Dramatis Personae:
Tom and Daisy Buchanan: super-rich inhabitants of the Hamptons
Jay Gatsby: filthy-rich neighbor and playboy - he wants Daisy
Nick Carraway: narrator, Gatsby's neighbor, Daisy's cousin
One critic said "Lacks dash" about this movie but I say "With dash it's loaded!" If "dash" means style, panache and color then this film has it in spades, from the production values (note Gatsby's marvelous parties and the sumptuous dwellings inhabited by him and the Buchanans) to the all-star casting. To wit: Redford makes a wonderfully enigmatic Gatsby, while Mia Farrow as vain, idle Daisy, gushes her enthusiasm at seeing old friend Nick again like a child contemplating a triple-decker ice cream cone. She's similarly emotive when she tells philandering husband Tom "You're revolting!" Bruce Dern, as ex-college football star Tom, nicely conveys the haughtiness of his privileged life and a just-below-the-surface anger and physicality, which erupts when he's squeezed between his on-the-side sweetie and Daisy, who threatens to leave him for Gatsby.
This story, like its recurring symbol - the green light at the end of Daisy's pier (that Gastby watches like it's the North star) - is about hopes and dreams, even the ones we think we've found that are "already past us." The hope is Gatsby's - that he could become rich enough (and thereby desirable enough in his mind) to possess his true love Daisy. Jay Gatz realized his ambition of "success," even changing his name to Gatsby in the process, thereby making of himself the American dream - the poor boy who made good. Unfortunately for him, with his lifelong goal of having Daisy seemingly at his fingertips he lost everything, including his life, but in so doing revealed what he really was: part fake (wealthy by illegal activities), part dreamer, part great romantic whose ambition knew no bounds and lastly a hero, as he died protecting Daisy from her complicity in a hit-and-run accident.
Whether F. Scott Fitzgerald meant the title "The Great Gatsby" sarcastically or not, Jay Gatz became everything the title implies and this film version beautifully brings the characters and their era to life. Also worth noting is Sam Waterston as observer and one-man-Greek-chorus Nick Carraway, whose moving, straight-from-the-book closing narration sums up both Gatsby and maybe a little of ourselves, along with our own lost dreams.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan: super-rich inhabitants of the Hamptons
Jay Gatsby: filthy-rich neighbor and playboy - he wants Daisy
Nick Carraway: narrator, Gatsby's neighbor, Daisy's cousin
One critic said "Lacks dash" about this movie but I say "With dash it's loaded!" If "dash" means style, panache and color then this film has it in spades, from the production values (note Gatsby's marvelous parties and the sumptuous dwellings inhabited by him and the Buchanans) to the all-star casting. To wit: Redford makes a wonderfully enigmatic Gatsby, while Mia Farrow as vain, idle Daisy, gushes her enthusiasm at seeing old friend Nick again like a child contemplating a triple-decker ice cream cone. She's similarly emotive when she tells philandering husband Tom "You're revolting!" Bruce Dern, as ex-college football star Tom, nicely conveys the haughtiness of his privileged life and a just-below-the-surface anger and physicality, which erupts when he's squeezed between his on-the-side sweetie and Daisy, who threatens to leave him for Gatsby.
This story, like its recurring symbol - the green light at the end of Daisy's pier (that Gastby watches like it's the North star) - is about hopes and dreams, even the ones we think we've found that are "already past us." The hope is Gatsby's - that he could become rich enough (and thereby desirable enough in his mind) to possess his true love Daisy. Jay Gatz realized his ambition of "success," even changing his name to Gatsby in the process, thereby making of himself the American dream - the poor boy who made good. Unfortunately for him, with his lifelong goal of having Daisy seemingly at his fingertips he lost everything, including his life, but in so doing revealed what he really was: part fake (wealthy by illegal activities), part dreamer, part great romantic whose ambition knew no bounds and lastly a hero, as he died protecting Daisy from her complicity in a hit-and-run accident.
Whether F. Scott Fitzgerald meant the title "The Great Gatsby" sarcastically or not, Jay Gatz became everything the title implies and this film version beautifully brings the characters and their era to life. Also worth noting is Sam Waterston as observer and one-man-Greek-chorus Nick Carraway, whose moving, straight-from-the-book closing narration sums up both Gatsby and maybe a little of ourselves, along with our own lost dreams.