UPDATE: In case anyone is interested, the full review is now up at http://www.ernestworthing.com/the-great-gatsby.html
I've read this book 30+ times over the course of my education and my own personal desire to study it again and again.
I wrote this little "preview" in July of 2012 for a popular film site but it got lost when the release date of the film changed.
I'm now putting it on my own site since the film will be released soon. I will still write a full 'personal' analysis of the book compared to all the film adaptations soon after we watch Luhrmann's attempt.
Link to the preview: http://www.ernestworthing.com/the-great-gatsby.html
And here is the "preview" itself:
26th April, 2013:
I wrote this for an external website in July, 2012 when we were expecting the film to come out in December, 2012. The plan was to follow up with an analysis of the book compared to the new film. That plan fell apart after the release date was changed.
Having studied The Great Gatsby 30+ times, I wanted to share my personal opinion about the book and the film adaptations.
Here is the brief piece written in July, 2012 (I will follow up with the analysis after the film is released):
The Great Gatsby – 4th Time’s the Charm?
Fitzgerald wrote, what can arguably be called, one of the greatest timeless tragedies ever written. Countless books concern themselves with tragedies of massive proportions but, like some of Shakespeare works, Fitzgerald’sGatsby is an internal tragedy of an epic scale. It is not a tragedy where countless die or worlds are destroyed but a tragedy of equal measure, all within a single man’s heart.
A number of classics have been adapted well on screen but, for some reason, The Great Gatsby has been a trick no filmmaker has been able to pull off.
The 1949 version, starring the tragic yet charming Alan Ladd, was an attempt that never achieved the majority of the book’s aspects correctly. It hit one character precisely while failing all the others, a scene faithfully while failing the rest and so on.
Then came the 1974 version which held all the promise in the world. Coppola writing the screenplay and Redford in the starring role with a notable supporting cast and crew behind the film. It was an unexpected disappointment where everything just seemed flat though Redford’s performance as Gatsby has to be applauded as the best one yet. However, Mia Farrow’s exaggerated Daisy did not help matters, never mixing appropriately with Redford’sGatsby.
In 2000, the third Gatsby film was a TV movie where the structure was decent enough but lacked the ability to involve the audience in the characters. Starring Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd in supporting, key roles, one was never able to get past the actors to the characters. It ended up being a TV movie, which could otherwise have surpassed larger Hollywood attempts, hindered by a case of miscasting.
Now these movies were not bad films. They were all decent or more than. However, when you consider the source material, a well executed film adaptation ought to have the same grand yet inward searching effect on your emotions as the book did. No film yet has managed to fulfill that duty to Fitzgerald.
The audience, knowing or unknowing, waits for a faithful adaptation.
And now, in 2012, we will have one more attempt. Applause. Oh no. Wait. It is Baz Luhrmann directing. Do you remember Romeo and Juliet? Wait. It’s in 3D? No. The music in the trailer. Is he really going to involve modern music in a century old setting? Cringe.
Most of the advocates of the book have counted this year’s Gatsby out. Most of Luhrmann’s advocates could not be more excited for December. While those who like Luhrmann’s original work but aren’t too proud of his literary adaptations wait on tenterhooks.
Only time, or December 25th, will tell. It is an unorthodox approach to a classic but maybe, that is exactly what it needs since traditional methods have been tried thrice and failed. If, by the end of the film, the audience feels the epic tragedy that took place within the man’s heart, The Great Gatsby will have been the best adaption made… this far.
-Ernest Worthing
Note: There was also a 1926 film version made (making this the 5th Gatsby production) but no known copies have survived to date, only a trailer.
If you are a Fitzgerald fan, please comment and discuss his book vs the film adaptations.
I've read this book 30+ times over the course of my education and my own personal desire to study it again and again.
I wrote this little "preview" in July of 2012 for a popular film site but it got lost when the release date of the film changed.
I'm now putting it on my own site since the film will be released soon. I will still write a full 'personal' analysis of the book compared to all the film adaptations soon after we watch Luhrmann's attempt.
Link to the preview: http://www.ernestworthing.com/the-great-gatsby.html
And here is the "preview" itself:
26th April, 2013:
I wrote this for an external website in July, 2012 when we were expecting the film to come out in December, 2012. The plan was to follow up with an analysis of the book compared to the new film. That plan fell apart after the release date was changed.
Having studied The Great Gatsby 30+ times, I wanted to share my personal opinion about the book and the film adaptations.
Here is the brief piece written in July, 2012 (I will follow up with the analysis after the film is released):
The Great Gatsby – 4th Time’s the Charm?
Fitzgerald wrote, what can arguably be called, one of the greatest timeless tragedies ever written. Countless books concern themselves with tragedies of massive proportions but, like some of Shakespeare works, Fitzgerald’sGatsby is an internal tragedy of an epic scale. It is not a tragedy where countless die or worlds are destroyed but a tragedy of equal measure, all within a single man’s heart.
A number of classics have been adapted well on screen but, for some reason, The Great Gatsby has been a trick no filmmaker has been able to pull off.
The 1949 version, starring the tragic yet charming Alan Ladd, was an attempt that never achieved the majority of the book’s aspects correctly. It hit one character precisely while failing all the others, a scene faithfully while failing the rest and so on.
Then came the 1974 version which held all the promise in the world. Coppola writing the screenplay and Redford in the starring role with a notable supporting cast and crew behind the film. It was an unexpected disappointment where everything just seemed flat though Redford’s performance as Gatsby has to be applauded as the best one yet. However, Mia Farrow’s exaggerated Daisy did not help matters, never mixing appropriately with Redford’sGatsby.
In 2000, the third Gatsby film was a TV movie where the structure was decent enough but lacked the ability to involve the audience in the characters. Starring Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd in supporting, key roles, one was never able to get past the actors to the characters. It ended up being a TV movie, which could otherwise have surpassed larger Hollywood attempts, hindered by a case of miscasting.
Now these movies were not bad films. They were all decent or more than. However, when you consider the source material, a well executed film adaptation ought to have the same grand yet inward searching effect on your emotions as the book did. No film yet has managed to fulfill that duty to Fitzgerald.
The audience, knowing or unknowing, waits for a faithful adaptation.
And now, in 2012, we will have one more attempt. Applause. Oh no. Wait. It is Baz Luhrmann directing. Do you remember Romeo and Juliet? Wait. It’s in 3D? No. The music in the trailer. Is he really going to involve modern music in a century old setting? Cringe.
Most of the advocates of the book have counted this year’s Gatsby out. Most of Luhrmann’s advocates could not be more excited for December. While those who like Luhrmann’s original work but aren’t too proud of his literary adaptations wait on tenterhooks.
Only time, or December 25th, will tell. It is an unorthodox approach to a classic but maybe, that is exactly what it needs since traditional methods have been tried thrice and failed. If, by the end of the film, the audience feels the epic tragedy that took place within the man’s heart, The Great Gatsby will have been the best adaption made… this far.
-Ernest Worthing
Note: There was also a 1926 film version made (making this the 5th Gatsby production) but no known copies have survived to date, only a trailer.
If you are a Fitzgerald fan, please comment and discuss his book vs the film adaptations.
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I'm a huge fan of what Baz Luhrmann did with Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet. 
