Brothers,
As part of your screening of the 1974 Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel, please answer the following questions with detailed explanations.
1. How are characters portayed on film? Do these portrayals match your own characterization in light of reading the text? Explain.
2. How about setting, imagery, and dialogue (i.e. character interaction)? Explain.
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6 comments:
1. Different characters are portrayed differently on film, mainly Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy. Daisy is portrayed as somewhat of a ditz and doesn't know what is going on half the time, but at times is very emotional, where as in the book it portrays to you how she is kind of laid back and knows what to do with every situation that comes across her. During the film, Tom is portrayed as a drunk who is constantly having a love affair with Myrtle and isnt very secretive about it, where as in the book he is close with Daisy and keeps his affair with Myrtle on the downlow more. Gatsby i think is portrayed the most different between the film and book. Gatsby in the film is portrayed as one who is seen as being laid back and very reserved, in the film he is constantly speaking through nick to Daisy like in the book though. In the book he is portrayed as a more outgoing person than he seems to be in the film.
2. The setting is more set up like the shore in the movie than the book. I thought the place where the people lived, would b a set off city on a lake, certainly not on an ocean. After watching the movie i have realized i imagined the people to look at different then they were in the movie, one being Gatsby. At first, i pictured Gatsby as one who in a way i thought was older than he was and looked it as well. I also pictured him as being a more tall and prominent man. The dialogue i believed would b more different as well, I didn't think the dialogue would be as heated for example, between Gastby and Tom, and Tom and Myrtle.
1. The directors interpretation of the characters varies greatly from my own. I felt in the book they were characterized as intelligent, aware people who were just nefarious in their actions and lacking morals. Where as the movie they seem to be much "ditzier" they're portrayed as somewhat unintelligent and i get a sense that they are unaware of the actual evil behind many of their actions. The novel also makes everything seem much more mysterious and shady where as the movie seems like everyone knows everything about everyone and no one makes a concious effort to hide their personal lives. I liked the book more than the movie.
2. The book varies in many aspects from the movie in the categories of setting, imagery and dialogue also. The book lead me to picture many shadowy mysterious settings where as almost all the scenes in the movie are bright in cheery in contrast to the many dark happenings that are occuring. Although the lack of sincerity may be do to the bad acting everyone seems to speak with much less convicition and purpose in the movie many of the things they say and do seem very superficial this also influenced my opinion of how the director portrayed the intelligence of the characters (especially the women). Again im going to have to say i favor the book in "characterizing" the characters.
1.In the film the characters are portrayed to be dull-whitted or less intelligent than they really are. They also seem to not think there actions through and in a way just act on their first impulse. In my opinion the text made the characters out to be brighter and also it seemed they had more control over their own decisions. For example, Gatsby seems to just wing his chances to meet daisy, while in the book it seems he has a direct plan.
2. In the way of setting I think the movie portrayed the locations very accurately and the houses were what I would picture them to be. While the imagery was a different story because the book made everything to seem darker and more secretive and the movie over glamified everything. The dialogue in the movie seemed to be somewhat dettached from the characters like they were all pretending to be someone else.
1. The movie did match my characterations of the characters with some but some just came out differently on celluloid. The first of these is Tom who I taught of as more nefarious in the novel and larger and more intimidating while the movie failed to capture this. I also though that Daisy was too childish and emotional in tthe film. In terms of Gatsby I feel that the book made him see more charismatic while the movie made him quite dull.
2. The dialogue of the film is more subdued than that of the book in that the book seemed to portray more emotion while many of the lines were delivered in the movie with stone faced acting. I had pictured a more desolate setting considering tha talk of things such as the valley of ashes in the book but the movie made it look more like a smaal town built around a lake. Also the imagery in the book was very prominent while on film it was much less noticable and would take more effort to point out than that of the book.
1. I don't think that all of the characters in the movie were portrayed as well as they could have been. Many of them lacked in some and areas of personality that I would have liked to have seen. Other characters were simply overdone, making the movie experience unpleasant. It's one thing to exaggerate a character it's another to change the character's identity, better luck next time Mr. Jack Clayton.
2. Overall, the setting and the imagery seemed to be fine. However, once again, the exaggeration of how rich the people are is somewhat annoying, along with the ever-present factor of how stuck-up the characters are anyway, without the exaggeration, making them very displeasing people. Every dialoge with Daisy involved is difficult to watch because she's so amazingly ditsy and flighty that it makes you want to slap her in the face. Speaking of slapping in the face, Tom's domestic ct of violence towards Myrtle was another over-exaggerated scene in the movie, and then the girl who is playing Myrtle gets over being slapped so hard that she bleeds in a second, that's hard to believe and rather annoying. Once again, better lck next time MR. Jack Clayton.
1. In the book, Daisy seems like she knows whats going on and knows how people are feeling, but in the movie, shes portrayed as ditzy, flighty, and is oblivious to other peoples feelings. Tom Buchanan doesn't seem like that much of a threat in the movie as much as in the book. Aside from hitting Mrtyle, the only threatening part about him in the movie is his annoyed voice and cocky attitude. Nick Carraway seems more intelligent and philisophical in the book than in the movie, and is also portrayed as more of a quiet gentleman, where as in the book he seems like he is more extroverted and confident. Gatsby seems much older and wiser in the book, because in the movie, conversation is more awkward with Nick. Also, in the book, Gatsby seems to have much more importance and respect. Most of the characters in the movie treat him like he isn't of any significance, other than throwing wild parties.
2. In the movie, the setting wasn't as dramatic as in the book. The small houses and Gatsby's mansion near an ocean aren't what I imagined it to be. I expected more of a larger atmosphere, having the ocean being gigantic, having Gatsby's house much further away than Nick's house, and the roads having more hills and an overall rustic look. As for imagery, it was much easier to pick apart in the book than in the film, because the film is at a rapid pace. Dialogue in the film seemed to have much more emphasis on adultery, where as in the book it seemed like the characters treated it like a usual thing that wouldn't need to be worried about.
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