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How Faithful Is The Great Gatsby ?
Ever since Baz Luhrmann announced that he was adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby —and especially after he revealed that he’d be doing it in 3-D—much digital ink has been spilled about the hideous sacrilege that was sure to follow. Nevermind that Luhrmann’s previous adaptation, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet , was quite true to both the language and the spirit of that legendary play; Gatsby , as David Denby puts it in The New Yorker this week, is “ too intricate, too subtle, too tender for the movies ,” and especially for such an unsubtle filmmaker as Luhrmann.
So the argument goes, anyway. In fact, Fitzgerald’s novel, while great, is not, for the most part, terribly subtle. And though it has moments of real tenderness, it also has melodrama, murder, adultery, and, of course, wild parties. In any case, we can put aside, for the moment, the larger question of whether Luhrmann captured the spirit of Gatsby , which is very much open for debate . There’s a simpler question to address first: How faithful was the filmmaker to the letter of Fitzgerald’s book?
Below is a breakdown of the ways in which the new film departs from the classic novel.
The Frame Story Luhrmann’s chief departure from the novel arrives right at the beginning, with a frame story in which the narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), some time after that summer spent with Gatsby & co., has checked into a sanitarium, diagnosed by a doctor of some sort as “morbidly alcoholic.” Fitzgerald’s Nick does refer to Gatsby as “the man who gives his name to this book ” (emphasis mine), so the idea that The Great Gatsby is a text written by Nick is not entirely original with Luhrmann—though the filmmaker takes this much further than Fitzgerald, showing Nick writing by hand, then typing, and finally compiling his finished manuscript. He even titles it, first just Gatsby , then adding, by hand, “The Great,” in a concluding flourish. ( Fitzgerald himself went through many more potential titles .) As for that morbid alcoholism, Nick claims in the novel that he’s “been drunk just twice in my life,” but the movie slyly implies that he’s in denial, by showing him cross out “once” for “twice,” and then, in the frame story, suggesting that it was far more than that, really.
Jordan and Nick The plot of the film is pretty much entirely faithful to the novel, but Luhrmann and his co-screenwriter Craig Pearce do cut out one of the side stories: the affair between Nick and Jordan Baker, the friend of Daisy’s from Louisville who is a well-known golfer. Daisy promises to set them up, to push them “accidentally in linen closets and … out to sea in a boat,” a line the screenplay keeps—but then, in the film, the matter is dropped. Luhrmann’s Nick says he found Jordan “frightening” at first, a word Carraway doesn’t apply to her in the novel—and later at Gatsby’s we see Jordan whisked away from Nick by a male companion, which doesn’t happen in the book. In the novel, they become a couple and break up near the end of the summer.
The Apartment Party The film, like the novel, is a series of set pieces, including an impromptu party that Tom throws in a Manhattan apartment he keeps for his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, wife of a Queens mechanic. Nick accompanies them, and the film shows Nick sitting quietly in the apartment’s living room while the adulterous couple have loud sex in the bedroom. Fitzgerald doesn’t spell out anything so explicit—but something like that is implied: Tom and Myrtle disappear and reappear before the other guests arrive; Nick reads a book and waits. Luhrmann also shows Myrtle’s sister Catherine giving Nick a pill that she says she got from a doctor in Queens; that’s not in the novel at all. Luhrmann’s Nick wakes up at home, half-dressed, unsure how he got there, while Fitzgerald’s narrator comes to in an apartment downstairs from Tom and Myrtle’s place, owned by one of their friends (and party-guests); he then goes to Penn Station to take the 4 o’clock train home.
Lunch With Wolfsheim In the book, Gatsby takes Nick to lunch at a “well-fanned 42 nd Street cellar,” where he introduces his new friend to Meyer Wolfsheim, a Jewish gangster. In the movie, Gatsby and Nick go to a barber shop with a hidden entrance to a speakeasy, and once inside they see not only Wolfsheim but also the police commissioner—who, in the book as in the film, Gatsby was “able to do … a favor once.” They also see there (if I understood things correctly) Nick’s boss, whom I believe Luhrmann has turned into Tom’s friend Walter Chase. (In the novel, those are two different people, neither of whom we ever actually meet.) The speakeasy features entertainment from a bevy of Josephine Baker-like dancers, who are not mentioned in the book.
Race At least one reviewer—David Denby again—has protested Luhmann’s decision to cast an Indian actor, Amitabh Bachchan, as Wolfsheim, a character based on notorious Jewish gangster Arnold Rothstein. But faithfulness in this case probably would have meant anti-Semitism, since it is very hard to defend Fitzgerald’s characterization of the “small, flat-nosed Jew” with a “large head” and “two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril.” Casting Bachchan preserves the character’s otherness while complicating the rather gruesome stereotype Fitzgerald employed. Luhrmann appears to have given some thought to this, given that he faithfully keeps key passages from the novel about race: Tom’s trumpeting of a racist book called Rise of the Colored Empires (which had a real-world inspiration ), Nick’s glimpse of apparently wealthy black men and women being driven into Manhattan by a white chauffeur, and Tom’s later diatribe about “intermarriage between black and white.”
The Finnish Woman and Ella Kaye Did you know that Nick Carraway had a maid? This is easy to forget, since Nick seems generally financially a bit strapped, certainly in comparison to his rich neighbors. But in the novel he employs “a Finnish woman who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.” She makes a few appearances in the book but is understandably cut from the movie. So is Ella Kaye, the seemingly conniving woman who manages to snag the inheritance of Dan Cody, the rich, drunken yachtsman who first prompts Gatsby on his road to wealth and artifice. In the movie, Cody’s wealth goes to his family.
Gatsby’s Death and Funeral Near the end of the book, Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, the mechanic husband of Tom’s mistress, who has gotten it into his head that Gatsby killed her—and that, what’s more, he might have been the one she was sleeping with on the side. Fitzgerald doesn’t depict the murder: The book says that Gatsby grabbed a “pneumatic mattress” (i.e., a floater ) and headed to his pool, then Gatsby’s chauffeur hears gun shots. Luhrmann ditches the pneumatic mattress and adds his own dramatic flourish. In both book and movie, Gatsby is waiting for a phone call from Daisy, but in the film, Nick calls, and Gatsby gets out of the pool when he hears the phone ring. He’s then shot, and he dies believing that Daisy was going to ditch Tom and go way with him. None of that happens in the book.
Gatsby is, in both versions, lonely in death, but the film is even crueler to him in this regard, dropping the last-minute appearance of his father and the unexpected arrival at the funeral of a man who Nick previously met in Gatsby’s study. This is the same man who famously points out that Gatsby has real books, but hasn’t cut the pages. We meet him in the movie in that study, but he makes no mention of the books, and his subsequent appearance is dropped entirely.
Read more in Slate about The Great Gatsby .
Previously How True Is Pain & Gain ? How Accurate Is Lincoln ? How Accurate Is Argo ? Who Are the People in Zero Dark Thirty ? How Much Scientology Made It into The Master ?
The Great Gatsby: 9 Big Differences Between The Book And Movie
Here's a rundown of the changes.
Putting together a film based on a highly acclaimed literary work full of phrasings and lines of dialogue that have forever been burned into readers' minds is largely a thankless task. Creating a film that maintains the heart and soul of such a literary work and even many of its most graceful lines is nearly impossible to accomplish, and in that aspect, director Baz Luhrmann has plenty of troubles with The Great Gatsby . F. Scott Fitzgerald's descriptive sentences are almost as important as his dialogue and tossing some of the finest lines from the book into ashy script on the screen isn't the best way to make the most of those moments. Nor is taking creative license in certain big moments in order to speed up the storytelling process.
In other ways, Luhrmann owns his portrayal of The Great Gatsby , keeping the energy and the often frenetic pace of the twenties by speeding forward into nights of partying and langouring through days of idle play. Like the director's other works---especially Moulin Rouge -- The Great Gatsby is noticeably, unmistakably Luhrmann's and whether or not you believe in his vision is largely dependent on your tolerance of the man's idea of spectacle. It would be nearly impossible to outdo Mr. Fitzgerald, and so Luhrmann tries to visually gives us as different a world as possible while still maintaining the quality of the venerable writer's pages. It's not the movie Fitzgerald would have written, but he was never all that good at creating screenplays, anyway.
Following are the nine biggest changes I noticed in my screening of The Great Gatsby . Feel free to remark on any changes you feel may have been more noticeable. There are many spoilers in The Great Gatsby book to movie comparison. Do not delve in if you want the film to be a surprise .
To give a frame to Nick Carraway's narration, Luhrmann introduces us to a broken Nick, who is working with a doctor to recover his health after troubles with alcohol. This seems a little distasteful, since Carraway comes across as a mostly careful and considerate individual. Asking us to see him out of sorts after Gatsby's death is more than a bit of a stretch, especially as Luhrmann also tasks the character with writing The Great Gatsby .
We learn Jordan Baker is an athlete nearly immediately. Though this in itself doesn't mean much, her entire storyline is sped up and her unlikely romance with Nick is cut out for the sake of time. In the book, the two only ever seem to have a casual affection for each another, especially as Jordan is shown to be dishonest, but in the film, she's a blank canvass we never get to know all that much about. This actually makes her character quite a bit more mysterious and likable, though.
Not only is Jordan a tepid version of her novel character, Daisy also lacks a certain spark and an underlying pettiness that propels her character forward in the book. Instead of offering a voice ringing like money, she offers a weak will and a damsel-in-distress persona that doesn't suit the character, or actress Carey Mulligan , either. In the book, she's careless. Here, she's more often thoughtless.
We get an early hint that Gatsby is wistful and waiting for someone before Carraway even goes to New York and gets roaring drunk. He sees his neighbor out on the dock late in the evening, staring across the harbor. It's easy for audience members who have read the book to decipher what he is thinking, but the small moment certainly gives fans an extra foreshadowing of the big reveal in the book.
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While Fitzgerald's book always feels very much a product of a particular period in time, Luhrmann's work always seems like one grand costume party, irrevocably modern and full of rap music. He pairs this with quiet moments between our main characters that give us a breather and result in a stylistic film that manages to feel like Fitzgerald's book and nothing like it at all.
When Nick luncheons with Gatsby and Mr. Wolfsheim, Luhrmann takes us through a secret door in a barbershop and into a speakeasy full of dancing women and at least slightly corrupt men. To prove a point about corruption, Luhrmann even places the police commissioner on the premise. It's a little heavy-handed, but who doesn't want to see a speakeasy in a movie set during prohibition?
When Gatsby is verbally attacked by Tom in New York, much of the dialogue is the same. However, when Gatsby begins to lose control, begins to realize that Daisy is present in the room but may be out of his grasp, his "face that could kill a man" morphs into a childish freak out where Gatsby even screams, "Shut up." The childish antic is a nice callback to the time Carraway chides him for behaving childishly before he meets Daisy for tea.
Tom Buchanan becomes a super villain by the end of the film, painting a murderous image into Wilson's head and convincing him to do the bad deed. Making Tom into an overt bad guy is convenient to the plot, but changing Tom from an unlikable guy into a ruthless villain seems lazy and too cheap of a behavior for the character.
In the end, when Gatsby goes swimming, waiting for Daisy to call, he is shot and taken away from his dream---of success, of getting the girl---while the phone rings in the background. Though we later perceive it is Carraway, for a moment, we get to see Gatsby's great hope swell once more, even as his life dims, and we get to wonder whether or not Daisy is on the line, and what she would say if she was.
Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.
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The Great Gatsby Movie and Book Comparison
This essay aims to compare and contrast F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” with its various film adaptations. The focus will be on how different directors have interpreted the novel’s themes, characters, and settings, and how these interpretations align or diverge from the original text. Key aspects like the portrayal of the Roaring Twenties, the representation of the American Dream, and the character development of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan will be critically examined. The overview will also discuss the effectiveness of each medium in conveying the novel’s underlying messages and the impact of visual and narrative styles on the story’s reception. At PapersOwl too, you can discover numerous free essay illustrations related to The Great Gatsby.
How it works
- 1 The Death Scene: A Diverging Interpretation
- 2 A Comparison of Gatsby’s Funeral in Book and Film
- 3.1 Works Cited
The Death Scene: A Diverging Interpretation
At the end of the book, as Gatsby is on the float in his pool waiting for Daisy’s call and the phone rings immediately, Gatsby thinks that it could be Daisy. The moment happens in the blink of an eye when Mr. Wilson shoots Gatsby, and his blood becomes part of the color of the pool. Fast Forward to Gatsby’s funeral, we know that Daisy did not attend it, and readers can ask why she loved him so much, but that is not the point.
The only ones who attended were Nick and Gatsby’s father. Now if we compare the movie, we know that a major difference is the scene of Gatsby’s murder. In the movie, he is coming out of the pool on his way to answer the phone when Wilson shoots him from behind. Also, we can see how only Nick and a few reporters attend his funeral.
A Comparison of Gatsby’s Funeral in Book and Film
Based on this, I can compare the difference in both versions. First, the author of the book most probably added Gatsby’s father at the funeral to show how he was always there for him. The father quickly attended the funeral when he found out that his son was murdered by the newspaper in Chicago. Then in the movie, the director of the movie did not add him to show that Gatsby really had no one, not even his own family nor the people who said they loved him. And that all his fortune for more expensive than they were, they were significant in the end.
Daisy’s Consistent Absence: A Commentary on Her Character
Another similarity between both the book and the two adaptations of the novel is that Daisy does not attend Gatsby’s funeral. Daisy knew she was Gatsby’s biggest love and that he would have done anything for her, yet she did not show up. I can see why the director wanted to keep it this way. It was to have a clear example of Daisy’s ignorance, how she was no different from when she was young and had first fallen in love with Gatsby. All Daisy looked into in a man was money. As she saw that Gatsby now had more fortune than she could have believed, she planned on staying with him. Now Gatsby was dead, and there was nothing she could have kept.
To conclude, although there were many differences in both adaptations of the novel, the movies were more effective and interesting. This is most likely because both movies helped the reader better picture Fitzgerald’s envisionment. For this reason, we all preferred the movie adaptations over the novel itself.
Works Cited
- Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). “The Great Gatsby”. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
- Luhrmann, B. (Director). (2013). “The Great Gatsby” [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
- Tredell, N. (2007). “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference”. Carroll & Graf Publishers.
- Gillespie, M. A. (2006). “Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Literary Reference to His Life And Work”. Facts on File.
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Great Gatsby — “The Great Gatsby”: Comparison of The Movie and The Book
"The Great Gatsby": Comparison of The Movie and The Book
- Categories: Film Analysis The Great Gatsby
About this sample
Words: 745 |
Published: Dec 16, 2021
Words: 745 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read
Works Cited:
- Furuhata, Y. (2011). Beyond Boundaries: Genre, Narrative, and the Liminal Experience in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema , 3(1), 23-39.
- Lissauer, G. (2015). The Name Game: Spirited Away and the Power of Identity. In A. McMurray & R. Barton Palmer (Eds.), Dreams Rewired: Romanticism , Modernism, and the Cinema of Dreams (pp. 157-173). Amsterdam University Press.
- Matsunaga, K. (2010). Miyazaki's Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols. Journal of Religion and Film, 14(2), 1-20.
- Penney, M. (2009). Spirited Away and the Conventions of Japanese Coming-of-Age Narratives. Japanese Studies, 29(2), 239-249.
- Rosenberg, A. (2014). Spirited Away and the Art of Surrender. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/06/30/spirited-away-and-the-art-of-surrender/
- Shingler, A. (2018). Spirited Away: An Interpretation of Its Symbolism. Mythlore, 36(2), 153-168.
- Stroud, S. R. (2013). Good and Evil in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. In M. J. Valdivia (Ed.), The International Handbook of Children, Media, and Culture (pp. 281-298). John Wiley & Sons.
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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, every great gatsby movie, compared: 2013, 1974, 1949.
Book Guides
If you've looked up The Great Gatsby movie, you've probably realized that there is more than one. So which of The Great Gatsby movies you should watch? Wondering if you can skip reading the book?
We have a complete guide to each of the Great Gatsby movie adaptations, as well as some advice for writing about the movies!
The Great Gatsby Movies 101
Gatsby has had four film adaptations, with two especially big-budget, well-known movies: the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and the 2013 film with Leonardo DiCaprio. There was also a silent film adaptation made in 1926, just one year after the novel came out , but that film has been lost, with only a one-minute trailer that survives to attest to its existence.
Some elements of the film adaptations have strongly influenced people's vision and understanding of the novel, but there isn't one "best" Great Gatsby movie or one best Great Gatsby cast, or even one movie that has fully captured the spirit of the novel . (Compare this with To Kill a Mockingbird , which has just one major film adaptation that many consider not only worthy of the book, but also to be one of the best movies of all time.)
So, to be clear: none of the Great Gatsby movies can replace the experience of reading the novel . And there isn't even one obvious choice for the best adaptation to watch!
However, watching one (or, if you're ambitious, all!) of the adaptations in addition to reading the book can help you visualize the characters, recognize the sheer grandeur of Gatsby's parties, and appreciate some of the larger themes of the book. Here are a few pros and cons to watching a Great Gatsby film.
Advantages of Watching the Great Gatsby Movies
Great performances. Although spread across the four different movies, each of the main characters in Gatsby gets at least one stellar performance, from Alan Ladd's Jay Gatsby to Sam Waterston's Nick Carraway to Elizabeth Debicki's Jordan. Watching the actors bring these characters to life can help you appreciate these characters' best lines, motivations, and outcomes. This can, in turn, help you write better essays about The Great Gatsby !
Stunning visuals. Gatsby is often praised for its straightforward, descriptive writing, but it can be nice to see a filmmaker's vision of, say, one of Jay Gatsby's extravagant parties rather than just imagining the orchestra, the drinks, and the partygoers, in your head. Not only does this help you appreciate the incredible decadence of the 1920s, and specifically the wealthy characters in the novel, it can also help you appreciate a visual detail you may have missed on your first read-through of the book.
Appreciation of the key lines. When you're reading a book to yourself, sometimes you may find yourself skimming over a line or passage that actually contains a really important piece of dialogue or characterization. Watching a movie adaptation, and hearing the lines the screenwriter chose to adapt and highlight, can help you catch and appreciate some of Gatsby 's most iconic phrases.
Reasons to Avoid Watching Any of These Movies
Time commitment.
You're going to have to budget at least an hour and a half, but likely more, if you want to watch a Gatsby movie. The runtimes for each of the movies is as follows:
- 1949 Version—91 Minutes
- 1974 Version—149 minutes
- 2000 Version—90 minutes
- 2013 Version—142 minutes
Especially with the incredibly busy schedules many students have these days, it could be hard to find the time to devote two and a half hours to watching a Gatsby movie, on top of the time it takes to read the book.
Also, keep in mind the book is relatively short—in the time it takes to watch one of the movies you could easily read at least half of the book.
Inaccuracies and Deviations From the Novel
Obviously, no movie can perfectly adapt a book, so everything from small details (like Daisy's hair color) to large plot events (like Tom blatantly telling George that Gatsby is the killer in the 2013 film) can be changed. This could be a problem if you mix up a scene that occurred only in one of the movies with something from the book when working on an assignment.
Mistaking the Director's Vision for Fitzgerald's
With any film, the director (along with the screenwriter, cinematographer, actors, and the rest of the crew) has a certain version or message that she brings to life. This can get a bit complicated in book adaptations, since a book—especially one as rich and layered as Gatsby—can contain a variety of messages and themes, but a director might choose to highlight just one or two.
As a brief example, the 1949 movie emphasizes Gatsby's criminal enterprises and can almost read like a morality tale. But the 2013 movie puts Gatsby and Daisy's failed love affair front and center.
The potential issue with this is that if you watch just one movie, and skip the book, you could totally miss a larger theme that the book clearly shows, like the false hope of the American Dream, contentious race relations in the 1920s, or the inability to truly recapture the past. In short, make sure you understand that while a movie has to focus on just one or two themes to be coherent, a book can present many more, and you definitely have to read Gatsby to understand the various themes it touches on.
With those pros and cons in mind, you can read on to learn more about each film adaptation to decide if you want to watch one (or all of them!).
After the summaries, we'll have some advice for writing about the movies, which is an increasingly common assignment in English/Language Arts classes!
The Great Gatsby (1949)
The first big adaptation of The Great G atsby came in 1949, just as the book was becoming more popular (but before it had really settled in as classic American novel ). So this movie, made by Paramount Pictures, is not very high budget and mainly relies on the star power of Alan Ladd as Gatsby to sell the film.
Perhaps the studio was right to lean on Ladd, because it turns out that Ladd's performance is the main aspect of this adaptation worth watching . He brings an incredibly layered performance of Gatsby in a performance that's, unfortunately, much better than the movie around him.
This film isn't as accurate to the book's plot as later adaptations—it focuses more on Gatsby's criminal enterprises, makes Jordan more significant, and ends with Nick and Jordan married. It's also lower budget than the later productions and has more of a film noir feel .
Plus, the other actors, particularly Betty Field as Daisy, aren't nearly as good as the lead, making the overall cast weaker than later productions. (Though Shelley Winters is fantastic as Myrtle.)
This film is also harder to find since it's older and not readily available on streaming services like Netflix. Your best bet would be checking out a few clips on YouTube, tracking down a DVD copy at a local library, or purchasing it on Amazon.
Basically, this film is worth finding if you want an excellent visualization of Gatsby himself but aren't as worried about the surrounding production or other characters and/or you like old movies and film noir. But for most students, one of the later adaptations will likely be a better choice.
The Great Gatsby (1974)
The 1974 version of The Great Gatsby (sometimes referred to as the "Robert Redford Great Gatsby ") was Hollywood's second attempt at adapting the novel, and by all accounts everyone involved was working a lot harder to do the book justice. It had a really large budget, brought in Francis Ford Coppola to adapt the screenplay, and cast big name actors like Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The costumes and sets are stunning.
However, some critics noted the expensive scenery somewhat takes away from some of the authenticity of the book —for example, in the scene where Daisy and Gatsby reunite, the weather is sunny instead of rainy, presumably because the rain would have ruined the costumes.
Despite these blips, Coppola's screenplay is much more loyal to the book's plot than the 1949 version. However, the movie fails to channel the energy and passion of the novel, and so can fall flat or even become dull.
Redford received mixed reviews for his performance. He crafts two characters—the suave Jay Gatsby and the hardscrabble Jay Gatz—which some reviewers like and others find a bit heavy-handed. (It's much less subtle than Ladd's performance, in my opinion.)
Sam Waterston is great as Nick Carraway . He captures a lot of Nick's naïveté and optimism, but isn't given as much to do as more recent versions of the character. Mia Farrow's portrayal of Daisy has become our culture's image of this character, despite her blonde hair and waifish figure. (In the book, Daisy is described as having dark hair, and was meant to resemble Ginevra King and Zelda Sayre ).
All in all, this is a mostly faithful adaptation of the book with beautiful sets, costumes, and some good performances. Especially compared to the more raucous 2013 version, this is probably the closest movie we have to a page-to-screen adaptation of Gatsby . The downside is that it's somewhat low energy, and lacks a lot of the zip and wit of the novel .
This version is available on Netflix streaming, so if you have a Netflix account, it's really easy to watch.
The Great Gatsby (2000)
This movie is decently accurate, but because of its shorter run time, there are some cuts to the plot. It also has a few odd additions, like Daisy coming up with the name "Gatsby" instead of Gatsby himself.
Paul Rudd as Carraway and Mira Sorvino as Daisy were mostly considered good casting choices, but the Gatsby here (Toby Stephens) wasn't great—rather lifeless and unenthusiastic. I also didn't love Jordan, especially compared to Elizabeth Debicki's Jordan in the 2013 film. Heather Goldenhersh's Myrtle is an interesting take, as well—she's more meek and pitiable than other Myrtles (especially Shelley Winters and Isla Fisher), which is a bit strange but I think it makes for a more sympathetic character.
This film also has much lower production values since it was made for TV, so it doesn't have the escapist feel of either the Redford or Luhrmann films. (The party scenes are especially sparse.)
I would consider watching this if you want a film mostly accurate to the book that also moves along more quickly, since it has a shorter run time. It's also a good choice if you want to see some great characterizations of Nick and Daisy.
Teachers, this might be a good choice if you want to show a version of the film in class but don't have two and a half hours to spend on the 1974 or 2013 versions.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
This one is likely the Gatsby movie you are most familiar with. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, this Gatsby has the eye-popping visuals, dancing scenes, high energy and big production values his movies are known for. In other words, this 2013 adaptation has all of the energy and enthusiasm the previous two adaptations were lacking .
However, there are some pretty big plot diversions here. For example, the movie uses a completely different frame—Nick is a bitter, institutionalized alcoholic looking back at the summer he spent with Gatsby, rather than just a disenchanted former bond salesman like in the novel. Also, Tom Buchanan is much more overtly villainous, since we see him bluntly telling George that Gatsby was the killer and the man sleeping with Myrtle.
A lot of the imagery is also quite over the top. For example, the scene in Chapter 1 where Daisy and Jordan are introduced, lying in white dresses while white curtains blow around them, is faithfully but subtly done in the 1974 and 2000 films. But in the Luhrmann movie, the CGI curtains stretch all the way across the room, and we get 15 seconds of Daisy and Jordan giggling while Tobey Maguire's Nick looks on, bemused.
Still, despite the plot diversions and sometimes heavy-handed imagery, many praised Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan's turns as Gatsby and Daisy, respectively. Jordan, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is also fantastic—arguably the best on film so far . Instead of fading into the background of scenes, Debicki's Jordan is energetic and engaged, enlivening all of the scenes she's in.
The 2013 movie is good to watch if you want an extra high-powered version of the Jazz Age extravagance and are curious about a more artistic adaptation of the novel.
Comparing the Great Gatsby Movies to the Novel
One increasingly popular assignment on The Great Gatsby is to compare the book with one of the movie adaptations. This can be a fun assignment to work on, since you get to write about both the book and a movie version of Gatsby . But some students struggle with it, since it can be tricky to incorporate an analysis of both the book and a movie into your paper.
Here are some pro tips for constructing this kind of essay.
Have an overall argument or point you're trying to prove, and make it manageable! Don't try to compare the entire movie to the entire book. Instead, zoom in on a particular aspect, like comparing Daisy Buchanan in the book to Daisy in the movie, or look at just a few of the symbols. For example, if you're asked to write about how symbols are adapted in the movie, don't go through every symbol you can think of. Instead, you could focus on your paper on the green light or the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg , and really look at your chosen symbol in detail.
Make sure to use specific lines, scenes, or shots to back up your argument. In your English classes, you've probably learned about using evidence from the book as evidence for your essays. It turns out, you can do the same with movies! Even better, you have a wider variety of evidence to choose from.
You can talk about a specific shot of the film, and how it's composed (basically where the actors and objects are arranged in the shot). You can also talk about lines from the script, or the order of scenes. Just make sure to point to specific, concrete evidence! (Don't say: Carey Mulligan's Daisy is flighty. Do say: Carey Mulligan's performance in the flashback scene demonstrates more raw, intense emotion than apparent in the book, revealing Baz Luhrmann's tendency to overdraw emotion.)
Don't just make a list of plot differences between the book and the movie. Just listing the plot differences won't allow you to do any deep analysis of the director's vision for their film and how it's different from the novel.
Movie Essay Example
As a brief example, let's look at how one of Gatsby's most famous symbols, the green light at the end of the Buchanans' dock , is shown in two of the movies and what it shows about the directors' visions.
In the 1974 film, the green light is very simply rendered—it's quite literally a small green light at the end of Tom and Daisy's dock:
Director Jack Clayton doesn't linger on it, and at the end of the film you just get a small glimpse of it before the final fade to black. Its significance, I would argue, is even more underplayed than in the novel. The treatment of the green light echoes how Clayton goes for a subtle, even elegant, treatment of the novel, focusing on the interactions between the characters rather than the symbolism.
But in the 2013 film, the green light shows up often, and Luhrmann uses CGI and sound effects to underscore its significance (check out how it's used in the last scene ). Luhrmann's overwrought rendering of the green light speaks to how he strongly stresses the novel's most famous visuals , in an effort to bring the image of the novel to light. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of some of the character relationships and fidelity to the book's plot.
This is just the beginning of what could be a longer analysis of the symbols in the movies, but you can see how even zooming in on just one symbol can give you quite a bit to talk about.
Other Notable Films
If you're really getting into all things F. Scott Fitzgerald, you might also consider watching these three films for fun:
- G , which came out in 2002 and is a loose adaptation of Gatsby . In the film, Gatsby is Summer G, a hip-hop mogul trying to win back the love of his life, Sky. The film opened to generally poor reviews, but you can't deny it's a really creative take on Gatsby, and it has attracted a small but loyal following online.
- Midnight in Paris briefly shows Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald during their time in Paris, as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston and Allison Pill. This is a fun, if fictional, glimpse into F. Scott's life as he was writing Gatsby .
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , a recent film starring Brad Pitt, is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story.
What's Next?
Looking to bring Gatsby into your life via outfits, candles, or other accoutrements? Check out our list of 15 must-have Great Gatsby accessories for ideas .
Read through our biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald to learn more about where and how The Great Gatsby was written.
Dive into the novel's beginning with our guides to Gatsby 's title , its opening pages and epigraph , and the first chapter . Or, start with a summary of The Great Gatsby , along with links to all our great articles analyzing this novel!
Need a hand with analyzing other works of literature? Check out our analyses of The Crucible , The Cask of Amontillado , and " Do not go gentle into that good night ."
Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.
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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / The Great Gatsby / A Comparative Analysis of “The Great Gatsby”: Book vs. Movie
A Comparative Analysis of "The Great Gatsby": Book vs. Movie
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