This document provides an analysis of the 1974 and 2013 film adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. It compares how each film portrayed key elements like the characters of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, as well as famous scenes like the large parties at Gatsby's mansion. While both films aimed to recreate the novel's depiction of 1920s high society, the document argues that the 2013 version directed by Baz Luhrmann had a more staged, theatrical style compared to the subtler 1974 adaptation. References used in the analysis are also listed at the end.

1. PREPARED BY-DAYA VAGHANI
BATCH-2020-22 (MA SEM-2)
PAPER – THE TWENTEETH CENTURY LITERATURE :1900 TO WW-II
ROLL NO-06
ENROLLMENT NO-3069206420200017
EMAIL ID -DAYAVAGHANI2969@GMAIL.COM
SUBMITTED TO-S.B. GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI
BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
The Great Gatsby 1974 vs The Great Gatsby 2013

2. THE GREAT GATESBY BY F.SCOTT
FITZERALD
Type of work-Novel
Genre- Tragedy, Realism, Modernism, Social Satire
Time and Place writeen-1923–1924, America and France
Date Of First Publication-1925
Protagonist-Jay Gatsby
Narrator-Nick Carraway

3. I look out at it - and I think it is the most
beautiful history in the world. … It is the
history of all aspiration - not just the
American Dream but the human dream and
if I came at the end of it that too is a place
in the line of pioneers.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (Batchelor 129)

4. FILM ADAPTATION-1974 & 2013
• It was directed by Jack Clayton and
produced by David Merrick from
a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola.
The film stars Robert Redford in the title
role of Jay Gatsby, along with Mia
Farrow, Sam Waterston, Bruce
Dern, Karen Black, Scott Wilson and Lois
Chiles, with Howard Da Silva (who
previously appeared in the 1949
version), Roberts Blossom and Edward
Herrmann.
• The film was co-written and directed by Baz
Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as
the eponymous Jay Gatsby, with Tobey
Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla
Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth
Debicki and Jack Thompson.Jay-Z served as
executive producer. Filming took place from
September to December of 2011 in Australia,
with a $105 million net production budget.
The film follows the life and times of
millionaire Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio) and his
neighbor Nick Carraway (Maguire), who
recounts his encounter with Gatsby at the
height of the Roaring Twenties on Long
Island.
The Great Gatsby -1974 The Great Gatsby-2013

5. Carey Mulligan & Leonardo DiCaprio vs Mia Farrow and Robert Redford

6. Baz Lurhmann Party Scene vs Jack Clayton Party Scene
 When it comes to the big party scene this is what we get, verve, elaborate costumes, gaiety, circus
like atmosphere, whirlwind of camera angles, music and dancing, something resembling a scene
from a Ziegfield show!
 So, obviously Lurhmann was inspired to recreate the Jay Gatsby parties, but was he inspired by
the rest of the book? Or was there a point in which he realized the rest of the story doesn’t translate
very well into what feels like a staged musical? Not that there’s other dance numbers and singing,
just Jay-Z’s tracks pumping in the background, but the movie looks and feels campy & staged.

7. Looks the same but Redford/Farrow so much more romantic
 The scene where Nick invites Daisy for tea at Jay’s request – Leonardo
DiCaprio is made to play the moment with far too much humor, as Jay loses
his nerve, departing in the rain and coming back to the door soaking
wet. Where Robert Redford plays his anticipation and nervousness with subtle
amusement; his belief that Daisy won’t show even though it’s still 5 minutes
before her expected arrival, is endearingly humorous, but not played for laughs.

8. Tobey Maguire vs Sam Waterston
Nick is played by Sam Waterston in
the 1974 version and Tobey
Maguire in 2013.

9. • The film's principal figure is not Gatsby but Nick Carraway, a classic unreliable
narrator, aged 30 in that summer of 1922, a midwesterner educated at Yale
alongside Tom Buchanan and Daisy's second cousin. Nick has taken a cottage
next door to Gatsby's mansion while he attempts to establish himself as a
stockbroker, and Gatsby uses him as a way of re-engaging with Daisy. Everything
we know is mediated by Carraway, and Luhrmann and his co-writer Craig Pearce
have had the dubious idea of having Carraway tell the story from a sanatorium as
a form of therapy on the advice of a psychiatrist.
•

10. The Great Gatsby (1974/2013) side-
by-side comparison

11. REFERENCES
• Batchelor, Bob. Gatsby: the Cultural History of the Great American
Novel. Lanham: MD Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Print
• Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Independently published, 2021.
• Robert, Ebert.
“Ebert Prime.” Https://Www.Rogerebert.Com/Reviews/the-Great-
Gatsby-1974, 1 Jan. 1974, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-great-
gatsby-1974.
• “The Great Gatsby Review.” The Guardian, 2013. The Guardian,
www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/19/great-gatsby-review-philip-
french.