The Great Gatsby | | Cast : | Robert Redford, Mia Farrow | | Director : | Jack Clayton | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 1974 | | DVD Released Date : | December 02, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | February 28, 2005 | | Summary | GREAT GATSBY REVIEW FOR MR. TURNER'S CLASS | Content
 | BOOKS AND FILMS ARE NOT USUALLY EXACTLY THE SAME. IT WOULD BE HARD TO TAKE A TEST ON A BOOK IF YOU HAD ONLY WATCHED THE MOVIE. THE MOVIE THE GREAT GATSBY IS LIKE THE BOOK IN MANY WAYS. IT IS ALSO NOT LIKE IT IN MANY WAYS.
THE GREAT GATSBY TOOK PLACE IN THE 1920'S. THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL EITHER NEW RICH OR OLD RICH CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. THE MAIN CHARACTERS WERE DAISY AND GATSBY. GATSBY IS OBSESSED WITH DAISY. THEY WERE IN LOVE AT ONE POINT, BEFORE HE WENT OFF TO THE WAR. WHEN GATSBY RETURNS FROM THE WAR, HE HOPES HE WILL BE ABLE TO LOCATEDAISY AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. WHEN DAISY'S COUSIN NICK IS PUT INTO THE PICTURE GATSBY HAS A CHANCE OF GETTING HIS DREAM BACK. IT IS NOT ALWAYS EASY GETTING WHAT YOU WANT, AND IT CERTAINLY WAS NOT EASY FOR GATSBY. THE ENTIRE MOVIE AND NOVEL REVOLVE AROUND GATSBY TRYING TO GET DAISY BACK.
I DID NOT REALLY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT OF THE MOVIE. AFTER WATCHING THE MOVIE, I WAS A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED WITH GATSBY'S CHARACTER. HE WAS SO FAKE TO ME, WHICH I GUESS WAS A LITTLE OF WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO PORTRAY. IT WAS STILL A LITTLE TO FAKE FOR ME. DAISY DID A GOOD JOB OF ACTING UPSET. JORDAN BAKER IN THE NOVEL WAS A VERY CARELESS AND CALM PERSON. HER CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE WAS JUST LIKE THAT OF THE BOOK. THE MOVIE WOULD NOT HAD BEEN NEAR AS GOOD WITHOUT NICK. I THINK HIS PART IN THE MOVIE WAS GREAT.
THE MOVIE ITSELF IS THE SAME AS THE NOVEL IN THE WAY THAT NOTHING WAS ADDED. THE MOVIE WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE NOVEL BECAUSE IT LEFT STUFF OUT. EVERYTNIG EXCEPT THE COLROR OF GATSBY'S CAR WAS ACCURATE.
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| Rating | | | Date | January 15, 2005 | | Summary | Keen insights into that Time & those Persons! | Content
| After Years since our first Encounter, I was keenly surprised at the Graphic Descriptions of that Time-frame of Newly Rich among the HAVES and Inner Longings of those who were the Have-Nots!
Barbara and I were Amazed at the Sweep of Acting Ability of Mia Farrow and Bruce Dern! Not nearly as much difference in Redford! If you compare their High-riding parties with the entertainment of today, here were grand displays of emotions and kicking-up of their heels, almost like the Cotton Club or the Blue Note in Chicago!
We were more interested in the music & costumes than Acting or Story plot. There was contrast of the leading characters in their super display of emotions compared to that restraint of Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, or the mechanic named Wilson! What an awesome diplay of Personality Contrasts as well as, the short conversational exchanges that were both snide and more cynical than chit-chat between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan!!
All-in-all we were not entirely in the dark with the depression of the ending yet the Narrator, SAM WATERSON, as Nick C. had all the necessary qualities of being Worthy of an Oscar! Never was it an appetizing, inspiring of high hopes, or sentimental movie as was our recent viewing of The Thomas Crown Affair! Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2004 | | Summary | A Fine Adaptation | Content
| This 1973 film was a good adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel. Although some of the actors could have been better, I found the film to be faithful to the story and well directed.
The film follows the classic story of Gatsby, a poor man who made a fortune after the Great War and so became the talk of the town. Although Gatsby's wealth could buy anything he wanted, what he really wanted was Daisy: a beautiful but shallow woman whom Gatsby can't get out of his mind. Daisy is now married and lives across from Gatsby's home. Gatsby's lavish home and parties are little more than Gatsby's subconscious wooing of Daisy. But Gatsby was never born in wealth and so wasn't considered 'polite' enough to be with someone like Daisy (Mia Farrow.) This was certainly the opinion of her brute husband (Bruce Dern)who needs to get his jollies on the poor side of town. Gatsby's only true friend is his narrating neighbor (Law & Order's Sam Waterston.)
I found this adaptation to be just fine. The film was faithful to the book, well directed, and complimented with a good cast. Robert Redford plays his role as the humble Gatsby quite well. A good movie to rent or own.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2004 | | Summary | Not Great But Sometimes Magical | Content
| This movie is both great and awful depending entirely upon one's need for accuracy or how deeply you may have felt about the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for this film and followed the classic book about as closely as a film is capable of doing. But I found the direction to be flawed somehow. The film is filled with starlit close-ups (no one's eyes sparkle like that, not even Daisy's) and smoke screen silhouettes, complex party scenes and plenty of flapper costumes. I just couldn't figure out why all of the strange lighting existed after hiring two nearly perfect looking actors, in Mia Farrow and Robert Redford. I would have preferred to see the stars in Daisy's eyes stem from a great acting performance rather than the eerie sparkles falsely placed in every close-up!
Robert Redford was good as Gatsby and he conveyed some of the character's desperate and lonely love. I was disappointed that all of the complexity of Gatsby was never fully explained. If I would not have known the story beforehand I would have never understood what tied Gatsby and Daisy together, other than money of course. But Redford captures Gatsby's aloofness to a tee and one can easily see why Daisy would be in love with Gatsby.
I found Mia Farrow to be disappointing as Daisy Buchanan, the spoiled debutante who manages to seduce the great Gatsby for a lifetime. As stated previously Farrow's close-ups were far too crafted to seduce anyone. She came across as a flirty silly girl more than a classic seductress and paled in comparison to Redford's portrayal of Gatsby. She looked cute in all of the frilly costumes of course, but I never really found her character believable.
Karen Black is downright scary as the mistress of Mr. Buchanan, with her eyes crossing and spitting with every close-up. Bruce Dern plays the arrogant competitive Mr. Buchanan with great nastiness. Sam Waterston steals the show however with his portrayal as the narrator of the story. He captures innocence and compassion while keeping his open-eyed curiosity and faithfulness to Gatsby from beginning to end.
Overall this film is good, if you have read the book first, but lacks a full explanation. The filmmakers relied more on scenery and lighting than perfect casting and a deeper meaning. Some scenes are magical while others fall flat. For Redford fans and lovers of the 20's it is a gem. The greed and power hungry people are captured but sadly the deepest desires of all that passion become lost behind the filmmakers vision.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 28, 2004 | | Summary | Guilt! The Eyes Of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, O.D. See ALL ! | Content
| F. Scott Fitzgerald presents taut tension and symbolism between Modernism and Victorianism in the 1925's quintessential jazz age of the great American novel, "The Great Gatsby" and this 1974 adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel with Francis Ford Coppola's screenwriting captures the better part of it! Daisy's green light at the end of her dock that symbolizes all hope and want in not just Gatsby but all people, the "haves" and the "have-nots", guilt and carelessness, living above judgement and consequences, and of course, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg over the "valley of the ashes"... All are all beautifully and sadly portrayed. Mia Farrow as the self centered, one-dimensional Daisy, Bruce Dern as the philandering Tom and Robert Redford as the nouveau riche, enamoured Gatsby turn in quite decent performances. As Nick says, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money ortheir vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made." However, it is Karen Black as Myrtle, Scott Wilson as George and a sublime Sam Waterson cast as the perfect Nick are the highlight of this film along with the musical score, great costuming and elaborate set design. This is well worth the watch and I enjoy this adaptation more than the A&E presentation, of which I USUALLY favor! "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 - " (Nick) Happy Watching! |
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