Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Luhrmann

One of the few new characters in the novel is the psychiatrist. The addition of a psychiatrist is entirely superfluous and is added bulk to the movie, serving only to explain Luhrmann’s addendum to the story of Nick becoming an alcoholic in wake of Gatsby’s tragic death. Nick’s plunge into alcoholism is plausible and perhaps even expected and thus fits seamlessly with the pace and narration of the film, however, the use of the psychiatrist to explain and expand on this development is entirely unnecessary. Luhrmann could have easily depicted a drunken writer recalling his shattered past through literature without any psychiatrist and added bulk. This may have granted more time for the film to investigate Nick’s relationship with Jordan, which …show more content…
One of the more interesting aspects of the novel is the futility and inevitability of failure in Gatsby’ relationship, which is made apparent to all but Gatsby himself. The relationship is decidedly one sided; when Gatsby finally grasps Daisy and his green light, readers get the sense that she is just allowing herself to be swept away because of his overwhelming adoration for her, realizing how much she means to him. The love declared between the two is more of a coercive influence than a genuine force, and is one of the greatest and most prominent illusions Fitzgerald constructs for Gatsby. It is made clear in the book that their relationship was stuck in the past, though Luhrmann portrays their love as though its strength is unwavering. This is most apparent in the plaza hotel scene towards the final act of the film. In the novel, Daisy follows Gatsby’s intentions to elope, but her reluctance makes it clear that “she had never, all along intended eon doing anything at all.” From the start Daisy had known her rekindled love was just a transitory distraction, however, in the film, Daisy follows all of Gatsby’s desires with equal devotion until he pushes her too far by asking her to tell Tom that she had never loved him, and by frighteningly unleashing his temper with Tom. This scene also deviates from the …show more content…
Luhrmann faced an unenviable challenge in translating the soul and essence of Fitzgerald’s classic novel, and for the most part, he succeeded. Luhrmann inserts as much extravagance as he can squeeze throughout most of the movie, and even emphasizes the story’s key moments and themes while maintaining an incredible faithfulness to the story. However, perhaps Luhrmann went too far with his style, with his emphasizing of themes and moments and his propensity for the extravagant. The film is decidedly faithful yet ambiguous in its time and setting, and diverging in a few aspects that hollow out some of the film’s more harrowing aspects, which as a result leaves the film feeling more like a modern, typical story of love than a failed, illusive dream. While Luhrmann maintains reverence for the classic’s source material, his amplified, vivacious rendering of Gatsby’s tragedy results in a lavishly theatrical, ostentatious celebration of the emotional and material extravagance devoid of the subtle and tender themes Fitzgerald composed with such fascinated ambivalence. Luhrmann delivers an entertaining package that plunges its audience in sorrow, hope, and excitement, yet it fails to truly capture and convey the core theme of Fitzgerald’s classic that separates it from most contemporary stories of love and wealth; the story of Gatsby’s truly illusory life. Perhaps it’s not