The Great Gatsby

There have been 4 major film adaptations of GATSBY to date. The 1926 silent version made right after the novel was published is currently a lost film. Too bad as, if nothing else, it would have been authentic. That was also the case with this one until a clean print was discovered in 2012. The 1974 version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and the 2013 Baz Luhrman/Leonardo diCaprio magnum opus were both mega budget affairs with the former focusing on fashions while the latter overindulged on lavish CGI settings. Both also had inflated running times (1974-143 min, 2013-163 min) that led to pacing problems which made me wish they had ended a lot sooner.

Due to its lesser running time of 91 minutes, this version focuses more on the characters and their interaction with each other which captures the essence of the book better than 1974 or 2013. Wholesale story changes were made due to the Hollywood censors of the day. The Jazz Age was considered to be the epitome of sinful behavior therefore fashions had to be 1940s, Nick and Jordan had to get married, Tom's affair with Myrtle is barely hinted at, and a prologue with religious overtones had to be added,. In spite of all that, the movie works thanks to several committed performances and a tightening of the plot which makes the story easier to follow.

Alan Ladd is an ideal Jay Gatsby as he captures not only his self confident belief that money can buy anything but also his underlying romantic vulnerability that leads to his downfall. Betty Field gives a low key performance as Daisy which makes her sudden breakdown at the end all that more effective. MacDonald Carey is a solid Nick Carraway while Ruth Hussey is just right as Jordan Baker. A young and svelte Shelley Winters is underused as Myrtle but she makes the most of her limited screen time. Top acting honors go to Howard da Silva as George who is both pitiable and surprisingly powerful as he transitions from a sick husband to a vengeful one while Henry Hull's devilish Dan Cody (Gatsby's mentor) is great fun to watch.

As I mentioned at the outset, this first remake was considered lost for years as Paramount removed it and the 1926 film from their vaults to make way for the 1974 release The 1926 version remains lost but this one survived in low quality pirated VHS copies that were later converted to low budget DVDs which even then were hard to come by. The picture quality was soft and the sound a little muffled but that's all there was...until now. Universal, who owns the rights to all pre-1960 Paramount movies, got together with Via Vision Entertainment to produce this officially sanctioned edition that has superior sound and picture quality. Too bad it doesn't come with subtitles. While many others prefer the bigger, longer adaptations, I'll take this one as my preferred version...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Sad film about the sad lives of the ultra rich and the even sadder lives of the ultra poor. Ladd made a good go of it as the strange Gatsby with his hidden desires and odd ways. Barry Sullivan played the part of the vain and 'old money' snob to perfection. Shelly Winters was possibly the best yet at portraying the worthless, yet pitiful, Myrtle. Thumbs up to a very good drama.

It is very difficult to tell which is better between the 1974 and 1949 versions, both have their good merits but both suffer from major problems. The 1974 film has the better production values and better supporting cast, and it is more faithful in detail to the book. The 1949 film though is closer in spirit, has the better Gatsby and there is more depth. The book is a sentimental favourite and is a great book, though maybe not one of the all-time great literary classics. This film is not great really, but it is not bad either. There are things that do work in its favour, Alan Ladd may not be the best of actors but still brings an enigmatic and mysterious presence while not being too restrained, there is even room for him to play to his strengths. The script can over-explain itself sometimes but there is more of a feeling of Fitzgerald's prose especially in the first third, and the story has a much brisker pace(the 1974 film was dull and overlong) and is generally much closer in spirit and depth, if not the details, to the later version, which came across as too dry and too faithful. The music in both films captures the spirit of the music of the 20s beautifully. Shelley Winters nails it as Myrtle, Ruth Hussey is entrancing while never too bland, Howard Da Silva is a touching George(though the character is more tormented in the later version) and MacDonald Carey's Nick is dignified as the character who kind of is the glue of the narrative.

There are some misfires in the casting though, the biggest problem being Betty Field's vacuous and almost too sympathetic Daisy, thankfully she doesn't play her too stridently like Mia Farrow did but it was a bland performance that dilutes the character. Barry Robinson is more ideal physically than Bruce Dern but the oily and brutish attitudes and mannerisms are not there(which Dern nailed), he comes across as too suave. The film doesn't look too bad, it is nicely shot and the costumes and sets are very 20s but there is also too much of a film-noir element, if you aren't familiar with the story and book beforehand you'd be convinced that it was like a mystery thriller instead. Visually there is a sense of period but the attitudes not so much, stripping away at the danger, excitement and fun of the Jazz Age(that would be true actually on reflection of both versions). Most of the story is fine, but the ending is a cop-out and it would have been wiser to keep Gatsby a mysterious figure rather than saying off the bat who and what he is and where he came from, which misses the point really of what makes the story itself so alluring, that the character is essentially an enigma. The final third disappoints, reading too much of run-of-the-mill 40s melodrama. Overall, not really a good film but it is also not a bad one, in a way it's a mixed bag. Now onto seeing the TV and Baz Luhrmann versions, Lurhmann's looks as though it could go either way but the TV version looks really promising. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This is the second film version of the novel. I have not viewed the 1926 version, but since it is a silent film, and the novel is so chatty, I can hardly think it captures Fitzgerald's vision. The 1974 (3rd) version suffers from two or three problems that overwhelm the lovely props and costumes - an abysmal score, the debatable effect of Redford's grin, and casting mousy Mia Farrow as money-voiced Daisy - a role she cannot fill. Sam Waterson and Bruce Dern are well cast but then mostly have to stand around rather than play off their contrasting physical types. Karen Black perfectly embodies the excess vitality that motivates Tom's adultery. The 2000 A&E/Granada (4th) version comes closer with a more believable Daisy (Mira Sorvino) and an equally everyman Nick (Paul Rudd), but not a better Jay, and then focuses too much on the furniture of Gatsby's criminal activities. It boasts a real Owl Eyes, too. The 1949 version is not perfect either; we can only hope the 2012-oops!-2013 version finally nails it. The '49 version casts Nick as a bit of a dull boy, and fails most by insisting on "squaring" everything, losing in the process the essential melancholy, unfulfilled longing, and insulted morality of the novel. Perhaps it's an artifact of the period, America embracing a sanitized Freudian relativism, putting the Second WW behind it like the First, but this time too sober to try anything like the Roaring 20s. Betty Field is a convincing Daisy, though she falls pretty far from a Louisville débutante. Jordan is not nearly arch enough, Tom not nearly imposing enough. And Dr. TJ Eckleburg...well Gatsby's henchman can't resist explicating a symbol the audience should be allowed to figure out for itself. After an unsteady start, the pace of the film proceeds very well through most of the scenes of the novel, sadly failing to give Shelley Winters the screen time to better develop her Myrtle Wilson. And here's Howard da Silva suitably muted as Wilson, Ed Begley too muted as "Lupus"(Wolfsheim), and Elisha Cook, Jr in an expanded Klipspringer role. In fact, it's almost as if the film makers wanted to write Nick out and replace him with Klipsringer, but didn't dare. They should have, because Cook brings more to the screen than Macdonald Carey. All in all, a very workmanlike adaptation, making use of much of the novel's narration by transforming it into passable dialog, and though the shot composition is a bit straight-on, the camera-work is strong and the editing spot on.

~~~6.5/10~~~

It has been a while since I read the novel, so I was able to detach myself from the source material enough to watch the film from that vantage point. And I have to say, I believe this greatly aided in my enjoyment of the picture. I'm not saying it is a perfect film by far, but as a stand alone film, it is better than the average B melodrama of the period.

However, once I finished the film I began to make comparisons to the novel, which is definitely in my personal all-time top 10 books, and that's where the film went from an 8 to a 7 or 6. Like many of the previous posters mentioned, the film does drastically diminish Gatsby's mystery by laying out his background early on in the story. And this does detract from what most people love about the book. Also, the script does not take enough advantage of it's source material and the wonderful prose of Fitzgerald.

I personally did not find the film extremely miscast and the leads were not a problem for me. Granted they are not what I envisioned Gatsby and Daisy being like when I read Fitzgerald's work, but in my opinion they are able to make the roles work. I thought the secondary leads and the character parts were for the most part well cast and that the actors each made the roles their own.

The problem with the film is that it IS based on the novel. And contrary as to how I was able to watch the film, one should be able to critique this film based on the vantage of comparing it to the novel. If this weren't the case, then the film should never have been titled "The Great Gatsby". So, if one is able to watch the film without constant comparisons to the novel, I think they will better enjoy the viewing experience, but that doesn't excuse the film's shortcomings when it comes to living up to its source material.