On Thursday night I watched the 1974 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby for the first time. Honestly, I was not sure how I was going to like it because I have seen the 2013 adaptation and I love that version, so I was unsure what I would think of something new. I am also biased because I love Leonardo DiCaprio, and I think he is the perfect actor to play Gatsby. Despite my biases, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Some of my classmates thought the movie moved sort of slow, but I actually thought it moved at an appropriate pace. I thought it moved at a similar pace at which I read the book. Perhaps it is because I read the book in one sitting, which took me about 2 1/2 hours, which is the same as the duration of the movie.
Before the movie started, Dr. Mintler noted that she thinks the actress who plays Myrtle Wilson gives the best performance in the film. After watching the movie, I would say that I have to agree with that statement. Her performance seemed very genuine. I truly believed that she was not only in love with Tom, but also in love with the idea of increasing her social status. She was also really good at acting with her eyes. This is a difficult skill for an actor to master.
In the 1974 film adaptation, Daisy’s daughter plays a larger role. In the novel she is mainly just mentioned, but in the film she has actual speaking lines. Granted, she does not have a lot of lines, but her character still plays a larger role than it did in the novel. This affects the story because the addition of Daisy’s daughter’s larger role demonstrates that not only is Gatsby trying to break up a marriage, but he is trying to break up a family. I think that this makes audiences less likely to root for Daisy and Gatsby because this would mean a family would be broken up. Tom would not be the only person negatively affected by this. An innocent little girl would also be affected. I think addition should have been added because it helps demonstrate some of the problematic aspects of Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship.
Overall, I really enjoyed this adaptation of The Great Gatsby because I thought it did a good job at capturing complexities in the novel that get overlooked.