Adaptation Of The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Film is a controversial topic in that saying it is portrayed differently by each view, much like a piece of artwork. While the plot is usually universally followed, the details within the film are up for interpretation by the actors, directors, viewers, and critiques. The music within a film is often deliberately chosen to persuade the audience to feel a certain emotion and to react. For movies that are set within a specific time frame, the music is highly important. The director and composer must decide what era of music will best compliment the film, sometimes based as a whole or scene by scene. This is so important because the music can create the entire film, and encourage the overall titillation of the audience. Personally, I believe
Being highly familiar with this book and film, I can say that the music does work for me while watching the new version of the film. The film is set in the 1920’s in the heat of the roaring twenties. In the book, the parties are described as the wildest in all of New York, and the music is of a ‘new sophistication”. By choosing music currently popular was a way of emphasizing these erratic parties. This works for me, because of the costumes, settings, dialect, etc. setting the time period. The music merely adds to the pace of the moment, and helps me to relate to the craziness of the scene. A prime example is starting at 23:40, where everyone is arriving to the party. The first sound we hear is the trumpet playing a short tune in the background of the dialogue. This would probably be the music that would actually be playing at the party. Then we start to hear the beat of the song as the car races down the driveway. We hear people shouting and having conversation. We hear car horns, among other sounds, accompanied by some more Big Band music playing while they rush in. I believe this was used to emphasize, once again the time period we are actually in, before they transition
While watching these films I realized that I had very one sided views on each time period, and expected the music to accompany my stereotypes. For example, in The Great Gatsby, I assumed the music would fit the idea of the roaring twenties, where everything was chaotic and fun and the people were wealthy and crazy. I wouldn’t think that Bach and Beethoven would be a popular piece played at the time, and so it seemed odd thinking that the music would be associated with a party scene. The cultural views of these films are what most people would base the film score around, and that could be what makes the film. In some cases, I agree that going with the assumed ideas of a specific era would best benefit the film. But when looking at a movie, such as Pride and Prejudice during the dance scene in minute 6, you hear diegetic music that is loud and completely true to its time. This specific music works well for me because it looks natural and fun, and is very organic. I think that placing music that is more popular today would take away from the film and create a joking