Taylor Swift Loves the Idea of Making ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’ a Movie
Taylor Swift released her album folklore on July 24, 2020. The album is considered to be some of Swift’s best work. One of the songs on the album, “The Last Great American Dynasty,” details the life of heiress Rebekah Harkness and her connection to Swift. After a fan suggested that the song be made into a movie, Swift was totally on board with the idea.
The background behind ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’
“The Last Great American Dynasty” is the third track on folklore, and it primarily details Rebekah’s relationship with William Hale “Bill” Harkness and their Rhode Island home.
In the opening lyrics of the song, Swift explains the couple’s marriage and Bill’s death, singing:
“Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny / Her saltbox house on the coast took her mind off St. Louis / Bill was the heir to the Standard Oil name and money / And the town said, ‘How did a middle-class divorcée do it?’ / The wedding was charming, if a little gauche / There’s only so far new money goes / They picked out a home and called it ‘Holiday House’ / Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud / The doctor had told him to settle down/ It must have been her fault his heart gave out.”
Taylor Swift’s connection to Rebekah Harkness
As the song goes on to describe Rebekah’s antics and how her neighbors in Rhode Island despised her, Swift reveals that she has a connection to Rebekah and Holiday House.
In the bridge of “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Swift sings, “They say she was seen on occasion / Pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea / And in a feud with her neighbor / She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green / Fifty years is a long time / Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me.”
Since Swift purchased Holiday House in 2013, neighbors in the area have expressed their dislike that Swift has supposedly disrupted the peace and status quo. In “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Swift compares herself to Rebekah, singing “There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”
Taylor Swift thinks ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’ should be a movie
On Twitter, a fan wrote out a movie pitch for “The Last Great American Dynasty” and said they would cast Blake Lively as Rebekah, Ryan Reynolds as Bill, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Rebekah’s neighbor.
Ferguson replied that he was available to film the movie and tagged Reynolds, Lively, and Swift. Reynolds replied and proceeded to point out that Bill would die fairly early on in the movie, and Lively tweeted a reference to the song’s lyrics. Swift replied to all of them and said she loved the idea of making a “The Last Great American Dynasty” movie with that cast.
With the actors and Swift already on board, perhaps one day a movie about Rebekah Harkness inspired by “The Last Great American Dynasty” will be made.
