Can a film adaptation of such a great American novel as “The
Great Gatsby” successfully communicate F. Scott Fitzgeralds’ original intention
on the big screen? As one of the most widely adapted novels, there have been
many attempts to recreate the image that Fitzgerald tried to convey in his
novel, but only two of these films have done justice to the novel. This title
is held by Francis Ford Coppolas’ 1974 film adaptation alongside Baz Luhrmann’s
2013 box office success. With both films being directed in much different eras
than the Jazz Age, which the novel takes place in, they both have their
advantages in catering the significance of the novel to audiences of a different
time and age. At times, the differences in the way the films were directed help
to better express the original intention of the novel to a different generation.
Other times they may leave out key details and fail to convey a point trying to
be made in the novel. While they do it in different ways, both films convey the
imagery, plot, and symbolism that Fitzgerald molded into his novel. The
directors, their target audience, and the desired outcome are the key factors
in the final product of such an undertaking.
The biggest differences between the two films come from
their directing style. Coppolas’ 1974 adaptation attempts to follow the
storyline of the novel more carefully than the 2013 film by Luhrmann. This occasionally
makes the order of events (in the faster pace of a film) seem strange, causing the
viewer to question why the film progresses as it does. The 2013 film, on the
other hand, decides to approach its interpretation of the novel in a manner
that allows the film to flow smoothly without worrying so much about the exact
order and elaboration of specific events along the novel’s storyline. As one
reviewer of the 2013 adaptation puts it: “Sticking with Fitzgeralds’ linear
storyline doesn't do any favours for Luhrmann. Many moviegoers will have read
the book first” (Marshall). This is true for the intended audience of the 2013
adaptation as “The Great Gatsby” novel has become a staple on the list of
required readings for high school and undergraduate students over the past few
decades. At the time that the 1974 film was produced, the novel had not found its
widespread popularity in the curriculum of primary schools and colleges. Each
of the two adaptations follows a storyline that works to the benefit of other factors
in the production of the separate movies, most importantly including the actors
and their individual styles.
Comparison between the two Nicks (left) and Toms (right)
What distances the two film adaptations from each other
beyond their approach to the story line is the actors that were chosen to
portray the most important characters: Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchannan, Nick
Carraway, and George and Myrtle Wilson. The driving force in any well executed
film is a carefully selected cast to suit the design of the characters. Nick
Carraway is played by Toby Maguire in the 2013 film versus Sam Waterson in the
1974 version. In his review of the film, Lee Marshall calls Maguire “irrepressibly
buoyant. His energy is only amplified by disjointed editing in the opening
scenes when Nick begins to remember: it makes Maguire jump around like a
cartoon”. Although Maguire is a household name and could likely receive praise
in any role at this point in his career, his boyish looks and inescapable
upbeat mood does not suit the character of Nick as well as Sam Waterson was
able to assume the role. Waterson’s advantage was in his easily expressed calm
nature and his older, more masculine appearance. The 2013 film does prevail with
many of its characters, though. Tom Buchanan is described to have an
aggressive, arrogant appearance with a very muscular body. “It was a body of
enormous leverage – a cruel body” (Fitzgerald 7). In the 2013 film, Tom is
played by Joel Edgerton, an MMA fighter turned actor with the perfect
appearance and outward attitude to suit the role of Tom. In 1974, Bruce Dern
filled this role and performed well, but what he lacked in the expected appearance
of Tom was difficult to ignore throughout the movie. Up against the 1974 film,
it is clear to see that there was careful consideration given to the selection
of the cast in the 2013 film to mirror their descriptions in the novel. One of the
problems critics cite the most with the 2013 film is its tendency to derail
from the novels word for word progression in an attempt to express the original
theme to a present day audience.
Where
Francis Ford Coppolas’ adaptation fears straying from the exact storyline of
the novel, Luhrmann’s 2013 script makes use of its own order of events,
occasionally jumping around in the storyline. Luhrmann used this to the films
advantage, allowing more time to be spent on key developments and obscure events
to clarify their significance. Devoted fans to the novel may not agree that
this was the best approach as one critic claims: “According to Luhrmann, his
style is inspired by Bollywood, with its penchant for three-hour,
song-and-dance extravaganzas that include dreamlike leaps from location to
location and an eclectic mix of emotion known as masala. But you can't blame
Bollywood for Luhrmann's mauling of The Great Gatsby” (Bayles). Because he was
aware of his audience, Luhrmann didn’t intend to create a carbon copy film
adaptation of the novel. His music, scenery, and wardrobe choices all reinforce
this predisposition. “The music is anachronistic hip hop and party pop.
Contemporary music creates a parallel between the debauchery of the day and
today” (Marshall). During Gatsby’s party scenes, Coppolas’ 1974 adaptation
chose to keep the music selection isolated to the 1920’s Jazz Age theme,
following the novel. This left out an important point that Fitzgerald was
trying to make in his novel; in its time, many people found this same music and
its associated dances intolerable and even offensive. It would be difficult or
impossible to find someone today that would be visibly offended by the song and
dance of the Jazz Age, so Luhrmann turned to the genres of music that are
popular with todays’ younger generation. Both directors’ approaches to the
music and order of events were tailored to their presumed audience. Neither falls
short of its goal in that sense, but both interpretations have their strengths
and weaknesses.
In the sense of breathing new life into an old novel and
keeping a modern audience intrigued, Luhrmann’s 2013 adaptation excels. “The
cinematography, the scenery, and Catherine Martin's costumes create an
incandescent hallucination painted with gold dust. Everything is about to burst”
(Marshall). While the 1974 adaptation accurately reflects the extravagant dress
of the wealthy in the 1920’s, the costumes may come off as simply “old-fashioned”
to a modern audience. In Luhrmann’s adaptation, the costume designers paid
careful consideration in their creation of the actors’ wardrobe so as to
present them to a modern day audience in all of the glamour Fitzgerald
originally intended in his novel but without the potential to come off as tacky
or old-fashioned. Understanding the divide in mannerisms and shock value
between the 20’s and now was another hurdle that Luhrmann decided he would
overcome in his depiction of several key scenes. One of the most important
scenes occurs at the hotel, when Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan all take
a trip into the city together and occupy a suite in the Plaza Hotel. Tom prods
Gatsby for an explanation of his sources of wealth while everyone sits in the
parlor, becoming increasingly irritable to one another by way of the summer
heat. “In the novel, Gatsby's expression, as if he "killed a man" is
enough to make Daisy recoil. But in the film, Gatsby cinematically erupts,
screaming, "Shut up!"--and grabs Tom as if to slug him in the face” (Marshall). Words on paper stressing Gatsby’s expression in the novel are one thing, but
zooming in on Gatsby in a moment of silence following Tom’s prodding wouldn’t
have accomplished Fitzgeralds’ original intent. Instead, it would leave the modern
viewer wondering what they missed that suddenly possessed Daisy to flee from
the scene in such a distraught mood. Another of the modern twists employed by
Luhrmann’s adaptation is the special effects that make Gatsby’s parties just as
spectacular as the novel describes them. The only problem is its overdependence
on special effects and an endless supply of high energy scenes.
“The Great Gatsby” takes place in a fictional depiction
of Long Island, NY with Gatsby and the nouveau riche living in the town of West
Egg and the old money in the less fashionable East Egg. The intro to each film
adaptation more or less begins with Nick Carraways’ motorboat ride across the inlet
to Tom and Daisy’s mansion in East Egg. This is the first scene where the 2013
adaptation exposes its heavy (over)use of 3D computer generated imagery (CGI)
to replace real-life filming locations. Martha Bayles calls it “more cluttered
with the sort of computer-generated imagery that makes Las Vegas look authentic.”
The CGI is convincing at times, but once the viewer is aware of its presence in
the introduction, it’s nearly impossible to stop hunting for it throughout the
rest of the movie. The overuse of CGI is the 2013 adaptations’ major disappointment,
making several of the scenes appear cheap and cartoon-like. The filming
locations for Coppolas’ 1974 film were mostly shot on site in New York and
Rhode Island with few scenes occurring on a set. Although they weren’t as
elaborate as some of the CGI “green screen” sets that Luhrmann made use of, the
filming locations were more natural feeling and convincing than those of the
2013 adaptation. With Luhrmann catering to the commercial film industry and with
his goal of making his adaptation widely appealing, he decided to make many of
the scenes over the top, sometimes employing far too many special effects.
Tom/Daisy's house - 1974 (left) - 2013 (right)
In the case of adapting a popular novel to film, such as
with “The Great Gatsby,” the outcome will always be criticized for its failure
to live up to the individual critics belief of how the author intended a
certain detail to be interpreted. The difficulty is in traversing different
mediums. Every word on a page isn’t best suited for an actor to perform. The
combination of the directors’ desired outcome with a compatible cast, wardrobe,
and scenery are the factors that will make or break the conversion of a good
novel to the silver screen. Each of the separate film adaptations by Francis
Ford Coppola and Baz Luhrmann of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
demonstrate an interesting interpretation of Fitzgeralds’ storyline and help to
present it to a broader audience who may have otherwise never picked up the
book.
