The Great Gatsby the movie was fairly similar to the novel. This story is about of the American Dream during the time period people started to obtain hope in becoming successful in America. In this story Nick Caraway is the narrator and describes the life of Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, Jay (James) Gatsby, George Wilson, and Myrtle Wilson. Those who gained wealth by effort and fortunate opportunities lived on the West Egg and those who gained wealth by inheritance lived on the East Egg. Jay Gatsby is a man that started extremely poor but because of opportunities he was able to obtain wealth, status, and fame. The clash between the new and old aristocracy is between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan who inherited his wealth, fame, and status; he was born into it. Daisy Buchanan, who previously loved Gatsby, seems to be caught in a marriage with Tom Buchanan, while Gatsby is fighting in the war. When he returns from the war, he sees Daisy has already gotten married and does what he can to achieve status to win her back and every night continues to watch the green light as a symbol of hope and desire of Daisy. As he threw massive parties to attract attention, Gatsby finally was able to captivate Daisy and begin afresh. When Daisy becomes pressured between choosing who she really loves and would want to spend her life with, she doesn’t know whether it’s Gatsby or Tom. This escalates when she accidently kills Myrtle Wilson in Gatsby’s car. Gatsby in the end takes the blame and the Buchanan’s leave untouched. George comes and falsely blames Gatsby and kills him and himself in which wraps up the story of the book.

I had just recently read the book and wanted to know how accurate the movie was to the book. In my opinion it followed the book well because it had all the major scenes in the order they appear. The movie even makes it extremely clear that the narrator is Nick Carraway as he recalls these memories after he leaves New York City. Another quality that the book and movie matched correctly is the character personalities. These were described and portrayed correctly with some slight disagreement on certain character but overall understandable decisions. In particular wanted to know how they were going to portray Myrtle Wilson because in short she was supposed to fat, plump, but also full of vitality. In the movie though they compromised with a fairly lustful woman who in comparison to George’s plain t-shirts had color and vibrant life to her character. They used color to show life when contrasting with dead background in the City.

The best part of the film was the portraying of the massive parties that Gatsby throws in order to obtain the attention of Daisy. They have many hidden and implicit meaning when done in a motion picture film. One example is that the people that come to his parties are always dressed differently and abnormally; they always have flare and presence. Yet at the heart of it all, these people are fake, not his friends, and only come to enjoy a good party. The parties also so Gatsby’s mysterious qualities early in the movie/novel , as rumors are spread around but nonetheless left Gatsby’s personality mysterious for the reader. Another aspect of the movie that I found interesting is green light because it really is displayed as enchanting. On a dock watching the distant glimmer of the green light it makes one want to reach and grab it for one’s own. Also they use the fog to make it that much more desirable to see through the fog and see and obtain it.

I personally didn’t like Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting partially due to script but nonetheless felt overthought and elongated too much. In particular was the death of Gatsby by George Wilson, the screen had been stuck on his face for minutes before he started to show any movement or pain due to the bullet. Another example is when he is being glorified for his status during the party. His face is the focal point for a good amount of time before the plot moves along. The music during upbeat and introductory settings was great and fit exactly with the mood. In moments when it was more sensitive or epic, the music was slightly under par. In general, it wasn’t terrible it just had its moments were it annoyed me.

If the film were to take some advice from me, I would suggest that some repetitive scenes such as the time at the hotel with Myrtle, Tom, and Nick didn’t have to be so long and could be shorten and still have the same effect. I feel like that part in particular was too long and although it got its point across it took time and effort to continue to watch. Another part that I would’ve liked to see is the West egg and East egg difference, in which was slightly discarded in the film. This would be hard for romantics to watch because they would become saddened at the end that Gatsby ended up dead and blamed, which in turn would make romantics hate Daisy for ditching and leaving the entire past with Gatsby. There isn’t action, but drama between characters. This is probably really good if anyone loves Leonardo DiCaprio.