The Great Gatsby (2013)

 

The Great Gatsby (2013)

March 14, 2014

            This movie shows a bigger than life version of The Great Gatsby, from the party’s to the introduction of Gatsby to his death.  I loved the elaborate party’s, fireworks and the bright cars.  This movie shows the audience what F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby would look like if the roaring twenties would take place in 2014.   But what I did not like was the death scene of Gatsby.  I do not want to believe it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting.  I believed he did a great job but just like Robert Redford’s fake smile in the introduction to Nick of the 1974 version, DiCaprio was too over the top and it seemed like he was over acting.  The 1974 and 2013 movies strayed from the books death scene.  Do you feel that the movies could have stayed true to Fitzgerald’s version?  The audience could have heard a gunshot going off and then show Gatsby’s dead body in the 1974 movie but I do not believe that just a off camera gunshot would have fit in the elaborate 2014 movie.  Do you think the 2014 movie version strayed too far and created a different meaning than the book? 

MacMillian Dictionary states the meaning of a cautionary tale is a story or series of events which something bad happens that you can use as a warning for the future.  In the book, Gatsby being shot and killed was a warning for Daisy and Nick.  But Nick is the one that adheres to the cautionary tale.  He was the only one that supported and tried to do the right thing for Gatsby.  The 1974 movie showed the shooting but did not change the meaning of Gatsby’s death which was a cautionary tale and made Gatsby a sympathetic character.  Do you think that The Great Gatsby is a cautionary tale or just a love story that became a tragedy?  Do you feel Gatsby was a sympathetic character?  I googled life lesson learned and found this quote that could have paid tribute to Gatsby and his death, “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories” Haruki Murakami.  But the 2013 movie made Gatsby’s death pathetic.  Instead of him staring at the house that brought back memories of his love for Daisy and their past, Gatsby was doing more beckoning with his hands and his death was too long and drawn out that would resemble an Edgar Allan Poe death scene.  Instead of Gatsby’s death being sad, the over acting made it silly.  Do you think it was DiCaprio that made a bigger than life death for Gatsby or do you think that DiCaprio was following the script?   Did you like the way DiCaprio stared for a long time at Daisy’s house?  Did you like his hand and body gestures, I call this beckoning?  Should Gatsby’s death scene been a tribute to his love for Daisy’s?