Film Analysis: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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“The Great Gatsby “, film adaptation directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013 is almost as great as the novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The Great Gatsby is a literary classic which is set in the 1920’s in the fictional town of West Egg. The tale is based on Nick Carraway, who is a Midwestern war veteran in the summer of 1922, who finds himself obsessed with the past lifestyle of his mysterious, fabulously and wealthy neighbour Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. This film adaptation compared to the novel is a very interesting one. It is also easily understood and keeps the viewers’ attention right through the movie. In this movie the sceneries, in most instances, are very similar to the description stated in the novel. The actors and actresses in this film are well cast in most cases. The costuming was well designed and suited the description of the time period given which was in the 1920s. A very important aspect that must not be ignored is the narration in the film which adds to the effectiveness of the movie.
The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire), helps reunite lost loves Jay Gatsby, his neighbour (Leonardo DiCarprio), and Daisy Buchanan, his cousin (Carey Mulligan). Only in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation, Carraway tells the story from inside a sanitarium, where he is taken to writing it all down as a form of therapy. Fitzgerald’s Nick refers to Gatsby as “the man who gives his name to this novel”, so the form of The Great Gatsby text written by Nick is almost the same as Luhrmann’s film and he expresses deeper into the story than Fitzgerald. In the film Luhrmann showed us how Nick was writing the tale by hand, then typing, and finally amassing his completed manuscript. He gives the name Gatsby ...

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...he novel.
In conclusion, Baz Luhrmann's version of the film adaptation to The Great Gatsby was in fact very successful and faithful to the novel. The casting was indeed almost perfect because most of the actors such as Toby Maguire (Nick Carraway), Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), Joel Edgerton (Tom Buchanan) and Jason Clarke (George Willson) all portrait their character wonderfully as described in the novel. The sceneries were great because it was very descriptive compared to the scenes in the novel. The use of Computer Generated Imagery technology was perfect because it highlighted the sceneries making it very vivid, realistic and pleasurable to the eye. The costuming used in the film was very creative, wonderful and perfect because it suited each of the characters class, personality, and it also suited the time period of the 1920s.

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