Movie Synopsis of The Great Gatsby

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The much-awaited film depicting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel, The Great Gatsby, was directed by Baz Luhrmann. The movie starred many talented and critically acclaimed actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan (“The Great Gatsby”). The Great Gatsby (Luhrmann 2013) opened May 10, 2013 and produced $50,085,184 the opening weekend in the United States (“The Great Gatsby”). The film was nominated for two Oscars in “Best Achievement in Costume Design” and “Best Achievement in Production Design” (“The Great Gatsby”).

The movie begins with the main character and narrator of the story, Nick Carraway, played by Tobey Maguire, in a facility being treated for alcoholism (“The Great Gatsby”). In a session with his psychiatrist, Nick mentions a man named Gatsby, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Great Gatsby”). Nick was having some trouble recollecting his thoughts on Gatsby, so his psychiatrist suggests writing about his past. He begins his story by explaining how he moved from Chicago to Long Island, New York in the early 1920’s where “Stocks reached record peaks, and Wall Street boomed a steady golden roar. . . Wall Street was luring the young and ambitious, and [he] was one of them” (Luhrmann 2013). Nick rents a small cottage in West Egg next to the marvelous mansion of the rich and extravagant, Jay Gatsby.

After settling in, Nick drives over to the other side of Long Island, called East Egg, to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom Buchanan, played by Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby”). After some catching up and small conversation, Daisy introduces Nick to her dear friend Jordan Baker, who is played by Elizabeth Debicki (“The Great Gatsby”). It is ap...

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...iend and ultimately leaves New York. The audience is then flashed back to present Nick sitting at a type writer typing the last infamous words of the story, which say “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Luhrmann 2013). Nick then organizes the pages of his story, originally titling it “Gatsby”, but then he changes the title with a pen naming his work “The Great Gatsby”.

Works Cited

Hogan, Mike. "Baz Luhrmann, 'Great Gatsby' Director, Explains The 3D, The Hip Hop, The Sanitarium And More." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 May 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

The Great Gatsby. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013. DVD.

"The Great Gatsby." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Weitzman, Elizabeth. "'The Great Gatsby': Movie Review." NY Daily News. NY Daily News, 9 May 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

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