What works better in the movie: feelings.

[Fatin]

So, to be clear, I'm not very very very fond of the book, I just didn't give a shit about the characters so I couldn't get attached to it. I think it's brilliant that I don't feel anything for the characters because it helps in understanding the world Fitzgerald created, but it doesn't help me love the book much.

That being said, the movie sympathizes the characters more, you do feel something for the characters. All feeling are watered down in the book, but they come alive in the movie. I actually hated Daisy. In the book, I was just annoyed with her.

I feel the book works better as a social commentary, and the movie as a commentary that hides behind a story.

[Mary Kate]

I agree. I think that the characters were portrayed better and fleshed out better in the movie, but I think that the ending and the lack of respect shown to Gatsby (view spoiler)[ after his death (hide spoiler)] hit me much harder in the book. The movie definitely seemed like more of a story.

[Kaylan]

I feel like they did a really great job at taking the feelings that reading the book created and amplifying them. As lavish as things seemed to read, they were more so to watch. As disagreeable as daisy was in the book, she was flat out easy to hate in the movie. I totally loved them both, though. I know a lot of people who didn't like the movie, but I could watch it over and over. all except for one thing, why did Gatsby's accent keep changing? Acting snafu or intentional??

[Feliks]

Feelings ...when you're wearing 3d glasses? Seriously...

[Fatin]

You don't have to watch the movie in 3D. I didn't.

[Sarah]

The movie definitely makes you feel more for the characters. In the book, I hated most of them. I actually just wrote a review on my blog about this book, too (www.coffeeringsandsouthernthings.com). I have read it three times and I really do love it for other reasons, but I get annoyed with Daisy more often than not, and Gatsby seems shady to me half the time (in the book), and Tom is a cocky bastard, and Nick comes off as someone who just doesn't care about the drama, though in the movie he comes off as a little weird (but that's Tobey Maguire for you). In the end, you do have to realize that the book didn't even become popular until the late 1940s, when Fitzgerald died. It contains strange subject matter and it is a little hard to grasp the point of the story until the very end. But I can't lie and say they didn't do a great job on the movie. They even admit to over-dramatizing the wardrobe just to make us understand what it looked like to everyone back then. They came very close to matching it to the book, and for that, I'm grateful. I can't stand a movie that feels nothing at all like the book I'd just read.

[Dona]

Love the book after having taught it for several years. When I first read it, I felt the same way as Fatin. I hated the characters and was not happy that I was going to have to cover it in my class. But eventually, I really began to appreciate the layers of meaning Fitzgerald communicated and the abundant symbolism he employed. I thought Luhrmann did a spectacular job of visually capturing the essence of Fitzgerald's symbolism.
I also loved what Luhrmann did with the character of Nick Carraway. Luhrmann makes him more sympathetic. In the novel, Nick is every bit a liar and a cheat as everyone else, all the while he sanctimoniously judges the rest. Tobey Maguire's portrayal even allows for the oft-mentioned speculation that Nick is gay. (Not to be crude, but in the novel, Nick really does have a hard on for Gatsby through and through.)As for 3D, Feliks, I have to say, the 3D actually captured the carnival ride atmosphere of the 1920's and the novel quite well!

[Rashmika]

I am actually not the only person who absolutely hated Daisy!! The movie really emphasises that Daisy couldn't careless, she didn't even care about Gatsby's funeral. And how disgusted Nick was with her, but Nick's love for Gatsby (in a friend way) amazed me, he could have easily walked away, but he didn't. Even though he is not much different from the rest of them. The way Baz wove the story together, with the characters, the costumes and the music, you could really imagine that you were partying at Gatsby's! In the end, I didn't have a favourite character, as all of them had faults in their own way, but I admired Gatsby, as he was willing to pursue his dreams and he wasn't afraid to grasp anything (even things as pointless as Daisy) even with the prospect of losing everything.

Just one question: Was Gatsby friendly to Nick, only to get him to invite Daisy over? or was he purely being friendly?

can someone pls answer this! as this question has been bugging me!!

[Aaditya]

Well, Feliks, do you need to read matter written on palm leaves to feel emotions? What's wrong with 3D? They said color distracted us from emotions. They said sound distracts us. And now they say 3D is artificial. I watched Titanic in 3D and I felt emotional. Well, anyway, I didn't like the Great Gatsby book much. Hard to get into this book.

[Geoffrey]

Answer to Rashi post 8
I believe that there was a real friendship in addition to his conniving behaviour. Remember, Gatsby, for all his generosity had no real friends among the superwealthy. He probably felt Nick was a kindred soul, upwardly mobile entrepreneur like himself and bonded with him. The rest were a bunch of parisitic lackeys born with silver spoons.