Similarities Between Stranger Than Paradise And The Great Gatsby

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American Dream Essay Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby may seem like completely different movies, but they do have some similarities. The biggest similarity is that each film depicts some of the negative aspects of the “American dream.” In the past, people were fascinated with America and many immigrants came here seeking a better life. Unfortunately, America was not as great as it appeared to be. The three films, Stranger Than Paradise, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and The Great Gatsby, each reveal the negative characteristics of the American dream. Stranger Than Paradise, like the other two films, shows that America may not be as great as it is made out to be. When Eva comes to America, she sees first-hand that America is not as exciting as it seems. She learns about TV dinners and the mystery meat they possess. Eva also has to sit around for hours watching American football, which she thinks is stupid. At one point in the movie, Eddie makes the comment that New York and Cleveland look a lot alike. Unlike the other two films, this one is not as extreme and only shows the more trivial aspects of the American dream. Overall, this film shows that America is not always exciting. Eva finds out that in America, the food comes in frozen packages, people …show more content…

is different from the other movies because it is more extreme. In Pollack’s film, people enter a dance marathon in order to win money. The people who enter are desperate and in need of financial assistance. The marathon is extreme and lasts for weeks. The people in the competition exert themselves to the point that one woman decides to kill herself. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? shows people living in poverty and the extreme measures they will go to to win money. This movie also shows the ghastly trials America puts people through, such as the dance marathon which would later become

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