mechanical verge and beyond, into a surrealism of dreams that 
money can buy. Nothing is more congenial to the film form 
than this pathos of superabundance and power that is the 
dower of a puppet for whom they can never be real. This is the 
key to The Great Gatsby  that reaches its moment of truth 
when Daisy breaks down in contemplating Gatsby’s superb 
collection of shirts. Daisy and Gatsby live in a tinsel world that 
is both corrupted by power, yet innocently pastoral in its 
dreaming.

     The movie is not only a supreme expression of 
mechanism, but paradoxically it offers as product the most 
magical of consumer commodities, namely dreams. It is, 
therefore, not accidental that the movie has excelled as a 
medium that offers poor people roles of riches and power 
beyond the dreams of avarice. In the chapter on The