Review of The Great Gatsby (2013) by Dominik A — 29 Apr 2017

I had previously watched Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of 'Romeo and Juliet' (Romeo+Juliet) and I found it to be a relatively entertaining film that, importantly, understood when it was set (modern day). This is but one criticism that I have of 'The Great Gatsby'; Luhrmann's choice of music was bizarrely modern despite the film being set in the 1920s.

Furthermore, the film appears to try to create a 'flow' in which scenes seamlessly connect to create a smooth experience, however, this does not work. The scenes seem rushed and therefore, as an audience, we cannot connect to the characters (you could argue that perhaps this was done to exemplify the 'superficial' nature of the time). Scenes simply come and go and the audience, in my opinion, cannot respect the themes behind the source material.

My final verdict is that Baz Luhrmann simply could not adapt the 'great American novel' to the big screen; not in the sense of a poorly structured narrative, but in the fact that some poor choices in music and editing led to this poor adaption.