The movie wants to be a "kaleidoscopic carnival," to quote a phrase from the book's description of a Jay Gatsby party, but Luhrmann's instincts seem more traditional, even square, and the two impulses cancel each out.
Once you've spent time with his cast, you understand why he was torn. DiCaprio's Gatsby is the movie's greatest and simplest special effect: an illusion conjured mainly through body language and voice. On the page, the character is so mysterious, so much a projection of the book's narrator, that you'd think he'd be as unplayable onscreen as Kurtz or John Galt; he eluded Alan Ladd and Robert Redford , the role's previous inhabitants.
And yet DiCaprio makes him comprehensible and achingly real. The actor's choices drive home the idea that Gatsby is playing the man he wishes he were, and that others need him to be. We see the calculations behind his eyes, but we also believe that he could hide them from the other characters — most of them, anyway. DiCaprio's acting evokes Nick's description of the human personality as "an unbroken series of successful gestures. He could play Superman. When Gatsby's deceptions are revealed and his illusions shattered, DiCaprio becomes at once terrifying and pathetic, a false idol toppling himself from his pedestal.
In his final moment of realization, DiCaprio's blue eyes match the blue of Gatsby's pool, and his anguished face, framed in tight close-up, has a ghastly beauty. This is an iconic performance — maybe his career best. The rest of the cast is nearly as impressive. It helps that he's played so many wry blank-slate types, but there's something else going on in his performance besides familiar notes — something deeper and sadder. Stay up to date on new reviews. Get full reviews, ratings, and advice delivered weekly to your inbox.
User Reviews Parents say Kids say. Adult Written by Shivom Oza May 16, An adaption of F. Continue reading. Report this review. Adult Written by jeremyusmith May 28, Great version to appeal to modern audiences! It is such a fun movie and very dramatic at the same time! The beginning is full of a lot of humor and excitement and it develops into a great drama love story Teen, 13 years old Written by TeenOpinion November 12, I'm going to try not to put too many spoilers in this review so I hope that I succeed in that.
This is an incredible adaptation of Fitzgerald's classi Teen, 16 years old Written by Dogcat August 21, Never watched this! Sorry Loranikas I know you are waiting for my reviews. Anyway, maybe my mom have seen this because of Leonardo Dicaprio. I know you don't like Leo Dicap What's the story? Is it any good? Talk to your kids about Hollywood loves to mine books for material.
What's lost and gained in the cinematic translation? Our editors recommend. Gorgeous Jane Austen adaptation has timeless appeal. Gone with the Wind. Undeniably an epic, but lots of problematic representations.
To Kill a Mockingbird. Masterpiece with crucial lessons about prejudice. For kids who love literature and romance.
Classic Books for Kids. Romance Movies. Rate And Review Submit review Want to see. Super Reviewer. Rate this movie Oof, that was Rotten.
What did you think of the movie? Step 2 of 2 How did you buy your ticket? Let's get your review verified. Fandango AMCTheatres. More Info. Submit By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
How did you buy your ticket? View All Photos Movie Info. Thus, Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and -- as he bears witness to their illusions and deceits -- pens a tale of impossible love, dreams, and tragedy. Baz Luhrmann. Baz Luhrmann , Craig Pearce. May 10, wide.
Aug 27, Warner Bros. Leonardo DiCaprio Jay Gatsby. Tobey Maguire Nick Carraway. Carey Mulligan Daisy Buchanan. Joel Edgerton Tom Buchanan. Isla Fisher Myrtle Wilson. Jason Clarke George Wilson. Amitabh Bachchan Meyer Wolfshiem. Elizabeth Debicki Jordan Baker. Adelaide Clemens Catherine. Vince Colosimo Michaelis. Richard Carter Herzog. Max Cullen Owl Eyes. Steve Bisley Dan Cody. David Furlong Walter Chase.
Felix Williamson Henri. Baz Luhrmann Director. Baz Luhrmann Screenwriter. Craig Pearce Screenwriter. Baz Luhrmann Producer. Catherine Martin Producer. Douglas Wick Producer. Lucy Fisher Producer. His infatuation for Gatsby is told many times and in great detail! These clues are subtle, the kind of thing a reader might easily pass over. It is a very layered and complicated novel. I believe Fitzgerald was attempting to encompass several sections of society. Why was he so vague? Remember, the novel was published in , a time when people were jailed, beat up and killed for homosexuality.
My teacher keeps on insisting that Jay Gatsby is black. Is he? Chrissa I don't think so. See all questions about The Great Gatsby…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Great Gatsby. Fun fact: my first read of this took place in the back of the family minivan when I was 13, on a roadtrip to, like, Disney World or something. All because I saw online that if a college interviewer asks what your favorite book is, you should say The Great Gatsby.
Guess what? The interviewer did ask me what my favorite book was. I panicked and, I think, said All the Light We Cannot See , because it was the first non-embarrassing book that came to mind. My life is just one mistake after another. I loved Daisy then. Which, no. But I still stood up for Daisy. My senior year of high school, my morals and soul and ability to empathize were challenged by six students and a teacher in AP Lit.
And now here I am today, prepared to make the same argument to you all. And win. Does that mean F. Scott Fitzgerald is God? Also, this has literally all of the spoilers. And is long. This is a big deal, apparently. The phone never stops ringing!!! You have nothing but options!!
Kidding, kidding. I know I do! You have a really great kiss. Then the guy has to go off to war. It sucks, sucks, sucks. You two write letters back and forth, but all the while your family is pressuring you.
Society is pressuring you. The war ends. Sweet relief! Except no. The war ended, and you have nothing to tell your parents. So those six dates a day start back up. And then this guy pops up in town. And buff. And a real society man. You can see the world with him. This guy is Tom Buchanan. So what do you do? You have to marry him. In fact, you really love him for a bit.
And then Tom turns out to suuuuuck. Three: Ho-ly shit wait Is there such a thing as a second chance? Your old pal Nick Carraway is back! A friend, how amazing! But waitholdupWHOA what a wild coincidence! The guy who was lowkey the love of your life, Jay Gatsby, is also here!
How, well, coincidental! You can play catch up and see his bougie-ass house and whatnot. So glad Nick is here for some reason let's keep on not letting him leave. Let's get some Gatsby on. Four: No.
No, there is not a chance of life not sucking. All along, even the people you trusted most - Nick, Jordan, Gatsby - have been manipulating you. And if you think about it, Gatsby is not nice or romantic or kind or fair to lil ol Daisy. At all. His expectations are insane. He got to leave her and build a life for himself and live as he wanted and travel and make up this story and be wealthy and throw parties, while she lived with a cheating husband.
How absolutely tragic. It increased her value in his eyes. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.
No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can think up in his ghostly heart. Not going to happen. Gatsby sucks. She is such a queen. We know this. But guess who is not automatically responsible for his actions??? She totally roasts him up for his Rise of the Colored Empires pseudo-science racism. She simply does not treat people in the same way Tom does. Eight: Do we know that she knows that Gatsby died?
Do we really, really, reallyyyyy know? Like, do we honestlyyyyyy think that the dude who picked up the phone is actually going to tell her he called? He manipulated her, lied to her, treated her like an object and nearly ruined her life. Whatever, man. Nine: The car thing She was traumatized. Gatsby orchestrated the whole cover-up.
He took the wheel, he drove away, he hid the car. She had no clue the whole thing would go horribly wrong. God this was so long. And apologetic. Toward you, for having read a very long thing that I wrote, and toward myself, because I had to write it.
This should certainly be enough to prove that Daisy Buchanan is a victim to her circumstances and otherwise noble and great and trying her goddamn best in a world in which everyone treats her like the beautiful fool she is totally not.
Plus her voice is full of money. Now go off in your new happy life of being utterly enamored with Daisy Buchanan. View all comments. Alex This is so interesting. I was once told that Daisy was based on Fitzgerald's wife.
I'm not sure if it's true, or if it is, which aspects of them are a This is so interesting. I'm not sure if it's true, or if it is, which aspects of them are alike - however I should say that the above conversation was a little awkward since I was told this after saying how much I hated Daisy. She made me want to throw the book across the room so many times. Jay Gatsby, who dreamed a dream with the passion and courage few possess - and the tragedy was that it was a wrong dream colliding with reality that was even more wrong - and deadly.
Just like the Great Houdini - the association the title of this book so easily invokes - you specialized in illusions and escape.
Except even the power of most courageous dreamers can be quite helpless to allow us escape the world, our past, and ourselves, giving rise to one of the most famous closing lines of a novel. And one fine morning —— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Baby One More Time' when it comes on the radio provided, of course, that my car windows are safely up. I blame it on my residual teenage hormones.
Jay Gatsby, you barged head-on to achieve and conquer your American dream, not stopping until your dreams became your reality, until you reinvented yourself with the dizzying strength of your belief. Your tragedy was that you equated your dream with money, and money with happiness and love. And honestly, given the messed up world we live in, you were not that far from getting everything you thought you wanted, including the kind of love that hinges on the green dollar signs.
Poor Gatsby! Poor Gatsby, and poor F. Scott Fitzgerald - the guy who so brilliantly described it all, but who continued to live the life his character failed to see for what it was. The Great Gatsby is a story about the lavish excesses meant to serve every little whim of the rich and wannabe-rich in the splendid but unsatisfying in their shallow emptiness glitzy and gaudy post-war years, and the resulting suffocation under the uselessness and unexpected oppressiveness of elusive American dream in the time when money was plenty and the alluring seemingly dream life was just around the corner, just within reach.
This is why Gatsby is still so relevant in the world we live in - almost a hundred years after Fitzgerald wrote it in the Roaring Twenties - the present-day world that still worships money and views it as a substitute for the American dream, the world that hinges on materialism, the world that no longer frowns on the gaudiness and glitz of the nouveau riche.
In this world Jay Gatsby, poor old sport, with his huge tasteless mansion and lavish tasteless parties and in-your-face tasteless car and tasteless pink suit would be, perhaps, quietly sniggered at - but would have fit in without the need for aristocratic breeding - who cares if he has the money and the ability to throw parties worthy of reality show fame???
Tom and Daisy Buchanan would be proud of them. And wannabe Gatsbys pour their capacity to dream into chasing the shallow dream of dollar signs, nothing more. If you read it for school years ago, I ask you to pick it up and give its pages another look - and it may amaze you. Five green-light stars in the fog at the end of a dock.
Dec 24, Alex rated it it was amazing. The Great Gatsby is your neighbor you're best friends with until you find out he's a drug dealer. It charms you with some of the most elegant English prose ever published, making it difficult to discuss the novel without the urge to stammer awestruck about its beauty.
It would be evidence enough to argue that F. Scott Fitzgerald was superhuman, if it wasn't for the fact that we know he also wrote This Side of Paradise. But despite its magic, the rhetoric is just that, and it is a cruel facade. Be The Great Gatsby is your neighbor you're best friends with until you find out he's a drug dealer. Behind the stunning glitter lies a story with all the discontent and intensity of the early Metallica albums.
At its heart, The Great Gatsby throws the very nature of our desires into a harsh, shocking light. There may never be a character who so epitomizes tragically misplaced devotion as Jay Gatsby, and Daisy, his devotee, plays her part with perfect, innocent malevolence.
Gatsby's competition, Tom Buchanan, stands aside watching, taunting and provoking with piercing vocal jabs and the constant boast of his enviable physique. The three jostle for position in an epic love triangle that lays waste to countless innocent victims, as well as both Eggs of Long Island. Every jab, hook, and uppercut is relayed by the instantly likable narrator Nick Carraway, seemingly the only voice of reason amongst all the chaos. But when those boats are finally borne back ceaselessly by the current, no one is left afloat.
It is an ethical massacre, and Fitzgerald spares no lives; there is perhaps not a single character of any significance worthy even of a Sportsmanship Award from the Boys and Girls Club. In a word, The Great Gatsby is about deception; Fitzgerald tints our glasses rosy with gorgeous prose and a narrator you want so much to trust, but leaves the lenses just translucent enough for us to see that Gatsby is getting the same treatment.
And if Gatsby represents the truth of the American Dream, it means trouble for us all. Consider it the most pleasant insult you'll ever receive. View all 67 comments. Sep 29, Pollopicu rated it did not like it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is my least-favorite classic of all time. Probably even my least favorite book, ever. I didn't have the faintest iota of interest in neither era nor lifestyle of the people in this novela. So why did I read it to begin with?
I've been surprised by many books, many a times. Thought this could open a new literary door for me. Most of the novel was incomprehensibly lame. I was never fully introduced to the root of the affair that existed between Gatsb This is my least-favorite classic of all time. I was never fully introduced to the root of the affair that existed between Gatsby and Daisy.
So they were in love I've been in love too, who cares? Several times I didn't even understand where characters were when they were speaking to each other. I also didn't understand the whole affair with Tom and Mrs. Shallow and meaningless characters. Again, who cares?
0コメント