Essay On The Differences Between The Great Gatsby Book And Movie

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered as one of America’s greatest historical novels. Because of this, it is no surprise that Hollywood would decide to rip off this American classic rather than creating its own original work. The director of the film, Baz Luhrmann, clearly has many differences with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The most noticeable distinction between the two being their seventy year difference in age. Perhaps Luhrmann didn’t think it was enough to brutally appropriate Romeo and Juliet and thought that he could make more money by ripping off another major work. Even though The Great Gatsby is a classic piece of American literature, Luhrmann is able to attract a younger audience by over exaggerating and sexualizing pieces …show more content…
From going from the book to the movie, one will easily notice that many scenes are combined. This happens several times so that it is not difficult for the audience to follow important details that are presented. An example is this is when Nick Carraway finds out about the shaky relationship between Daisy and Tom Buchanan in the first scene. In the book, these events are sequenced and Nick finds out the entire relationship throughout the novel, rather than just one event. In addition, the relationship between Carraway and Gatsby moves forward at a much faster rate in the movie than as presented by the novel. Many of the smaller scenes are cut out because they offer little significance to the overall story. One added element is that the entire movie is Nick Carraway looking back on his life as he talks with a therapist about his depression. This addition is extremely helpful for the flow of the movie and allows director to input information seamlessly into the script. Although the storyline of the film contrasts with the book, it does little to change the overall meaning behind the