Comments | lmoore66: "THE GREAT GATSBY" (2013) Review

lmoore66

"THE GREAT GATSBY" (2013) Review

May 25, 2015 19:48

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jason clarke, literary, early 20th century, baz luhrmann, f. scott fitzgerald, tobey maguire, great gatsby, movies, jack thompson, isla fisher, world war 1, politics, carey mulligan, leonardo dicaprio, joel edgerton, star wars

Comments 3

allisontooey May 28 2015, 06:54:49 UTC

I'm in total agreement about the framing device. Totally unnecessary.

As for the rest, personally, there were some elements I liked, but I think Luhrmann missed the mark on some of the story beats. But I'll be the first to admit that I'm biased, given that I love the book dearly, and only a few bits "Felt" true to the book to me.

Glad you enjoyed it though! Those costumes really were nice.

lmoore66 June 7 2015, 05:20:47 UTC

I think it's a mistake for anyone to demand that a movie or television adaptation of a novel be exactly like the latter. No movie or television production is capable of such an adaptation without spending too much money. And there isn't a production company or studio that would be willing to spend that much money. And sometimes, a literal translation from novel/play to movie or television screen just doesn't work very well.

"THE GREAT GATSBY" may not be perfect, but it is the first adaptation in which I finally understood the main narrative of Fitzgerald's novel . . . without falling asleep.

allisontooey June 8 2015, 02:34:30 UTC

Yeah, I know no adaptation is perfect. But I just felt like this version got the tone wrong. Maybe it's Fitzgerald's use of language, but the movie just didn't have the same rhythm to it. It just felt all style, no real substance to me. Granted, that's sort of appropriate, given Gatsby's parties, but Nick, at least, should have had a little depth that I just didn't get from the movie. But, as I say, I am biased, so I'll probably never be objective on this.

Ah well. Despite the incredible (and understandable) temptation to turn this story into a movie, they'll probably never manage to get that proper "feel" down. I think the story's too wrapped up in Fitzgerald's way with words to translate perfectly to the screen.