Scene: Nick at the Party
in New York with Tom, Myrtle & Sister and the McKees.
In the book:
Nick goes on a party with Tom and his mistress Myrtle in New
York, where Nick gets drunk for the second time in his life and Nick was
surprised and fascinated by the behavior of the other people there, especially
Tom’s and Myrtle’s. Everyone was just loud and drinking so much, Tom buys his
mistress a puppy and Myrtle starts to talk about Daisy. Tom warns her about
talking about his wife, but she continues and says she can do whatever she
wants. Myrtle’s arrogance caused the party to end up on a violent note, where
Tom responds by breaking her nose. Then the book describes Nick leaving the
party with Mr. McKee, though he was expected to hook up with Myrtle’s sister.
When they step into the elevator, the operator asks Mr. McKee to stop touching
the lever, and when McKee replies he didn’t know he was touching it, and this
part leaves most readers speculating about whether Mr. McKee and Nick are gay
or not. This moment is followed by ellipses that lead to Nick in the book,
standing in his underwear next to McKee’s bed while McKee shows him his
photographs. At the end, Nick ends up taking the 4 a.m. train back to Long
Island.
In the film:
We kind of get the same story but this part shows us Nick
making out with Myrtle’s sister and
waking up in his underwear on his own front porch, not in Mr. McKee’s bed
standing next to him showing him his photos. But there is Gatsby looking at him
and Nick was wondering how he got home from the party. And it seems as if the
directors were trying to erase some of the gayness hints from the book.
I believe the moment between Mr. McKee and Nick from the novel was excluded from the film because it would only complicate Nick's character. The movie makes Nick undoubtably straight because they do not want to confuse the audience since they pair him with Jordan and Catherine. Suggesting anything else about Nick's sexual identity would most likely create a block in the viewers mind about how possibly being with women at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rachel that they removed the scene so as to remove any complications. I thought this scene was one of the most visually exciting (weird phrase but I don't know how else to say it!) The way the scene was cut as the night progressed really captured the drunken wildness of the scene which isn't as easy to convey in the novel. Fitzgerald might have attempted to with his use of ellipses but, as we discussed, the ellipses raise more questions than he might have intended.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Besides a few musical choices, I think the film adaptation was much better than the book, which caused a lot of confusion. Party scenes translate really well into film so I'm glad production didn't make this scene just a drunk, unclear, blur from Nick's perspective.
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