Movie

“The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald has been made into movies several times since it was published in 1925. Each director and cast have brought a very different approach to the story and presented Gatsby in very different ways. These adaptations include a silent film, two blockbuster movies and a made-for-TV movie.

In the novel the story is told from the point of view of a first-person narrator; this makes the adaptation of the narrative harder for screenwriters, as the subtleties of Nick's storytelling are often lost. However, using a movie format can open up other possibilities for the film. For example, it is much easier to jump between times and places in movies, allowing for a more dynamic narrative structure.

The earliest movie version of F Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” was made in 1926, only a year after the publication of the novel. It was a silent movie and was based on a stage version of the book. The director, Herbert Brenon, emphasized Gatsby's parties and made less use of character development than in later adaptations. Unfortunately, the film has been lost, but a short trailer for movie remains[1]. It was reported that when Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda went to see the movie, they left the cinema in protest, believing it didn't capture the novel at all.

Later popular adaptations include the 1974 movie starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, which was a box-office success. This version stays fairly close to the original narrative by Fitzgerald. There was also a made-for-TV movie adaptation made in 2000, which aired both in Britain and in the United States, but which was a less successful version. Most recently, in 2013 Baz Luhrmann directed Leonardo di Caprio and Carey Mulligan in a big-budget adaptation. This version is less loyal to the original narrative but was a box-office success worldwide.

1974

In 1974, a feature-length adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald was released. Directed by Jack Clayton, the movie starred Mia Farrow as Daisy, who was known for her Oscar-winning p...