The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is arguably the greatest novel written in the history of American Literature. It is known for being littered with “enchanted objects” (The Green light, the color yellow, the eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleberg etc), unlikeable characters, and achieving (or not achieving) the so called “American Dream.”
This past Friday, May 10th, Baz Luhrman’s much anticipated film version of the novel was released in theaters. It was met with much contention, critics didn’t seem to like it, jazz age purists were wary of the soundtrack being full of modern hip hop, and fans of the book worried that Hollywood would ruin their precious novel. Screw all of them, Gatsby was GREAT. A prefect blend of modernity, jazz, and all of that literary stuff that everyone loves while still being visually and emotionally striking.
For those of you who somehow are not familiar with The Great Gatsby, here is a recap. Nick Carraway moves to West 
Egg, Long Island in the 1922 to get into “the bond business.” He lives next door to Jay Gatsby who is known for throwing wild, loud and crazy parties every weekend. Nick’s cousin Daisy lives across the bay in East Egg. Gatsby and Daisy were in love with each other before Gatsby had to go to war. After the War, Gatsby couldn’t get back to her so Daisy married the ridiculously rich Tom Buchanan. Gatsby wants Daisy back and there are parties and drinking and dead people. It’s awesome, I promise you.
Baz Luhrman is known for his visually striking films, like Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet. Gatsby is no different. This quality in Luhrman’s work really comes out in Gatsby’s grand parties. There is glitter and champagne and color right in your face; exactly how one would picture a “rager” in 1922.
The cast was beautifully…casted. Toby McGuire plays Nick Carraway, the narrator. McGuire captures the awkwardness of someone being thrown into a life and an affair he never really wanted to be involved with perfectly. He plays Nick’s progression from being very optimistic to quite pessimistic and depressed very well.
Joel Edgerton plays the extremely rich and very racist Tom Buchanan. And boy does he do it well. Edgerton captures all of the emotions that run through Tom, from the pompousness, the geed, the grief and the triumph of ruining Gatsby’s plans.
And the final actor that is worth noting is none other than Jay Gatsby himself, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. 
DiCaprio is Gatsby. There is no one else who could have played him. He does the whole “shady guy who is trying to be upperclass” thing very well. The thng about Leonardo DiCaprio is that he can switch emotions extremely well. He can go from being relatively clam to just an explosion of anger and rage. He does that in this movie and it’s amazing.
The music was phenomenal and blended perfectly with the look and feel of the film. Jay Z produced all of the music and it is this mesh between 1920s Jazz and modern hip hop. The styles of music blend seamlessly and are used appropriately and with purpose over the course of the film. It’s a musical masterpiece that fits perfectly on film.
If you’ve ever wanted a word for word adaption of a book, The Great Gatsby is that adaption. Recently I reread the book in preparation of the film (I’m one of those people, yes) and it is almost line for line the same, which is rare for book adaptions. Granted the book is only about 200 pages so there isn’t much material to change, but still, great adaption. All of the famous symbols and “enchanted objects” are there and very clear. They even accentuated a few of them, specifically the color yellow, which seems to be the main color in the film. The whole film has a yellow tint to it. Great job filmmakers.
Though this being an adaption of a book is where my major critiques come in. The film kind of slaps you in the face with the whole “based on a book” thing. The film has Nick Carraway write the events in the film as the book in order 
to deal with his depression, and they kind of slap you in the face with it. Constantly going back to Nick writing the book or talking with his doctor and it pulls you away from the story. Also there is this weird thing where the last bits of Nick’s narration are written on the screen as he’s saying them and it’s so drastically different from the rest of the movie that it just doesn’t quite fit and had me a little confused.
Overall it has great music, great cinematography, great actors, and a great script. While I don’t think the film will win any Oscars, I’d still give The Great Gatsby it seven green lights out of Ten.