Recently in American Lit class we read “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A short time after the class and I watched a movie cover of Fitzgerald's great American novel. We noticed a few changes made from Fitzgerald’s text in the movie form. Along with characteristics of different characters and music.
One of the changes made in relation to the novel is the way Nick narrates the story. In the movie he is in therapy writing about his summer in West Egg. In the novel he just narrates as a character in the present of the book, not in the future reminiscing on his past. Another change made in relation to the novel is the way they introduced owl eyes. In the movie he is in the library during Gatsby’s party and it skips over the part which the older man crashes his car on gatsby’s lawn foreshadowing the car crash that killed Myrtle later in the novel. There were also change in description of the characters in the movie such as Myrtle and Gatsby. In Fitzgerald's description of Myrtle Nick recalls her as thick, and no gleam of beauty, with a dark blue dress. The movie portrayed Myrtle a little differently such as not thick due to modern day standards and had some gleams of beauty in her face wearing a red dress. One more change in description I have noticed was Gatsby’s temper. In the movie during the scene when Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Nick and Gatsby went to town because it was too hot, Gatsby tells Tom of him and Daisy’s relation to each other. Tom and Gatsby then get into an argument and Gatsby threatens to punch Tom in the face which was never implied by fitzgerald’s text, instead ends with a whimper as Gatsby and Daisy were “Isolated, like ghosts, even from our pity.” The music played a big part in the movie it was effective because during the parts between Daisy and Gatsby it was sad romance type modern day songs, which I liked, because it described the scene between the both of them as sad and happy at the same time which it was. Also during the big bashes Gatsby always had at his mansion they played 1920 remixes with modern day music which I loved a lot and got the feel the party was big, loud, and crazy. IN the novel on page 95 a gentlemen played a song on the piano while Daisy and Gatsby toured Gatsby's Mansion and the song fit the mood of the scene because it was about people in love. Overall I thought the movie was a great over of the book “The Great Gatsby” . It was a little different mixed with modern day music which I thought was really nice because well it is a modern day Gatsby movie. I also thought the movie did a good job of following the plot of the story even though missing a few scenes in the book, we get what happened and I liked it even better than the book in my opinion. |