ADAPTATIONS & THE GREAT GATSBY:

When looking at an adaptation, analysing the originality and cleverness of the story is something that cannot be done. Only minor details can be changed by the director in order to make an adaptation, and when looking critically at a film such as Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, it is important to take note of this. What we can look at in terms of analysis is the cinematography, the screenplay and the (small) changes that Luhrmann did make to the classic novel.

Immediately this film screams Baz Luhrmann, the blinding colours and exaggerated everything gives a wonderful presentation of the roaring twenties, a time of excess and partying. If there is one thing that I have talked to friends and fellow film students about in agreement, it is that the film is extremely aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to watch purely on the basis of the glamour of the whole thing.

If there's one thing that I heard people moaning about before the movies release, it was the music. Let me just take this time to say how these people clearly have not seen a Baz Luhrmann film before. He made Shakespeare with a soundtrack consisting of Radiohead. The guy is a musical genius, in my opinion, the songs were so fitting and it is quite rightly so that the soundtrack is doing extremely well in sales.

Adding Nick's situation at the start and end of the film was a clever way of introducing the narrative from his point of view. Although any changes to the novel were going to upset people, Luhrmann stuck to the story perfectly, in my opinion, only changing what needed to be changed for cinematic purposes.

The film is outstanding. At just over two hours long, it presents a classic piece of 20th century literature for a 21st century audience, managing to hold a sold out audiences attention and produce laughs, screams and tears, even though the novel came out over 90 years ago and the majority of both viewings I have attended have been people who have read the book (I talk to random people at the cinema, is that bad? Probably). Go and see this film if you haven't yet.