Film Analysis Of 'The Great Gatsby'

“The Great Gatsby” isn’t a classic novel anymore.“The Great Gatsby" is a superficially alluring film, capturing little to none of the depth created in the original novel by, Scott f. Fitzgerald. Don’t get me wrong, Baz Luhrmann’s take on “The Great Gatsby” isn’t an abomination. Every single scene is sincere and candid. However I would stop and consider what Fitzgerald, whose prose contained so much grace, controlled with such elegance, would have thought of the film: the way in which Luhrmann exerted so much energy along with time on visual effects and use of 3D, completely distracted the watcher from the book and films true core: the feelings and relationships between the characters.

From the get go we can see the “The Great Gatsby” prohibition-era

It is from this point that Luhrmann’s mannerisms distract the audience from the very heart of the film: the development of characters and their feelings. Luhrmann didn’t intend to create a PBS-style, bare-bone piece of work, but at times it feels like he secretly wanted to. Once you encroach the movie’s first pieces filled with visual excess - thousands of partygoers drinking, doing the cha-cha and acting naively - the movie settles into a very cliche groove of scene, scene, juxtaposing shots, scene, unprecedented violence, and finally a character reflecting on his actions. To quote a phrase from “The Great Gatsby”, in which a character is describing one of Jay Gatsby’s parties, the movie strives to become a “Kaleidoscopic carnival”. However Luhrmann’s style of directing is more traditional and therefore proceeds to cancel out the two impulses. Now on to the acting, and in particular Leonardo DiCaprio

Making it seem as if Gatsby is omniscient - that he can hear and see for miles on end and read other people’s feelings as well as thoughts - and DiCaprio acts these moments through a blend of concealment and delight, it’s almost as if Gatsby knows a secret that we don’t, but refuses to tell us as unfortunately, our intelligence is not on par with his own. When however, Gatsby’s illusions are shattered and all of his deceptions are revealed, DiCaprio transforms from a peacock with its train in full display into a pathetic, terrifying, false idol gracelessly falling from his pedestal. In the scene where Gatsby has his last moment of realization, DiCaprio’s acting prowess truly shines. His blue eyes matching the blue of his (Gatsby) own pool, coupled with the anguish on his face, the framed in close-up shot, this all has a ghastly beauty. All reasons why this is an unmistakably iconic performance - possibly the best of his very credible career. However even this wasn’t enough to cover all of the movie’s