Examining the Film Rendition of the Great Gatsby
Examining the Film Rendition of the Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald captivates the reader and creates almost an addiction to the novel. I as the reader found it difficult to put down many times throughout the book. Sadly, I did not have the same feelings for the movie’s portrayal. In fact, the way I reacted to the movie was almost the exact opposite of how I reacted to the book. Obviously the producer of the movie had created different images in his head than I had created when I read the story.
First and foremost, the performances were very distracting. I found that many of the people that acted in the movie did not fit the role they were playing. For example, Gatsby seemed to be in love with himself more than he was in love with Daisy. He constantly was flashing what some may call, “dazzling” smiles. In my opinion they were completely unnecessary. Gatsby often had me distracted because I could not tell what emotion he was feeling at any given time. At first I suspected him to be a happy-go-lucky sort of guy, which doesn’t fit the character portrayed in the novel. At other times I could not tell what he was feeling. There were times when I was confused as to whether he was laughing or crying. All in all, I found the actor playing Gatsby to do less than a perfect job.
On the other hand, I found that the man playing the role of Nick to do an excellent job. In the film he seemed to remain on neutral ground in times of conflict. In some scenes he didn’t get involved in disputes in any way. Only towards the end of the film did he really stand out on issues and seem to become more independent. This is very accurate to how his character is developed in the novel as well. His standoffish role in the film portrayed his character from the book well because as a narrator it seems that he would only be viewing the scene and not necessarily taking part in it.
The costumes in the movie seemed to be fairly accurate. The set design was also very well done. In the novel there are many elegant descriptions and the movie portrayed them close to how I did in my own mind. The vehicles were definitely...