Poorly written, confusing, bad direction.
Added 2/13/2010
The Great Gatsby is a colorful, funny, panoramic book full of penetrating individual character studies and strong opinions about the lives of the wealthy. This movie version doesn't communicate any of the book's depth. The director focuses the movie on Gatsby's and Daisy's brief romance. It is the main focus of the movie. But in the book, their 'romance' is a minor point. It doesn't occupy many pages at all. In fact, one interpretation of the book is that Daisy doesn't truly love Gatsby. Rather, he's just another plaything for this bored rich woman, one that allows her to get even with her brutal husband's affair that he flaunts in front of her before Gatsby shows up.
The actors in the movie don't fit the characterization of the book. Bruce Dern portrays Tom Buchanan as weak. Fitzgerald shows Buchanan as a physically imposing, 6'3", 220ib college football star, who turns every encounter into a contest, a contest he intends to win. Dern doesn't show Buchanan's sheer intimidation. Robert Redford is OK as Gatsby, but it's not a hard role, because there isn't much depth to Gatsby. The interesting characters in the book are Tom & Daisy Buchanan and Jordan. Mia Farrow portrays Daisy as weak, unstable and easily upset. Fitzgerald shows Daisy as uninterested, confident and manipulative of situations.
This movie is a bust, but it's also 35yrs old. I hope a talented director and screenwriter see the opportunity for a new film interpretation about this magnificent book.
-
For film buffs, this movie is interesting in that it's a big money movie. Gatsby is released around the same time as Scorsese's & DeNiro's masterpieces of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Those two geniuses to take Jake LaMotta's autobiography, and turn it into a cinematic masterpiece, one that is the forerunner of how films were made for the next couple decades. At the same time, Jack Clayton takes a masterpiece of a novel about dreams and wealth and ambition, the Great Gatsby, and removes all the interesting aspects of the book, and hands us only a tepid love story. It's movies like Gatsby that show what a genius Scorsese is, because he takes everyday material and spins gold.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Oxford, New Mexico
Added 2/9/2010
To see the extent to which the filmmakers misunderstood the novel, all you have to do is to view one brief scene. Recall this passage from the book:
--
"About Gatsby! No, I haven't. I said I'd been making a small investigation of his past."
"And you found he was an Oxford man," said Jordan helpfully.
"An Oxford man!" He was incredulous. "Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit."
"Nevertheless he's an Oxford man."
"Oxford, New Mexico," snorted Tom contemptuously, "or something like that."
--
Tom quips "Oxford, New Mexico" here to mock the notion that Gatsby could have possibly graduated from Oxford. While Oxford University represents the ultimate in upper class respectability to blue-blooded Easterners like himself, anything having to do with New Mexico is no doubt considered vulgar and hopelessly lower class. Tom "snorts" the words "Oxford, New Mexico" because it is literally laughable to him that a nobody like Gatsby would try to pass himself off as an upper class elite.
But in the movie, Tom does not "snort" the words. He looks at Jordan with a serious expression and and says "Oxford, New Mexico" in a chiding tone, like a father reprimanding his misbehaving young daughter.
In other words, the filmmakers completely miss the point of that little exchange. And if they don't grasp something so obvious, well, they really don't understand the character, Tom Buchanan, do they? And if they don't understand basic stuff like that, they don't understand the book at all, and it shows.
Not all is lost. I'll give the movie three stars for all the visuals: the lavishly decorated mansions, Gatsby's huge parties, the chic 1920s attire of the moneyed class...it's all beautifully filmed, looking the way you imagine it does in the book.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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movie 'The Great Gatsby'
Added 2/6/2010
An excellent movie I saw when it first came out and thought it was so good, I wanted it in my collection! Terrific acting!!
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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what a dissapointment!
Added 7/1/2009
One of the greatest pieces of American literature, but a soul
less film.
Mia Farrow is great for what she is doing for Darfur! But I
wish I hadn't seen this.
Glad I read the book first.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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They just don't make movies like this any more!
Added 3/25/2009
Frankly, I am amazed that the reviews for this exceptional movie version of F. Scott Fitzergerald's masterpiece novel didn't receive 5 stars across the board. The movie depicted his story so well, not like so many where I've had to say: "The book was a lot better than the movie." In this case, however, the movie actually enhanced the book's greatness. Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Lois Chiles, Bruce Dern, Karen Black & Scott Wilson were at their best acting performance and Sam Waterson was ideal as narrator. What more can I say? Perfect casting! Perfect settings! Perfect musical score! The costumes & dress were especially appropriate for the time period making me feel like I was right there among those reveling in the glory of the glamorous roaring 20s. Oh, to have another great movie like this come out in today's world where unfortunately, explicit sex and gross language are the norm.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Poorly written, confusing, bad direction.
Added 2/13/2010
The Great Gatsby is a colorful, funny, panoramic book full of penetrating individual character studies and strong opinions about the lives of the wealthy. This movie version doesn't communicate any of the book's depth. The director focuses the movie on Gatsby's and Daisy's brief romance. It is the main focus of the movie. But in the book, their 'romance' is a minor point. It doesn't occupy many pages at all. In fact, one interpretation of the book is that Daisy doesn't truly love Gatsby. Rather, he's just another plaything for this bored rich woman, one that allows her to get even with her brutal husband's affair that he flaunts in front of her before Gatsby shows up.
The actors in the movie don't fit the characterization of the book. Bruce Dern portrays Tom Buchanan as weak. Fitzgerald shows Buchanan as a physically imposing, 6'3", 220ib college football star, who turns every encounter into a contest, a contest he intends to win. Dern doesn't show Buchanan's sheer intimidation. Robert Redford is OK as Gatsby, but it's not a hard role, because there isn't much depth to Gatsby. The interesting characters in the book are Tom & Daisy Buchanan and Jordan. Mia Farrow portrays Daisy as weak, unstable and easily upset. Fitzgerald shows Daisy as uninterested, confident and manipulative of situations.
This movie is a bust, but it's also 35yrs old. I hope a talented director and screenwriter see the opportunity for a new film interpretation about this magnificent book.
-
For film buffs, this movie is interesting in that it's a big money movie. Gatsby is released around the same time as Scorsese's & DeNiro's masterpieces of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Those two geniuses to take Jake LaMotta's autobiography, and turn it into a cinematic masterpiece, one that is the forerunner of how films were made for the next couple decades. At the same time, Jack Clayton takes a masterpiece of a novel about dreams and wealth and ambition, the Great Gatsby, and removes all the interesting aspects of the book, and hands us only a tepid love story. It's movies like Gatsby that show what a genius Scorsese is, because he takes everyday material and spins gold.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Oxford, New Mexico
Added 2/9/2010
To see the extent to which the filmmakers misunderstood the novel, all you have to do is to view one brief scene. Recall this passage from the book:
--
"About Gatsby! No, I haven't. I said I'd been making a small investigation of his past."
"And you found he was an Oxford man," said Jordan helpfully.
"An Oxford man!" He was incredulous. "Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit."
"Nevertheless he's an Oxford man."
"Oxford, New Mexico," snorted Tom contemptuously, "or something like that."
--
Tom quips "Oxford, New Mexico" here to mock the notion that Gatsby could have possibly graduated from Oxford. While Oxford University represents the ultimate in upper class respectability to blue-blooded Easterners like himself, anything having to do with New Mexico is no doubt considered vulgar and hopelessly lower class. Tom "snorts" the words "Oxford, New Mexico" because it is literally laughable to him that a nobody like Gatsby would try to pass himself off as an upper class elite.
But in the movie, Tom does not "snort" the words. He looks at Jordan with a serious expression and and says "Oxford, New Mexico" in a chiding tone, like a father reprimanding his misbehaving young daughter.
In other words, the filmmakers completely miss the point of that little exchange. And if they don't grasp something so obvious, well, they really don't understand the character, Tom Buchanan, do they? And if they don't understand basic stuff like that, they don't understand the book at all, and it shows.
Not all is lost. I'll give the movie three stars for all the visuals: the lavishly decorated mansions, Gatsby's huge parties, the chic 1920s attire of the moneyed class...it's all beautifully filmed, looking the way you imagine it does in the book.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
movie 'The Great Gatsby'
Added 2/6/2010
An excellent movie I saw when it first came out and thought it was so good, I wanted it in my collection! Terrific acting!!
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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