The Great Gatsby: The Book Vs. Movies

Ever since its publication in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has captured America with its portrayal of the 1920s Jazz Age in New York City, its lavish parties, its charming and beautiful prose, its fascinating story and characters, and its visions of the American Dream. It has become one of the greatest stories of our century, and it is one of the most well-known and most frequently taught books in schools today.

In our Novel Conversations podcast, our host and readers discuss Fitzgerald’s crowning achievement and the story of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan. They converse about the general plot, scenes, and characters, and they explain how there are different levels of understanding of this story. You can listen to the entire podcast here on the episode page!

Our GREENLIGHT Reviews movie critics, Ann Elder and Les Roberts did not have a lot of praise for the 2013 movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Les reveals that Fitzgerald’s novel is his favorite book of all time; however, this movie left him unsatisfied. Les thinks that because the book is so beautifully written, it is hard to capture that on screen. In particular, Les and Ann agree that this movie rendition does not work due to the over-the-top style of the director, Baz Luhrmann. Ann even calls it a “disaster of a film.” She was not happy with the casting, particularly of Leo DiCaprio as Robert Redford, who did not have the mystery and charisma to pull off such a character. Here is the podcast to listen to their full review of the movie:

However, Les thinks that the 1974 movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, was much better than the newer, 2013 version. Although it was still inferior to the book, it was a very good version of the story in comparison with the Leo DiCaprio version. Ann thought that Robert Redford had the acting ability and the “genius” to play Jay Gatsby, while Leo DiCaprio was very unconvincing as the lead character.

What do you think about The Great Gatsby?