Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, and Carey Mulligan
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay by: Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Again, this is one of those movies based on a book that I'd recommend reading before you see the film.
Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is new to the Long Island neighborhood of West Egg, where all the rich people with new money live. He lives next door to a man named Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Gatsby lives in a castle and has humongous parties every weekend. People from all over, especially from New York City, come to his castle each weekend for these massive extravagant events. As Nick gets to know Gatsby better, he finds out that Gatsby's life isn't just a big party and that he's not the huge legend he once was believed to be.
Director Baz Luhrmann creates a movie that seems like it's larger than life. While the book has become an American classic and its story has become larger than life, Luhrmann attempts to do the same with this film. The costume and set design (although not always sticking completely with the 1920s theme) are incredibly grand and colorful. On one hand, the film seems like a non stop party and on the other hand, there's a very serious conflict that creates the story.
Reading the book, I found myself looking at a social critique of the 1920s in New York that involved the differences between people with old money and people with new money. It seemed like upper class warfare among itself. The film however, does its best to demonstrate this upper class warfare, but it does so in a fashion that somewhat resembles The Real Housewives except involving men this time. I love this story because it seems so overly dramatic that it makes me sick, but there is a huge problem that isn't really a laughing matter. And everybody gets hurt somehow.
What intrigues me about this story is the way in which it's told. Nick is the narrator and seems like the main character, but instead Gatsby is the main character. I've always wanted to read a book or see a movie like this, and so far, this is the one of two stories like this I've come across that I can think of at the moment of writing this review. Normally, if a character is narrating the story, we would assume they are the central character of the story. This is different though. We have our main character (Gatsby), whose story is told through the eyes of another (Nick).
For the most part, the film is well acted. I'm not a big fan of Tobey Maguire, but he embodies Nick Carraway incredibly closely to the way the book describes him. He is a rather detached character, and it may be easy for viewers of the film to forget about him at some times. Carey Mulligan is great as Daisy Buchanan, but the star of the show is Leonardo DiCaprio. He plays Gatsby excellently, portraying him as the character that everybody wants to be and at the same time the character that nobody wants to end up like. Everybody wants to be as rich as him, but nobody wants to go through what he's gone through to become that wealthy. The film is certainly based around him and his performance of Gatsby.
The set design and costume design, as I mentioned above, are grand. The film is visually, a wonderful spectacle of light and color. At times it can be a little too colorful, and at other times, it can be a little heavy on one specific color. But specific colors are of great importance in the novel, and Luhrmann portrays them quite well.
The music bothers me. It seems as a way to get young people to see the movie who may not have read the book, contemporary music is needed. The problem is that, the last time I checked, rap music was not around in the 1920s. Jazz music was alive and well though and was hugely popular. There isn't enough focus on developing the time period as there should be. Just adding more jazz music would have helped make the film seem like a more legitimate period piece.
Towards the beginning of the film, the editing doesn't seem so great. There are tons of quick cuts and it has the potential to make viewers lose focus of the scene. I lost focus about twice in the first ten minutes of the film because of these quick cuts. The editing gets progressively better as the film goes on, but many of the shots and camera techniques remain the same throughout the duration of the film.
The Great Gatsby is a classic novel, one that when made into a film, should be done extremely well. This version of The Great Gatsby was done well, but not extremely well. I found myself rather let down. It's perhaps my favorite book of all the books I read in high school and the story has stuck with me ever since I read it. And if you read it, I'm sure it will stick with you as well. But if you see the movie before you read this book, you probably won't expect the book to be very good. So don't do that to yourself. Read the book, then go see the movie if you're interested. Either way, this movie doesn't really need to be seen in theaters. You can wait until it comes out on DVD to see it so that you have time to read the book first.
I give The Great Gatsby a B-.
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay by: Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Again, this is one of those movies based on a book that I'd recommend reading before you see the film.
Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is new to the Long Island neighborhood of West Egg, where all the rich people with new money live. He lives next door to a man named Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Gatsby lives in a castle and has humongous parties every weekend. People from all over, especially from New York City, come to his castle each weekend for these massive extravagant events. As Nick gets to know Gatsby better, he finds out that Gatsby's life isn't just a big party and that he's not the huge legend he once was believed to be.
Director Baz Luhrmann creates a movie that seems like it's larger than life. While the book has become an American classic and its story has become larger than life, Luhrmann attempts to do the same with this film. The costume and set design (although not always sticking completely with the 1920s theme) are incredibly grand and colorful. On one hand, the film seems like a non stop party and on the other hand, there's a very serious conflict that creates the story.
Reading the book, I found myself looking at a social critique of the 1920s in New York that involved the differences between people with old money and people with new money. It seemed like upper class warfare among itself. The film however, does its best to demonstrate this upper class warfare, but it does so in a fashion that somewhat resembles The Real Housewives except involving men this time. I love this story because it seems so overly dramatic that it makes me sick, but there is a huge problem that isn't really a laughing matter. And everybody gets hurt somehow.
What intrigues me about this story is the way in which it's told. Nick is the narrator and seems like the main character, but instead Gatsby is the main character. I've always wanted to read a book or see a movie like this, and so far, this is the one of two stories like this I've come across that I can think of at the moment of writing this review. Normally, if a character is narrating the story, we would assume they are the central character of the story. This is different though. We have our main character (Gatsby), whose story is told through the eyes of another (Nick).
For the most part, the film is well acted. I'm not a big fan of Tobey Maguire, but he embodies Nick Carraway incredibly closely to the way the book describes him. He is a rather detached character, and it may be easy for viewers of the film to forget about him at some times. Carey Mulligan is great as Daisy Buchanan, but the star of the show is Leonardo DiCaprio. He plays Gatsby excellently, portraying him as the character that everybody wants to be and at the same time the character that nobody wants to end up like. Everybody wants to be as rich as him, but nobody wants to go through what he's gone through to become that wealthy. The film is certainly based around him and his performance of Gatsby.
The set design and costume design, as I mentioned above, are grand. The film is visually, a wonderful spectacle of light and color. At times it can be a little too colorful, and at other times, it can be a little heavy on one specific color. But specific colors are of great importance in the novel, and Luhrmann portrays them quite well.
The music bothers me. It seems as a way to get young people to see the movie who may not have read the book, contemporary music is needed. The problem is that, the last time I checked, rap music was not around in the 1920s. Jazz music was alive and well though and was hugely popular. There isn't enough focus on developing the time period as there should be. Just adding more jazz music would have helped make the film seem like a more legitimate period piece.
Towards the beginning of the film, the editing doesn't seem so great. There are tons of quick cuts and it has the potential to make viewers lose focus of the scene. I lost focus about twice in the first ten minutes of the film because of these quick cuts. The editing gets progressively better as the film goes on, but many of the shots and camera techniques remain the same throughout the duration of the film.
The Great Gatsby is a classic novel, one that when made into a film, should be done extremely well. This version of The Great Gatsby was done well, but not extremely well. I found myself rather let down. It's perhaps my favorite book of all the books I read in high school and the story has stuck with me ever since I read it. And if you read it, I'm sure it will stick with you as well. But if you see the movie before you read this book, you probably won't expect the book to be very good. So don't do that to yourself. Read the book, then go see the movie if you're interested. Either way, this movie doesn't really need to be seen in theaters. You can wait until it comes out on DVD to see it so that you have time to read the book first.
I give The Great Gatsby a B-.
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