Great Gatsby: Book or Film?

[amysuedew]

I love both, which is rarely true when there is a book and movie. Normally, I always prefer the book. Leo is one of my favorite actors, and the soundtrack was spectacular as well. Tough decision.

[Jade Evans]

Definitely the movie.

[kodabear]

Book for sure.

[scifi_bookworm_007]

Very rarely does a film adaption of a book, please the entirety of the its audience. When you consider the amount of devoted fans F Scott Fitzgerald, it would've been nearly impossible to meet their expectations.

As a big fan of The Great Gatsby I was intrigued by what Baz Luhrmann's version would entail, and I was thoroughly pleased by it. It's set in the mid twenties so of course they was going to be excessive opulence; it defined the era. However, I did feel at times the focus on costume and set design took away from the story, however not enough to be a slap in the face to Fitzgerald.

[Kwoj03]

The novel is one of my favorites. I reread it often. I was skeptical when the movie came out. I could see Daisy and Tom and Nick in my head. I could hear their voices. And they didn't look or sound like the characters who were cast for the film. I thought I'd give it a chance anyway. The movie did a great job of sticking to the dialogue in the book. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the book. The book is always better.

[Catherine Hsu]

God, I loved the movie and how stylized it was, but the book had so much more, especially about how Nick was an unreliable narrator.

[MarkMueller]

I have yet to see a film adaptation of the Great Gatsby that is as good as the novel. I think it's because as we read, we each have imaginations that fill in the blanks and sees the story slightly different from each other. The same goes for the screen writers and directors. They present us with a version of the story that's their own and not ours. Just my humble opinion.

[SueY84]

The book is on my list of to reads but I have seen the movie already. I really enjoyed it and that is one of the reasons I've decided to place it in the to read pile I have.

[moonshoes]

Definitely the book, although I did love the most recent film adaptation.

[bgeyer]

this is such a tough call but I would say the newest movie! It made me fall in love with it all over again

[Erik]

Absolutely the book... though there have been a couple of film versions I have enjoyed. The most recent one was very good indeed.. but it still did not rival the book.

-- 05 Jan 2017, 19:09 --

[Insightsintobooks]

The book is better, in my opinion.

[James Craft]

I liked both, but I thought the movie was well put together. I liked the book, but I know a lot of people who hate both, and I think that the film was able to do some clever things to make it even better!

[Lolly4532]

I agree that the movie was not a disappointment and kept a lot of the integrity of the original novel, however, this is not the first movie adaptation of this book. There was an adaptation of this movie in 1974 starring Robert Redford as Gatsby and Sam Waterson as Nick Carraway. While I thoroughly enjoyed this new adaptation of Gatsby (and I saw it in 3D so there were some really neat effects!), I wasn't only comparing it against the novel, but against the first adaptation as well. And I have to say, the most powerful moment in the 1974 Great Gatsby was the pinnacle moment in the hotel and everything stops when Daisy says "Rich girls don't marry poor boys Jay Gatsby" and it's devastating, and you feel so many things, and you know everything is going to go downhill from that moment, and that moment wasn't in the new film and I was heartbroken at its absence. I can't say definitively that I loved this movie more than the novel, nor can I say that I loved either film more than the novel or more than the other film. I can say that I love each film as its own entity and the novel as its own entity, and I think that should be the goal with all book to film adaptations. You should either be able to love them equally, or appreciate each in its own artistic entirety as separate entities.

[cherryalakei]

I honestly really like both. I read Gatsby post high school, post college. I was extremely shocked at the end of the book, and had to see the movie. (The one with Leonardo Di Caprio) I really enjoyed the movie, and seeing the visual component of what I had imagined. I thought the acting was good too, and the casting was great. I must note I have not seen any of the other adaptations though.