The Great Gatsby (2013) - Luhrmann exuberance and great stars create thrilling adaptation

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Joel Edgerton

 

 

An inviting collection of smartly dressed stars invite from this metallic-designed, expressionism-invoking poster for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway is a young, hopeful bond salesman, who lives in Long Island as the neighbor of one of New York's richest, most mysterious bachelors, Mr. Jay Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is written by Craig Pearce (Romeo + Juliet (1996)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom (1992)), adapting the same-titled 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise (1920)).

Luhrmann experiments with using 3D, visual maneuvers and music, and some of it is cool (such as the scenes of Carraway being drunk) and succeeds, while other things don't: One thing is that the visual style lays an unreality on top of everything, which is sometimes too substantial to look past. And there are sound issues in a driving scene between Carraway and Gatsby.

But the prevailing visual impression is lush and irresistible. The cast is sumptuous, and they make this adaptation riveting: Jason Clarke (You Can't Stop the Murders (2003)) and Isla Fisher (Rango (2011)) are good in supporting roles; and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator (2004)), Tobey Maguire (Roseanne (1991, TV-series)) and Carey Mulligan (The Greatest (2009)), - and especially awards-worthy is newcomer Joel Edgerton (Kinky Boots (2005)) as Tom Buchanan, - are all strong. The Great Gatsby is a thrilling, good-looking film, which is far superior to Jack Clayton's 1974 version.

 

Related post:

 

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 105 mil. $

Box office: 353.6 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.36 times its cost)

[The Great Gatsby premiered 1 May (New York) and runs 142 minutes. Luhrmann moved with his family to New York in 2010 with the thought that he would shoot the film there. DiCaprio was paid 20 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from September 2011 - January 2012 in Australia, including Sydney, and in New York. The film opened #2, behind hold-over hit Iron Man 3, to a 50 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 144.8 mil. $ (41 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 25.2 mil. $ (7.1 %) and the UK with 23.9 mil. $ (6.8 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars, which it both won: Best Costumes and Production Design. It also won 2/3 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for 3 Grammys, among other honors. Luhrmann returned with 2 commercials and The Get Down (2016, TV-series) but has yet to return to theaters again. DiCaprio returned in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); Maguire in Labor Day (2013); Mulligan in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013); and Edgerton in Felony (2013). The Great Gatsby is rotten at 48 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby (1974) - Great cast wasted in poorly directed adaptation

♥♥

 

A very classy, deliciously designed poster for Jack Clayton's The Great Gatsby

A bond salesman, who lives in a small Long Island apartment, becomes taken by his loaded neighbor Jay Gatsby, and he spends a good part of one 1920s summer in Gatsby's and other rich people's company.

The Great Gatsby is written by Francis Ford Coppola (The Rain People (1969)), adapting the same-titled 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned (1922)), and directed by Jack Clayton (Room at the Top (1959)).

The epochal novel is here transformed into a watered-down, boring, unreasonably long film. One presumption on the part of Clayton is that the grand party scenes are so lively and fascinating that we should just forget the characters and stare at the frivolities for large portions of time.

The four central characters are well-cast, and particularly Bruce Dern (The Big Town (1987)) is outstanding as the ornery bastard Tom Buchanan; but their experiences and feelings never really affect us as audiences. The costumes are lavish, but the direction here is more than dubious. In terms of cinematography The Great Gatsby has way too many zooms and travelings.

SPOILER The scenes of the last ten minutes, - the murder, meeting with Gatsby's father and the funeral, - are not bad, but they regrettably arrive at the end of a mess of a film.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $ 

Box office: 20.5 mil. $ (North America only)

= Box office success (returned 2.92 times its cost domestically alone)

[The Great Gatsby premiered 27 March (New York) and runs 146 minutes. Coppola replaced Truman Capote as screenwriter but later complained: "The script that I wrote did not get made." Shooting took place from June - September 1973 in Rhode Island, New York and England. The international gross numbers are regrettably not reported online, and so it is hard to say if its success was mostly an American occurrence. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars and won both: For Best Costumes and Score (Nelson Riddle). It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations and 3 BAFTAs. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The-Numbers.com assert that the film has made a further 4.9 mil. $ on a 2013 Blu-ray release domestically. Clayton returned with Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). Robert Redford (All Is Lost (2013)) returned in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975); Mia Farrow (Hurricane (1979)) in Peter Pan (1976, TV movie) and theatrically in The Haunting of Julia (1977). The Great Gatsby is rotten at 39 % with a 5.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Gatsby?