Between the Pages

This is the 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s celebrated book of the same name, set in the roaring 1920s.  Robert Redford plays the title character, Sam Waterston is Nick Carraway (Gatsby’s neighbour, and the cousin of Daisy Buchanan) and Mia Farrow is Daisy, the object of Gatsby’s love.

The basic plot, for anyone unfamiliar with it, revolves around Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic and rich man, who everyone knows of but nobody really knows.  He throws lavish parties at his mansion, but rarely attends them himself.  While the rich elite of Long Island are happy to accept his hospitality, they are even happier to gossip about their host, and speculate on where he got his money.

As Gatsby’s neighbour, Nick becomes drawn into his world, and is perhaps the only person who sees Gatsby for who he is, and is unconcerned with gossip.  Gatsby and Daisy had a relationship years before, but she is now unhappily married to the philandering and unkind Tom Buchanan.  When she and Gatsby meet again, they rekindle their relationship, but circumstances conspire to keep them apart…

As adaptations go, this one is pretty faithful to the book.  However, while I really enjoyed the novel, the movie felt flat in parts.  Although many viewers felt otherwise, I thought that Redford did a fine job of playing Gatsby (and even manages to wear a pink suit without looking ridiculous) – he is certainly handsome and charismatic enough for the part.  However, the actor who stood out most for me was Sam Waterston as Nick.  He was also probably the most sympathetic character in the whole story, and definitely the only one I would probably want to be friends with.  Less successful was Mia Farrow’s portrayal of Daisy; however Daisy was portrayed as a superficial and annoying character in the book, so in that sense, the character depicted here stayed true to the original.

While I’m strictly a jeans and t-shirt person in real life, I do love to see glamour in movies, and this film certainly delivered on that front.  It is populated with wealthy and successful (if entirely shallow) characters, and I loved all the outfits and opulence.  Superficially, it certainly looks good, and captures the era well.

Overall, this is not a disastrous film at all, and there’s some enjoyable parts. However, I can’t say that it matched up to the fantastic novel on which it is based.  Definitely worth seeing though.

Year of release: 1974

Director: Jack Clayton

Writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald (book), Francis Ford Coppola

Main cast: Sam Waterston, Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern

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Click here for my review of the novel.

Click here for my review of the 2000 movie adaptation.

Click here for my review of the 2013 movie adaptation.

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