The Great Gatsby Movie

After viewing the latest Great Gatsby film, I saw many similarities and differences from the book. Before I go into these characteristics, I would like to say that I thought the movie was very well written and casted. The plot was almost exactly like the book and many of the character's lines were straight from the book itself. Even thought it was almost two and a half hours long, I felt that there was still more that they could have fit into the movie to make it better.

One thing I really like about the movie was the music. It was not 1920's music but it did fit the movie very well. It was contemporary music with a 20's twist. Not something you would hear on the radio, that's for sure. You could tell that they took time to make each song fit each scene perfectly. It was really cool to see all the parties and dramatic scenes that we read about in the book take place with this music in the background because it was definitely not expected but it fit very well.

One thing that I didn't like about the movie was that they don't show much of Jordan Baker's character. I thought that she was in the book a lot and you could definitely tell that her and Nick had a connection. In the movie though, she was in a few scenes but she didn't really play a big part. She hung with Nick a little bit but there was no apparent relationship between them. I think it would of made it more interesting if she was more involved with Nick. I feel like Daisy's part overshadowed the whole point of Jordan being there. It made it seem like she didn't really need to be in the movie except for the fact that she knew Gatsby and kind of helped Nick get to him.

Another thing that I really liked about the movie was that the character's quoted the book a lot. For example when Nick and Daisy are out in the garden talking about her child: “I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,”. When Daisy talks to Nick about Gatsby: “He throws large parties, and I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy,”. Gatsby's famous line: “Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” When Nick looks across the water and sees the green light from Daisy's house: “I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock, he had come a long way to this lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him,”. When Gatsby throws his shirts to Daisy: “It makes me sad because I've never seen such--such beautiful shirts before.” Then again when Nick says his last words to Gatsby: “They’re a rotten crowd! “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!”. During Gatsby's funeral when Nick is thinking about Daisy's family: “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” I liked this quote a lot because the scene showed Daisy and Tom packing up to get out of town for a bit while Nick was thinking this. And of course no one can forget the famous line at the end of the book: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” I really liked that all these quotes were incorporated in the movie because they are very important parts of the book therefore they deserve to be part of the movie.

One thing that I thought was interesting about the movie is how much they focus on some of the symbols in the book. I can't decide if I liked that or not though. When reading the book I felt like you needed to read between the lines and really analyze everything in order to find the meaning of things like the green light, Gatsby and his yellow car and his colorful choices, Tom's blue car and his blandness, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and the weather. The movie makes these themes very obvious and, for me at least, left nothing for you to figure out on your own. They show the green light a million times in the movie and so you knew it must play an important role. Nick and Gatsby talk about it so much that it's hard not to get the meaning of it. They show the cars a lot too so it's easy to remember who's car was whose when the crash scene finally happens. I liked the scene when Gatsby is throwing all of his colorful shirts to Daisy and she goes from excited and happy, to sad and is crying. You find yourself confused on why she is crying but Nick quickly narrates and explains it before you have a chance to figure it out for yourself. The last symbol is the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The sign was really cool and creepy but they show it a lot. Before and after something bad happens, his eyes appear along with a creepy sound effect. I would have liked if they would have made this part of the movie a little more subtle and less dramatic because the whole movie is very dramatic as it is.

Maybe it's because we just read the book that I noticed all these little things. I'm sure many people liked how much they explained things because it's helpful if you haven't read the book recently or even at all. I just feel that they could have incorporated more important scenes and left some of the symbolism for you to figure out on your own.

I would definitely recommend the movie because it was very well written and there were no dull moments. It kept you thinking and made you feel like you were almost there at Gatsby's parties with all the characters. I ended up seeing the movie twice in one weekend because both groups of people I was with wanted to see it and I didn't mind seeing it a second time at all. There were even some things that I didn't notice the first time that I caught the second time. It was a very very good movie and I would also recommend the soundtrack as well.