Center Stage

“Can’t repeat the past? … Why of course you can!”

Like Batman and James Bond, Gatsby is a generational thing and once an image is cast in your head it's hard to imagine anyone else. But thrice before Leo A-listers of their times have wooed Daisy.

 

 

 

 

 

(left) The first adaptation (1926) starred Oscar-winning silent star Warner Baxter. While this film has been tragically lost, its trailer suggests it was epic even sans words and colors.

 

 

 

 

 

(right) Easily overlooked is the 1949 Alan Ladd version in which both Carraway and Gatsby claim Minneapolis origins. But too many flashbacks remove too much of Gatsby’s mystique though Ladd does a better job selling his scrappy upbringing than does his successor The Sundance Kid.

 

 

 

 

(left) Heretofore the best-known Gatsby is Robert Redford in the 1974 feature that co-stars Mia Farrow. For my tastes he’s too mysterious for too long and those moviegoers unfamiliar will the book may find some things unresolved.

Readers: who’s the greatest Gatsby of them all?

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Miksanek, The Med City Movie Guy

facebook.com/TheMedCityMovieGuy

twitter: @MedCityMovieGuy

 

Land of 10,000 capes?

If there were a superhero based in Minnesota, what would he or she be? The Med-City Marvel? The North Star? A pair of super-powered Twins?

It's athought that comes to mind as DC Comics prepared to release a state-themed cover for Justice League of America, a new series involving more familiar heroes — Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Catwoman and others.

DC is releasing what is known as "variant covers" for each one of the 50 states and Puerto Rico. They show the heroes raising the state flag in a pose reminiscent of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. 

The comic will be available locally starting Wednesday at Book Review at Hillcrest Shopping Center, 1618 U.S. 52 N. in Rochester.

Booker many

The 2012 "long list" for the Man Booker Prize has been announced. A lot of great books have won the U.K. prize over the years: "The English Patient," "The Remains of the Day," "Life of Pi," and let's not forget that "Booker of Bookers," Salman Rushdie's superb "Midnight's Children." 

I'm not sure the prize has the same luster today that it did even five years ago, but I'm still curious to check out some of the titles on this year's list, mainly Jeet Thayil's "Necropolis."

How about you? Have you read any of these titles or are you inspired to check any out?

—Jeff Pieters

Who is Rochester’s #1 Fanboy?

Who is Rochester’s #1 Fanboy? Hint: it’s not the Med City Movie Guy.

To find him or her, one of the PB editors suggested “Perhaps some sort of signal cast in the night sky would flush him out.” That was a brilliant idea but this being mosquito season, I thought this BLOG would be less offensive to my neighbors.

So how about it? Are you or someone you know a big, and I mean huge, comic fan who is actually losing sleep in anticipation of next week’s “The Dark Knight Rises?” Let me know, I would like to chat.

-- Chris Miksanek
-- The Med City Movie Guy

 

“Atlas Shrugged”

A film version of the conservative anthem "Atlas Shrugged" opens this weekend. Rochester, tell me what you think of this 1000+ page book making its way to the silver screen? What could have been done to make it appeal to a broader audience -- the Left as well as the Right? Sean Penn as Dagny Taggart? 3D?

-- Chris Miksanek

-- The Med City Movie Guy