The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is a novel which critically discusses the ideals of the American Dream and recapturing the past. In the film adaptation, producer Jack Clayton stays very closely to the plot and even quotes the novel verbatim but fails to capture the essence of the themes portrayed in the novel. The text did not translate well into film; some facts are distorted, the depiction of the characters are different, the general ambience of certain settings do not match, and the movie is weighted towards the beginning of the book, with half of the movie based closely on the first two chapters of the book.

There are many differences to be discovered between Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, written in 1925, and the movie directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013. Clearly, as time drastically changed between the two, it is easy to assume that some aspects of the story have as well. Scott Fitzgerald and Baz Luhrmann both captured the essence of the world in the 1920’s in different ways. These differences can be seen throughout the characters and themes of the story.

The story of The Great Gatsby is a novel that consists of a historical American context during the Harlem Renaissance. This was an excellent novel published in the 1920’s and was considered one of the best novels of its time. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald was an incredibly talented poetic author. Fitzgerald was able to emphasize and create the mood of the generation in a political time. The novel The Great Gatsby is a remarkable novel but also a very sad one. The novel took place during an age or era known as the “Roaring Twenties” which was a time of American wealth. Politics and corruption at the time is possibly what made Gatsby to be the business man he was.

Everyone has heard of the phrase “stalker,” and everyone has heard of the concept of “love.” While these two are separate terms, what happens when the two become mistaken for one another? When does admiration become obsession? When is the line crossed from lover to stalker? In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is a very wealthy man who has once had a fling with Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy were once in love but time came and went. Gatsby went to war, and Daisy married another man. When Gatsby gets back from war, he makes himself into a new persona to capture Daisy’s attention in hopes of rekindling their love. However, Gatsby takes his love to the point of obsession. He makes unrealistic rumors about himself, wastes money on luxuries to capture her attention, and expects too much from the woman he claims to love. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is not real love. He has many stalker-like qualities, rather than the romantic love so many are accustomed to.

The Great Gatsby film compared to the novel is very fast and busy. It zips through all the details that Fitzgerald puts into the novel at such depth. Luhrmann skips through all of the important stuff and instead focus on the parties and the material goods that the characters possess and not so much there relationships with one another. In the book Fitzgerald describes things very well, but in the movie they only brush the surface of what Fitzgerald was trying the say. The parties are also very loud and they don’t seem to belong in the 1920’s.

“What is better, the book or movie?” a commonly asked question by many individuals who are curious to know one’s opinion on a novel or film he/she is interested in. The book is usually always better than the movie because the book is more detailed, one gets to know the characters better, and it allows one to be more creative and have his/her own interpretation on what is occurring. In this case, The Great Gatsby is a remarkable 1925 novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was made into various movie adaptions in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000 and 2013. Each version takes place in drastically different periods, so each type has its own take on the film, also depending on the director’s vision. This goes to show that the cinema has been trying periodically to recreate F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, but the attempts of the movies have mostly failed. In particular, the 1974 film decreases its effectiveness in representing the message that Fitzgerald was attempting to demonstrate in the book, which contributes to the book being significantly better than the film for various reasons.

Movie adaptations are widely produced in our modern cinematic world. Many book lovers criticize movie adaptations, proclaiming that it kills the spirit of the story, misses out on critical key themes, and eliminates the reader's and viewer’s imagination. The Great Gatsby movie, directed by Baz Luhrmann and released on May 1st, 2013, is a film adaptation of the book The Great Gatsby, written in 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The time lag between the movie and the book made some things unacceptable in our society. These changing societal proprietorship motivated Baz Luhrmann to alter the movie to be more suitable for current viewers. Consequently, there are many differences to be found between the book and the movie adaptation, which ultimately led to Luhrmann's movie being critiqued many times by the book’s fans, saying it was nothing like the actual book. Despite the fact that the movie adaptation of the Great Gatsby book follows the overall plot, it fails to show the racism, sexism, and abuse some of the characters withhold. The movie also fails to show the significance of the American dream, the condemnation of the lifestyle of the very rich, and it also annihilates reader’s imagination.

"Never has symbolism played such a crucial part in the very foundation of a novel as it does in Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby." Harold Bloom has written about this book. The author used several types of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The colours are probably the easiest to be recognized and guessed what they symbolized. According to the definition “symbolism” is "the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships."

Many consider The Great Gatsby a beautiful love story. A literary review site, for example, says about Fitzgerald’s most famous work: “The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald 's greatest novel […] Gatsby is really nothing more than a man desperate for love”(The Great Gatsby Review). Popular opinion paints Gatsby as such: A man desperate for love, devoid of any evil. But a closer look uncovers a new side of Jay Gatsby because Gatsby, underneath his glorious façade, is a sociopath.

Undeniably, ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and its film adaptation, which follows the storyline of Nick Carraway during the 1920’s, were both great successes, with readers widely recognizing the book as an American classic, and the film making a worldwide gross of about $351 million dollars, while also winning two Oscars. Although the movie is a satisfactory adaptation there are still some minor and major differences between the two that stand out. Separately both versions of the story are very impressive and entertaining, but some of the differences make the movie fall short in terms of these examples.

The 1974 and the 2013 Great Gatsby movies are both alike and different in many ways. The older movie is more accurate to the time, used more genuine music, filming, and less special effects. The new movie was more flashy, crazy, and captured the excitement and intensity of the novel. The characters were portrayed by different actors; therefore, their interpretations differ as well. In addition to these obvious disparities, both movies have various similarities as well. They are both based pretty closely on the book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and contain similar characters, quotes/lines, and scenes, along with scenery. As a whole; however, both movies are far more dissimilar to each other.

Alcohol driven, Enormous, Flashy, Luxurious cannot illustrate the absurdity of Jay Gatsby’s parties. The “Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a magical, mysterious love story that is very talked about in the United States. Although a few aspects of Fitzgerald's life are written in the book we see Betrayal, young love, adultery, carelessness, trust and friendship through Nick Carraway's eyes. He greatly states the divisions from the “new money” and “old money”, showing the readers the difference for achieving wealth during the 1920’s. There have been Two movies made from Fitzgerald’s book; Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film and Jack Clayton’s 1974 film.

The Great Gatsby, was a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel was later turned into a movie in 1974 and 2013. Fitzgerald chose to write the novel in the third person omniscient point of view. Fitzgerald achieved this by writing the story in Nick Carraway’s perspective of everything. There were two different casts set in the movies, many scenes were left out while others were inserted, but the directors did capture a few themes from the novel to the film.

“The Great Gatsby” movie is based on a well-known book by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, a well-known author that wrote American fiction. Maurer wrote that F. Scott Fitzgerald was known for his imagistic and wonderful composition. He could analyze the inclination of his era during a politically complex time of American History (Maurer, 2016). There have been a number of reincarnations of “The Great Gatsby” in cinematography. Baz Lurhmann, a popular director of all times recreated the movie and took the story to a whole new level. Baz Lurhmann has adapted the story and fit his visual style of production similar to other recognisable Lurhmann films such as Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet but he manages to preserve the core story.

The 2013 drama/romance movie, The Great Gatsby, is the second movie adaption made based off the novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann, this film received both glory and criticism upon its release. The Great Gatsby is well known for its “Gatsby era” as well as the love encircled between money and power. Without the glitz and glam of this story in conjunction with the forever love Jay Gatsby, a millionaire known for his magnificent parties, holds for Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby would not be as acclaimed of a story. Baz Luhrmann makes sure to emphasize these characteristics throughout the film through his use of symbolism, irony, and imagery.