The color is rich, the photography superb, and the atmospherics of the roaring twenties are realistically and stunningly in evidence in this film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece novel, but that's it.
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 10
Rotten:16
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 26 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Jack Clayton's version of THE GREAT GATSBY was adapted for the screen by Francis Ford Coppola from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 masterpiece about a handsome and enigmatic tycoon betrayed by the... Jack Clayton's version of THE GREAT GATSBY was adapted for the screen by Francis Ford Coppola from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 masterpiece about a handsome and enigmatic tycoon betrayed by the American Dream. Though self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) has been in love with the spoiled Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) since his days as a poor boy in the Midwest, she's now married to a boorish philanderer (Bruce Dern) and seems more out of reach than ever. Gatsby's attempts to win Daisy back result in his tragic downfall, as witnessed and narrated by his neighbor and friend Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston). The result is a richly successful evocation of the Jazz Age and a tragic portrait of shallow lives ruined by wealth, brilliantly acted by Redford, Waterston, Dern, and the rest of the supporting cast. [More]
Starring: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Sam Waterston
Starring: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Sam Waterston, Karen Black, Scott Wilson, Lois Chiles
Director: Jack Clayton
Director: Jack Clayton
Screenwriter: Francis Ford Coppola
Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Producer: David Merrick
Composer: Nelson Riddle
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Reviews for The Great Gatsby
The Francis Coppola script and Jack Clayton's direction paint a savagely genteel portrait of an upper class generation that deserved in spades what it got circa 1929 and after.
Director Jack Clayton seems overawed by the opulence of the production as well as by the mythic presence of Fitzgerald -- and the result is a film of shimmering surface brilliance and almost complete lack of focus or substance.
A literary adaptation that continually begs detrimental comparison with the novel, this relies too much on appearance, making little attempt to explore behind the beguiling '20s façade.
The movie can't see this through all its giant closeups of pretty knees and dancing feet. It's frivolous without being much fun.
The movie is 'faithful' to the novel with a vengeance -- to what happens in the novel, that is, and not to the feel, mood, and spirit of it.
Though lush in nearly every way, under the reproachful eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, The Great Gatsby becomes ineffectual and rudderless.
Robert Redford offers an interesting take on mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby.
...an opulent, stylish extravaganza that may be more faithful to the 'look' of Fitzgerald's novel than to its spirit, yet brings a good deal of entertainment along the way.
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