Differences And Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And 1920's

The Great Gatsby is a book almost every high-schooler in America has read. It has been adapted into a movie five times, but the film versions from 1974 and 2013 are the two most well-known versions. While both share similarities in dialogue, setting, and plot, there are notable differences in the portrayal of the main character, accuracy to the time period the book took place in, and the opening scene that sets the tone for the entire movie. While both versions of The Great Gatsby have phenomenal casts, both lead characters have been portrayed in similar ways with different characteristics being the focus. Robert Redford was cast as Jay Gatsby for the 1974 version of the movie, and he one-hundred percent looked the part. He looked the way …show more content…
Both movies managed to hold true to the liveliness that the 1920’s was infamous for. The major party scene in The Great Gatsby, while they both held an entirely different tone in the movies, still managed to capture the carefree nature the people from that time period had. However, the music seemed to be as different as possible. The soundtrack from the 1974 version of the movie was very period-accurate, playing mainly big jazz, which was big around that time. The 2013 version took songs that the demographic they were trying to reach would connect with and attempted to turn them into a jazzier sound. However, they went with mainly rap and hip-hop songs that despite being remixed still sounded out of place for the time period. Both movies won the best costume award at the Oscars for their respective release years. Though they had different costume designers, the movies managed to recreate the 1920’s fashion as closely as they could. However, both movies didn’t quite capture the hair and make-up as well as they did with the costumes. The hairstyles and make-up styles were heavily influenced by the time period the movie was released in instead of historically accurate