The Great Gatsby - Luz Avila

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was turned into two movies. The first was made in 1974 directed by Francis Ford Coppola and the second directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013.

If you want a film that is closest to the book I recommend the film from ‘74. It captures the essence of the book better without modernizing it too much. It is a bit hard to focus on because it does feel dragged. The second film is catches your attention more but it is probably from Leonardo DiCaprio playing as Gatsby.

The time period is in the 1920’s. The first movie really depicts that using the scenery. The old Rolls-Royce Phantom I Ascot dual-cowl phaeton, the way characters were dressed with lace, off-white colors, long skirts, fur collars, and decorated headbands. Since the movie was filmed closer to the date of the book it captured the period.

The Great Gatsby filmed in 2013 pushed too hard to get the time period across. The characters use a poor, fake accent  and stress on the language used to the point that is just sounds bad. For example, Jay Gatsby uses the term “old sport” over 40 times throughout the movie.

I feel that both movies show the relationships but the 2013 emphasizes on them more. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby show each other as very close friends (to the point that it seems that they have a crush on each other.) The film also shows the love triangle between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom. The film shows the love of wealth that Daisy has and the amount of love that Gatsby has for Daisy. The ‘74 film makes it seem more of a lost, romantic tragedy between the two.