After watching the film version of The Great Gatsby, I was struck by how similar the novel and the
movie were. It was honestly one of the most parallel book-movie combos that I
have seen. That being said, there were some distinct differences between the
two, and it is those variances that I will focus on.
The first main difference, and certainly the most notable
one, was the fact that Nick Carraway was recounting the story from therapy,
where he was being treated for alcoholism. In addition, it is shown that Nick
is the one writing The Great Gatsby.
This contrasts with the book in a variety of ways. Primarily, there was never
any hint in the book that Nick, a man shown to be the most careful and
level-headed character in the entire novel, was destined to become a morbid
alcoholic. Secondly, the novel is written in the present tense throughout, and
never mentions Nick writing the novel in the future. The only instance where it
even suggests that Nick is recanting the story is in the very last chapter
where Nick writes, “After two years I remember the rest of that day…”
Another disparity can be found in the relationship between
Nick and Jordan. In Gatsby, it is
clear that Nick and Jordan had a fairly intimate, albeit complicated,
relationship. Fitzgerald never gives the reader a clear indication of just how
close the two were, but it can be inferred that they did have some sort of
relationship. In the film, however, Nick and Jordan’s relationship is all but
cut out for sake of time and simplicity.
A final, yet rather significant change made, involved Tom
Buchanan. Throughout the majority of the film, Tom is portrayed exactly as in
the book—a racist, (although this trait is downplayed in the film) pretentious,
and adulterous man. Then preceding the death of Gatsby, there is a split in
Tom’s portrayal. In the book, Wilson is said to have traced Gatsby’s yellow car
on his own after many hours of wandering around Long Island. On the other hand,
the film shows Tom giving Wilson Gatsby’s name whilst putting the idea into his
head that “something ought to be done” about him. This plot differences leads
to a large difference in the depiction of Tom. In the book, Tom is left as an
unlikeable character; in contrast, the film makes Tom out to be a cold-blooded killer.
I also did my blog about the differences between the movie and book version of Gatsby. I definitely agree that it's one of the closest representations of a book that I've ever seen. I never even thought to mention that Nick was talking to a therapist, and that he was the one writing the book. I think that was done mostly to establish the fact that Nick was the narrator of the movie and book. I also think that the changes that were made in the movie were made mostly to save time, since the movie was already so long.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this the movie was a good adaptation. I wish they had included the relationship between Nick and Jordan, but like you said, it was likely cut out since the movie was long as it was. I also think they may have cut it out in order to push the focus more towards Gatsby and Daisy and their relationship/story. I'm unsure how I feel about Tom's depiction in the movie, either. I'm not sure if book Tom was the type to indirectly suggest killing Gatsby to Wilson or not. But movie Tom was definitely a ruthless, angry character.
ReplyDeleteI think that the movie portrayed both Tom and Daisy differently. Tom is made out to be even more terrible than he was presented to be in the book, and I felt that Daisy was made more sympathetic than her book portryal. I'm not quite sure why the director decided to take this route, but i'm glad he did with Daisy because I felt like there was more emotion to her charcter than was presented the book. However, I agree with you on the point that changing how Tom gave Wilson information, how very small that may seem, ended up changing how I perceived Tom.
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