The Great Gatsby

The backbone of this movie is a two male, one female love triangle. Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) is a non-rich American soldier with combat experience and awards for valor who meets and falls in love with Daisy (Mia Farrow), a beautiful and wealthy social butterfly. Gatsby asks Daisy to wait for him, but she seizes an opportunity to join social climbers and marries wealthy Tom Buchanan (Bruce Dern). Daisy and Tom muddle along in an unhappy marriage made tolerable for Daisy by Tom's frequent absences and uplifting for Tom by his frequent conjugal meetings with Myrtle Wilson (Karen Black), wife of gas station owner George Wilson (Scott Wilson). Gatsby remains unmarried, keeps a huge scrapbook with clippings of Daisy's travels and socialite activities and will not quit thinking and dreaming of winning Daisy back.Living in Midwestern America, Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) reads about mansion-building and wild social goings-on in the Northeast and moves into a cottage in Long Island to observe and satisfy his curiosity. His cottage is next door to newly rich Gatsby's outrageously huge mansion. Nick becomes Gatsby's best friend and confidant, giving the deepest possible insights into newly rich goings-on. Early in the movie, Tom is portrayed as a fundamentally rotten person who regularly abuses Daisy who sticks with him to avoid losing her social standing. Gatsby plays the role of a seldom seen, fabulously wealthy and refined gentleman with an Oxford University accent who throws huge outdoor parties that he watches through a window without attending, hoping Daisy will appear as a celebrant.As the movie develops from the beginning to an approach to the ending, almost everyone with a speaking role except Nick turns out to be a rotten person. During the same interval, the masses of couples at Gatsby's parties seem to be highly educated airheads with almost identical behavior patterns, clothing, assumed superiority smiles and mechanically rehearsed Charleston dancing techniques. Nick arranges for a meeting between Daisy and Gatsby, leading to their love being restored. Tom sees that he is losing Daisy and learns to hate Gatsby. Myrtle dies in an accident, Tom tells George it was caused by Gatsby, causing George to become allied with Tom in hating Gatsby. The movie reveals two more violent events before ending. Nick seems to be the lone wonderful person throughout most of the movie, but he slowly drifts toward becoming like those who surround him and in the last scene, Nick is forced to choose between promoting justice or casting his lot with the new friends he has made.The complexity of this film extends beyond its internal structure and into the realm of its lasting impact on its viewers, the cultures they live in and future generations. One could think of it a classic love triangle, a historical account of uncaring and frantic wealth-builders in America's 1920s, a documentary on the pitfalls of inequality disguised as entertainment or something different as shaped by open-minded viewers.Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan, Karen Black as Myrtle Wilson and Scott Wilson are perfectly cast and do excellent work as actors. Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan goes all out to be the best Daisy possible, but with her limited body and oversized eyes does not look like someone the newly rich Gatsby would pine over for many years. Robert Redford looks like the perfect Gatsby, but plays Robert Redford throughout.

This is probably the best-known theatrical production of The Great Gatsby, and generally considered the best. For the kids out there, this is absolutely nothing like the Baz Luhrman Gatsby, which is electric, fun, dynamic and takes wide cinematic license with music and green screen effects. No, this Gatsby is old school, you get a real feeling of the roaring 20's, before taxes, after the great war, when industry boomed and the country was awash in cash and ambition. Some important facts, the screenplay was by a young Francis Ford Coppola, Ralph Lauren was involved with wardrobe, it was filmed in Newport, RI, mostly in a mansion called Rosecliff - which you can visit, it's open to the public, and the sailing is done in Narragansett Bay. Add in Robert Redford, Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern and Mia Farrow - and you've got a spectacular and very honest view of the time and the emotional story of lost love by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is an amazing film, very true to the book and completely entertaining. It is a classic.

It actually follows the book and makes significantly more psychological sense - the Lenny version is overworked and misses the point of personal struggle shaped by background.

I like this film. A lot. The screenplay by pre-"Godfather" Francis Ford Coppola is a reminder of the 70s, when films wanted to be literature and EVERY film had to last over two hours. That said, I ordered the Blu-ray version hoping the film might get a remastering. It doesn't seem so. The DVD version had visible grain and occasional specks and flecks. So does this 2013 Blu-ray edition. So, if you have the DVD, you have the Blu-ray; this is a straight transfer from whatever source the DVD used. Still, it's one attractive film. Bonus features? None, which is unbelievable considering how virtually the entire cast is still alive and many of them are still working. I'm pretty sure no one asked them, either. Although Paramount owns the film, the Blu-ray release was produced by Warners. A guess: even with the much-delayed but about-to-be-released 2013 Baz Lurhman film just around the corner, Paramount had no plans to take advantage of interest in their own 40-year old film. Warners, I assumed, stepped in and they made some sort of bare bones arrangement.So, this literate and carefully-paced classic ( just short of two and a half hours long) gets a very disinterested Blu-ray release. No extras, no commentaries, no remastering, and not even a booklet/insert card. Just the film, and even that comes with the skimpiest of menus.Fun facts: Sam Waterston got a Golden Globe nomination for his performance - as Most Promising Newcomer.I'm hoping someone gets the smart idea to finally release Nelson Riddle's score - the one he got his only Oscar for - on CD.

The lesson it teaches all of us