Product Description

Adaptation of the Fitzgerald novel about a dashing enigmatic millionaire obsessed with an elusive, spoiled young woman.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 8-AUG-2006
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #903 in DVD
• Brand: REDFORD,ROBERT
• Released on: 2003-12-02
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 143 minutes

Amazon.com
This adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, scripted by Francis Ford Coppola, puts costume design and art direction above the intricacies of character. It's certainly a handsome try, and perhaps no movie could capture The Great Gatsby in its entirety. Robert Redford is an interesting casting choice as Gatsby, the millionaire isolated in his mansion, still dreaming of the woman he lost. And Sam Waterston is perfect as the narrator, Nick, who brings the dream girl Daisy Buchanan back to Gatsby. No, the problem seems to be that director Jack Clayton fell in love with the flapper dresses and the party scenes and the Jazz Age tunes, ending up with a Classics Illustrated version of a great book rather than a fresh, organic take on the text. While Redford grows more quietly intriguing in the film, Mia Farrow's pallid performance as Daisy leaves you wondering why Gatsby, or anyone else, should care so much about his grand passion. The effective supporting cast includes Bruce Dern as Daisy's husband, and Scott Wilson and Karen Black as the low-rent couple whose destinies cross the sun-drenched protagonists. (That's future star Patsy Kensit as Daisy's little daughter.) The film won two Oscars--not surprisingly, for costumes and musical score. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Gatsby is Great
I saw this movie for the first time when I was teaching my juniors in English about the novel. The movie really helped the book come to life for them and the cast is brilliant! Excellent movie and I am glad that I have finally added it to my collection!

The Great Gatsby is...Great
As an English teacher, I teach the novel by Fitzgerald every year. This film adaptation is just delightful...Mia Farrow is an appropriately ditzy yet tragic Daisy and Redford...ahhh...Redford. I highly recommend!

Great if not outstanding
I had the pleasure recently of re-reading the book and then watching both film versions. This version is definitely the one to watch. Not perfect by any means, the Robert Redford, Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern, and Mia Farrow version essentially captures the subtext of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the vapid lifestyle of the rich before the 1929 crash. Thanks to a superior script by Francis Ford Coppola and great acting by the entire cast, the meanning of Fitzgerald's novel become very clear with overstating the obvious. This film is a perfect companion to any discussion of the novel. Reviewers who cannot see what Gatsby sees in the flighty Daisy miss the point of the novel.