“The Great Gatsby”, like all true classics, will never be outdated. The tale F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby, who wanted his first love Daisy Buchanan back and lost everything, including his life, over this, is timeless.
The heartbreaking story made abundantly clear that Jay Gatsby, the hero of the book, was a much better human being than the people he strived to be accepted by. The overall judgement by society saw this different, of course. “The Great Gatsby” shows the difference between the thinking of the very rich and normal people, their various views on what is important in one’s fellow people. All this is clad in a story brimming with the life of the 1920s, of parties, glamour, bootlegging, getting rich fast, and the perfect love.
In the book carefully drawn characters like idealistic Jay Gatsby, weak Daisy Buchanan, ambitious golf player and female side-kick Jordan Baker, arrogant Tom Buchanan, naïve garage keeper George Wilson and his unhappy wife Myrtle, the mistress of Tom, and the quiet father of Jay Gatsby, Henry Gatz, encounter each other. The characters differ between those being born in the high society and those coming from more normal backgrounds. The latter include the narrator, Nick Carraway, who is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s alter ego in the book. There is one silent witness to everything that happens: the eyes of Doctor J. T. Eckleburg, painted on a huge billboard and overlooking the road from the rich men’s dwellings in East Egg though the ashes to New York City. Whilst in the book those eyes are a fringe issue, in the movies the eyes give a special superhuman visual quality to the story.
Much has been written about the core objective of the American high society to stay the high society, not to allow change and to do everything necessary to keep the money in the family. The behaviour of the American upper class is not much different compared to that of noble houses in other parts of the world, just without title. Today Asia is in the focus – books like “Crazy Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan show this. Whilst the social net became more permeable, the strategies by families to keep the status quo are still the same. Money buys freedom and the chance not to be hit by the law as hard as a normal person. Learning that from childhood, the character changes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald brought the 1920s, the roaring twenties of the last century, masterfully alive. The 3 movie adaptions of the book are all still wonderful to watch, but they do show the spirit of their time as well. It is said there was an early 1926 silent movie made directly after the publication of the book, but it is lost to us today.
The first movie came to the cinemas in 1949. It is the one that takes the most freedom with the original book. The sharp edges had been smoothed, e.g. at the end of the book. Some heart is left with the character of Jordan Baker for example, and Daisy and Tom Buchanan are not unveiled in their full indifference to other people’s fates. Probably after the war the reality of how people can behave out of self-interest seemed too harsh.
The 1974 movie is closer to the book, but to today’s eyes a little bit dusty. This adaption has the most problems bringing the liveliness of the 1920s on the screen.
The best adaption, in my opinion, and closest to the book, is the one from 2013. The set of actors is excellent, and narrator Nick Carraway, played by Tobey Maguire, becomes an as important figure as Jay Gatsby. Noone could play Jay Gatsby as Leonardo Di Caprio – he transports all the wishes, dreams, and elegance of the main figure with easiness. There can be no more sympathetic Nick Carraway than Tobey Maguire – together both actors carry the story to new heights.
The book “The Great Gatsby”, unfair as life sometimes can be, only became the world renowned classic that it is today after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death in 1940. The first of the movies was made in 1949 when the book was already hailed as the best one of the author. He had thought he would be forgotten after his death, as by 1940 the book was almost forgotten. Similar story to “The Leopard” of Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, who’s story we had looked at some time ago.
F. Scott Fitzgerald became only 44 years, he was born in 1896 and died in 1940.
The story narrated in “The Great Gatsby” is based on a love story of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s own life. Ginevra King, a young and rich debutante, was his first love. The romance was crushed by her father due to F. Scott Fitzgerald being poor. He enlisted in the army after that shock and soon met his future wife, Zelda. Whilst Ginevra married the rich man her family had chosen, F. Scott Fitzgerald became famous and wealthy during the 1920s. Both marriages were unhappy. They met again in 1937, but by then F. Scott Fitzgerald was an alcoholic and not very successful any more.
The story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan is one of the big “what could have been” stories, where one wished the main protagonists’ luck with all one’s heart, but wonders if it would have really worked out. Reality saved the dream and kept the longing alive forever.
There is a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald about the very rich, that gives some doubt about how happy their future could have been:
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”
All rights to the book and the movies belong to:
Scott Fitzgerald, F.: The Great Gatsby, original release date: April 10, 1925, open release date: January 17, 2021, no rights reserved, printed by Amazon in France, ISBN: 9798856433653
The Great Gatsby, 1949, Richard Maibaum Production 1949, 2013 A&R PRODUCTIONS, directed by Elliot Nugent, most famous actor: Alan Ladd
The Great Gatsby, 1974, Paramount Pictures (Universal Pictures), directed by Jack Clayton, most famous actors: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow
The Great Gatsby, 2013, Bazmark Film, Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc, Dolby Digital, directed by Baz Luhrmann, most famous actors: Leonardo Di Caprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan