In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is described as someone who is powerfully built, a bully, physically pleasing but also aggressive and violent. And let’s not forget he is very wealthy. Tom is not a likable character and as the story goes on, he doesn’t get much better. We would expect Tom to look like someone who is rich and seems to only cares about themselves. In the 1974 film, Tom Buchanan is played by Bruce Dern and the 2013 actor was Joel Edgerton. Although our two Tom’s look different, I feel like they both are great representations of what we imagined Tom to look like. They both were able to capture that aspect of being a terrible husband, rude and disrespectful towards just about everyone. But one thing about the Tom’s is that they have the look of someone who was possibly sweet at first but after you get comfortable they show you their real side. In the images above and below, you are able to see the main differences in the Tom’s but for some reason, they both make sense. I will say the 2013 Tom does have more of an abusive husband/person look than the 1974 Tom which is what we would look for because we know that Tom punched Myrtle in the face at one point. The 1974 Tom has more of a crazy look, like he would be the type to be made if he found out his wife was cheating on him, even though he has been having an affair since they’ve been married. Both Tom’s were great representations of what we could’ve imagined while reading the book and they might’ve played their roles so well that people still don’t like them today.
