Review of The Great Gatsby (1974) by Birte Valkyrje R — 19 Jan 2009

This movie really pissed me off. It's an insult to one of the greatest novels ever written! Sam Waterston (Nick Carraway) and Lois Chiles (Jordan Baker) are the only cast members who seem comfortable in their roles - though the character of Jordan is about as compelling as wallpaper in this adaptation. As for the rest, when they're not hamming up iconic scenes they seem embarrassed to be in this wreck of a production. Robert Redford doesn't project Gatsby's enigma at all - his Gatsby just seems like a stupid rich twat. Mia Farrow's Daisy is frustratingly ridiculous, making one wonder how anybody could stay in love with such a histrionic bitch (sure, Daisy is a histrionic bitch in the book, but at least there's something lovable about her - Farrow takes her away from lovable, into "Shut the fuck up bitch!" territory). Bruce Dern's Tom Buchanan is a pussy. And Nick and Jordan's affair - wtf happened to it? The whole movie they're clearly just friends, but near the end Jordan says something about Nick throwing her over. In fact, what was the point of having Jordan's character in the movie at all? Nothing was done with her.

The party scenes are poorly shot - I mean, I dig nice legs as much as the next guy, but the close-ups of flappers busting moves and shaking booty, or foxtrotting, or jigging, or whatever the hell the slang term for dancing was back then, made for some incredibly dull viewing.

The score is gratingly awful, giving the film a bad B-movie feel, especially in scenes with the flashing green light at the end of the Buchanans' dock (and by "bad B-movie" I'm not talking "so bad it's good", I'm talking "so bad it's shit" - the flashing green light chimes made me want to punch the TV). The narration was absolutely unnecessary, and very poorly read. To screenplay writer Francis Ford Coppola's credit, at least he preserved the integrity of the book's hauntingly gorgeous last passages by not having the narrator read them out loud.

After writing that I read the last couple of pages of the book again... Goddamn, that's great writing. Don't bother with this, or any other, adaptation of this masterpiece - just read the book.