." Over the summer, I had read the book so as to better measure the accuracy of the film interpretation. I really appreciated and enjoyed Baz Luhrmann's modern/20's era hybrid. The film had the style, music, morals, and dance of the '20s...while also integrating the music, dance, and morals of the contemporary '10s. 

   However, are these two eras (separated by nearly a century) really that different? In this post, I want to examine the aspects of the movie that overlap and identify that the two decades are, in fact, the same. The social battles may not be the same, but the thought behind them is very much the same.
   First of all, music. In the '20s, a lot of the young people's music that was new at that time was considered very crude and often in poor taste (often due to the tendency of this music to be based in Black sub-culture). A lot of the behaviors that came with the often scandalous dancing such as drunkeness, parties, and sexual improprieties also caused offense to older (or more sensible) citizens. Today, our society is entrenched in sexual openness and the worship of our individual bodies. Homosexuals call loudly for "rights" traditionally given to heterosexual families. Pedophiles call for the same rights that homosexuals have. Children are kidnapped at a young age and kept as sexual pets for despicable monsters. Even more "innocent" aspects reveal the over-sexualized attitude that has taken this society by storm. Children are expected to choose their sexual orientation earlier and earlier...very young girls are paraded in front of audiences as objectified "models"...  Part of today's society has receded to Daisy's famous quote where she refers to the "fact" that the only thing that a girl is good for is to be a "beautiful little fool." 
   Another issue is the superficiality and the shallowness of society. People are not honest with themselves nor are they honest with those they interact with. People claim to be tolerant of other opinions, but only if these opinions happen to synch with their own. People claim to be an educated intellectual, but are they truly intellectual if they don't listen to other people's equally intellectual proof that God exists. People claim to like the people who exist at the borders of the crowd...however, in real life they never extend a hand. People claim to support life, but kill millions of unborn babies a year. This world is full of "careless" people like Tom and Daisy. As Nick says, 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.” Whether the "things" that are smashed apart are a poor boy's dreams to marry the girl of his dreams, whether it is the national budget, the universality of superficiality lasts through decades. If one lives sinfully and does not attempt to mend him/herself, they will live a life of insecurity, instability, and constant motion and vertigo.