The Great Gatsby 1929

The Great Gatsby, an American classic, hit the book shelves in 1929 written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, forty five years later The Great Gatsby entered the theatre directed by Jack Clayton. In the book which is narrated by Nick Carraway, he tells the story of a flawless drama filled life, about a mysterious man who goes by the name Jay Gatsby, his next door neighbor in fact. Gatsby's long lost love lives across the lake, Daisy Buchanan. The casting of the film was specifically chosen by Clayton. Robert Redford plays Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow plays Daisy Buchanan, Bruce Dern plays Tom Buchanan, Sam Waterson plays Nick Carraway, Lois Chiles plays Jordan Baker, Karen Black plays Myrtle Wilson, and Scott Wilson plays George Wilson. The characters that were chosen for the movie were chosen carefully so they could portray the character in the book to the fullest potential. Robert Redford was a good choice for the character of Jay Gatsby, he depicted the mysterious portion of the character carefully, and in the movie the viewer did feel a sense of mystery coming from him. The movie differs from the book slightly by showing more of Gatsby and Daisy's relationship. The movie changed the time that had passed between Daisy's and Gatsby's meeting. Only five years had passed in the book and the movie states that eight years had passed after the last time that Gatsby saw Daisy. It's confusing as to why the producers would change the time that was passed from five to eight years. The longer the time passing in between it makes Gatsby out to look like a stalker. The scenes that were done well were the scenes of Gatsby's parties. The scenes of the parties at Gatsby's house portrayed people dancing, music and drinking. It was a very accurate picture of that people would imagine party scenes to be in the book.

There were many scenes in the movie that were cut for example, The party scene of where Nick met Gatsby for the first time was drastically different in the movie than it was in the book. In the book, Nick and Gatsby were talking about the war and Nick did not know that he was talking to Gatsby. This scene was not in the movie; instead Nick was requested by a butler to follow him into the house for an unmentioned reason. The effect of this cut gave a different idea of how Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby initially met. The rate of this movie over all would have to be a 4 out of 5 stars because the plot, the setting of book and movie are all very similar. There was a lot borrowed from the book, but there was a lot that changed. The movie followed the plot of book very closely and portrayed the setting of 1920's book very well.