The Great Gatsby

Recently, we as a class viewed The Great Gatsby - both the 1974 version and the most recent remake with the fantastic Leonardo DiCaprio (directed by Jack Clayton and Baz Luhrman respectively). We watched them chronologically and in my opinion that did not result in saving the best for last. There were good and bad things about both versions as there tend to be in everything.

The 1974 version seems to have been a little more accurate in depicting the time period, like with the music. I was slightly thrown back by the 2013 picture where the music was all modern (Jay Z was both an executive producer of film and a contributor to its soundtrack), but they were still dancing in the same old manner. The two just clashed. Another one of my primary complaints was the use of "old sport" in the new one. Leo over did the old sport thing BY FAR. The new version added cutaways that weren't particularly necessary and the drama was built up to the end to affect the viewers emotions at the death of Jay Gatsby. The original film was not nearly as blunt and required the viewer to pay more attention and make the connections themselves. This is a terrible blog post and the in-class discussions were better. Thanks. Thank you; I am uncertain about your self-assessment. Your blog post certainly could be improved but terrible may be overly harsh. Discussions were good. I am curious about your reasoning for omitting discussion/thoughts on class (social class that is). Were Fitzgerald and the later filmmakers trying to say anything about capitalism and excess? Were any of them more successful than the others if this were indeed the case? Love is blindness.