After watching the 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby this weekend, I can’t get over how Leonardo DiCaprio says “old sport”. He says it so often and with a distinctive accent I can only describe with the word “posh”. He says it like he has money and is an old man retired to his mansion after his wife died from tuberculosis many moons ago. It has the same energy as when a distant father is congratulating his son on doing something outstanding by saying “champ” or something like that. He says it so often you get used to it by the end of the movie, but the first few times it really sticks out when he says “old sport” like we are supposed to know what it means right away. The phrase seems to catch other characters, especially Nick, off guard at first. It is one of the first things Gatsby says to Nick when they meet at one of the parties.
Those who have read the book know that Gatsby says “old sport” as an homage to Dan Cody, the man who practically raised him and taught him how to survive in the world. However, Dan Cody was far from “posh” so it makes little sense to me that an homage to a poor man would be so fancy. Maybe it is because Dan Cody gave Gatsby the figurative tools to become “posh” himself and Gatsby is using this tone to say something like “I did it” and to still give credit to the man that made it happen in the first place.