Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Great Gatsby (1974)

It is very hard to write a review of the 1974 version of the Great Gatsby after seeing Baz Luhrman's Gatsby. Compared to Luhrman's masterpiece the inadequacies of the older version are laid bare. I will however try to review this movie in its own light

The 1974 version of Gatsby was released to mixed reviews and personally it left me feeling a little bit cold. The movie fails to put across all the wild excess of the Jazz Age and the characters are not very well represented by the cast chosen.

Robert Redford did and alright job as Jay Gatsby playing the part of the refined gentleman but when it came to Gatsby's passionate confrontational side it failed to come across. This can be seen most in the scene at the hotel when Gatsby reveals his and Daisy's affair 

Mia Farrow turned the quirky sardonic character of Daisy into a simpering fragile mess who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Though striking enough to play the part, Farrow failed to represent the depth of Daisy's character and played the part in such a vapid and shallow way that it made me feel no affinity to her whatsoever.

Overall the movie failed to portray all the emotions and complexities of Fitzgerald's book.  

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