The Great Gatsby

Overview

An aspiring writer falls under the spell of an aloof millionaire with designs for the young scribe's unhappily married cousin in director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated novel. It's the spring of 1922, and wide-eyed Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) has just moved to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream. Settling into a home next door to wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), Carraway grows increasingly fascinated by the elaborate parties held at his new ...
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Overview

An aspiring writer falls under the spell of an aloof millionaire with designs for the young scribe's unhappily married cousin in director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated novel. It's the spring of 1922, and wide-eyed Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) has just moved to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream. Settling into a home next door to wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), Carraway grows increasingly fascinated by the elaborate parties held at his new neighbor's estate. Meanwhile, across the bay, Carraway's cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) flounders in her marriage to philandering aristocrat Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). Inspired by the debauchery on display at Gatsby's wild parties and the lives of the wealthy elite, Carraway begins putting pen to paper as it gradually becomes clear that his cousin and the millionaire share a complicated romantic past that remains unresolved. Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki co-star.
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide
There are a few groups of people who might be doubtful about Baz Luhrmann's big-screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby. These groups include: people who associate Gatsby mainly with memories of being bored in high-school lit class; hardcore Fitzgerald fans, who don't think a movie could ever do the novel justice; and people who have no strong opinion about Fitzgerald's book, but remember Moulin Rouge feeling like an exhausting gay acid trip, and are afraid to view any more of Luhrmann's films. All of the above factions have nothing to fear. Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby is not stodgy or boring, it's not a shallow betrayal of the source material, and it's not an unrelentingly hyper-manic series of musical sequences. The picture is a seemingly impossible success: a beautiful, entertaining, tragic, well-paced, and perhaps most shockingly, reverent adaptation of what any sane person might well have labeled an unfilmable story. The movie opens with Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), an aspiring bond salesman from a middle-class branch of an otherwise old-money family, who has just moved into a cottage on Long Island in the summer of 1922. The cultural explosion of the Jazz Age has seized upon New York City, and a society that was wearing corsets and dancing the minuet scarcely a decade earlier is adrift in a freshly shaken snow globe of post-WWI social upheaval, with the classist strictures of aristocracy and peasantry standing face-to-face with the self-made millionaires of the industrial boom. Prohibition has backfired, making alcohol plentiful and cheap, Belle Époque frills and fuss have been replaced with breathable, moveable flapper attire, and the mannered rituals of social dancing have been replaced with freestyle booty shaking to jazz and blues. And nothing seems to exemplify this brave new world that Nick's been dropped into better than his impossibly rich neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose opulent, weekend-long parties are a breathtaking spectacle of desperate energy, roaring-'20s dress, and moneyed, art-deco furnishings. Indeed, it should be noted that the art direction alone is reason enough to drink in this gorgeous movie as pure 1920s-era style porn. In fact, it might be the first film to benefit from the 3D experience by way of bringing the colors and textures of its magnificent sets and costumes all the more to life. The devastatingly handsome, disarmingly charismatic Gatsby serves as a terribly fascinating figure, to Nick and to everyone in New York society. He is at once guarded and guileless, secretive and earnest, cunning and sincere. Questions swirl all over town about where his immense wealth comes from, since all that's known is that he lives on the west side of Long Island, where mansions are mainly owned by new money -- unlike the east side, which is home to old-money families like Nick's cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her brute of a husband Tom (Joel Edgerton). Nick soon discovers that Gatsby once knew Daisy, five long years ago, before Gatsby left to fight in the Great War. More than knew, they were deeply in love -- and perhaps still are. The narrative that unfolds is epic and romantic, but never loses the thread of Fitzgerald's subtext about the complex illusion of the American Dream. Anyone who's read the book might wonder how, in this grand emotional opera of a feature film (one by Baz Luhrmann, no less), the titular hero can possibly remain so completely in our good graces, even as his dream of ultimate success begins to appear fragile and his faith in Daisy naïve. But instead of making Gatsby seem like a deluded fool to us, Daisy and the old guard she comes from make Gatsby seem all the more admirable for his pure, enduring hope. While Luhrmann is forced to cut plenty of beloved material from the novel simply for the sake of the running time (with any luck, we'll see more of Elizabeth Debicki's bewitching performance as Jordan Baker on some future DVD release), he never opts to indulge his trademark love of grand romance in place of what Fitzgerald provided on the page. Rather, Luhrmann deftly channels that very penchant through the noble beauty of Gatsby's faith in the illusive ideal that in America, our destinies are ours to create, and therefore, our history is ours to rewrite.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 8/27/2013
  • UPC: 883929242511
  • Original Release: 2013

    • Rating:

  • Source: Warner Home Video
  • Presentation: Special Edition / 2 PACK
  • Format: DVD
  • Sales rank: 677

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Leonardo DiCaprio Jay Gatsby
Tobey Maguire Nick Carraway
Carey Mulligan Daisy Buchanan
Isla Fisher Myrtle, Myrtle Wilson
Joel Edgerton Tom Buchanan
Elizabeth Debicki , Jordan Baker
Jason Clarke George B. Wilson
Callan McAuliffe Jay Gatsby (young), Teen Jay Gatsby
Amitabh Bachchan Meyer Wolfsheim
Lisa Adam Weeping/Singing Woman
Frank Aldridge Well Dressed Male Witness-Wilson's Garage
Steve Bisley Dan Cody
Richard Carter Herzog
Adelaide Clemens Catherine
Vince Colosimo Michaelis
Max Cullen Owl Eyes
Mal Day The Boss -Probity Bank, The Boss -Probity Trust
Emmanuel Ekwensi Jazz Player
Eden Falk Mr. McKee
Emily Foreman Pammy
Garrett William Fountain Barman
David Furlong Walter Chase
Daniel Gill Police Commissioner
iOTA Trimalchio the Orchestra Leader
Price Johnson Singer-Wilson's Garage
Stephen James King Nelson
Goran Kleut Head Waiter-Speakeasy
Kim Knuckey Senator Gulick
Barrie Laws Party Guest
Mark Lemon The Professor
Brendan Maclean Klipspringer
John Maumau The Boxer
Kevin McGlothan Footman
Ben McIvor Clerk-Probity Trust
Nick Meenahan Train Conductor
Hamish Michael Clerk-Probity Trust
Olga Miller Russian Silent Film Actress
Heather Mitchell Daisy's Mother
Kate Mulvany Mrs. McKee
Gus Murray Teddy Barton
John O'Connell Newton Orchid
Barry Otto Benny McClenahan
Corey Blake Owers Louisville Officer
Tasman Palazzi Young James Gatz
Brenton Prince Guard at Gatsby's Gates
Bryan Probets Gardener
Milan Pulvermacher Waiter-Hotel Sayre
Alfred Quinten Party Guest
Ghadir Rajab Footman
Brian Rooney Clerk-Probity Trust
Jake Ryan Motorcycle Cop
John Sheerin The Police Captain
Nicholas Simpson Second Policeman-Wilson's Garage
Charlize Skinner Pammy
Kasia Stelmach Silent Film Star Marlene Moon
Nick Tate Taxi Driver
Jack Thompson Dr. Walter Perkins
Kieran VanBunnik Rowdie
Sylvana Vandertouw European Woman
Gemma Ward Languid Girl
Matthew Whittet Vladimir Tostoff
Felix Williamson Henri
Tiger Leacey Wyvill Pammy
Bill Young Policeman-Wilson's Garage
Technical Credits
Baz Luhrmann Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Craig Armstrong Score Composer
Jason Ballantine Editor
Nikki Barrett Casting
Bruce Berman Executive Producer
Shawn "Jay Z" Carter Executive Producer
LuAnn Claps Makeup
Damien Drew Art Director
Simon Duggan Cinematographer
Lloyd Finnemore Special Effects Supervisor
Lucy Fisher Producer
Sian Grigg Makeup
Industrial Light & Magic Animator
Catherine Knapman Producer
Ronna Kress Casting
Jennifer Leacey Asst. Director
Catherine Martin Costumes/Costume Designer, Producer, Production Designer
Anton Monsted Co-producer, Musical Direction/Supervision
Karen Murphy Production Designer
John O'Connell Choreography
Dan Oliver Special Effects Supervisor
Barrie M. Osborne Executive Producer
Wayne Pashley Sound/Sound Designer
Craig Pearce Screenwriter
Jonathan Redmond Editor
Matteo Silvi Makeup
Kerry Thompson Costumes/Costume Designer
Michael Turner Art Director
Matt Villa Editor
Doug Wick Producer
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