Reverse, Reverse!

Friday morning (11:30 AM), I woke up with the impending doom of taking the SAT in the back of my mind. I needed to practice and I needed to prepare, but then I found myself on Friday afternoon, 12:00, here:

gotta have that good ol' oatmeal on the side

So I watched "The Great Gatsby"! It was really great! One thing I noticed about the movie was its extreme likeness to the book. I felt like I already watched it because the characters would literally say their lines out of the dialogue in the book. Interestingly enough, the soundtrack was very unique. With Jay-Z as the executive producer of the music score, songs like "No Church in the Wild" and a cover of "Crazy in Love" could be heard in the background. Also, the director is Baz Luhrmann, who directed that psychologically scarring captivating "Romeo + Juliet" we watched as freshman. So a little weirdness has to be expected. However, while the music was an unorthodox (yet compelling) pair-up with the movie, the casting was very loyal to the book. Gatsby has that smile,

This oozes that "quality of eternal reassurance" vibe (Fitzgerald 48)

 Jordan is as lanky and "jaunty" as Nick oh-so-often described her; the white characters are white, and all (two of) the black characters are black. This made me think about what the movie's reception would be like today. Even though this was made in 2013, emphasis on racial diversity in Hollywood has increased. People would probably advocate for a diverse main cast that goes further than an Indian man portraying a Jewish man. So would you be okay with a black Gatsby? Opinions differ. For example, in the popular Broadway play Hamilton, loosely based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, Lin Manuel Miranda (Puerto-Rican American) portrayed Hamilton; Leslie Odom Jr. (African American) portrayed Aaron Burr.   

The Hamilton casting garnered praise and criticism. Many lauded the casting as a bold move in support of racial diversity after the #OscarsSoWhite trend, giving non-white Americans a chance relate to a part of history that seems too distant, while others argue that it's not an accurate historical representation, and that "by cloaking white history in the talent, bodies, and labor of people of color, Hamilton obscures the white supremacist origins of our country" (http://ncph.org/history-at-work/its-not-just-a-musical/). 

Either way, it's clear that there are valid points on each side. However, in an industry where whitewashing of roles in book to movie adaptations is normalized (Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, to name one), is it okay if that were to happen the other way around, with roles reversed? If Jake Gyllenhaal could be the Prince of Persia, could Idris Elba be Jay Gatsby?