There are many great movies that display a variety of cinematography, mise-en-scene, movement, editing, sound, and acting but one that catches student’s attention is the film “The Great Gatsby” by Baz Luhrmann. The film “The Great Gatsby” is a filmic adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald’s American novel “The Great Gatsby” which depicts the fragility of attaining the American dream with regard to wealth, power, and love. Baz Luhrmann shows the theme of blindness by making Gatsby blind about the fact that Daisy doesn’t love him like she did five years ago.
There was numerous times where Luhrmann showed this in the movie. The close up shots during this scene illustrates the fear Gatsby had for meeting Daisy once again after 5 years. For example when daisy first comes over to nick’s house and Gatsby accidently drops the “old” cracked clock, which was showing that he was grasping onto the past. The weather is also stressed by the pouring rain and thunderstorm because it shows that both Gatsby and Daisy have old, confused feelings from the past and they also seem as if they were strangers to each other.
When Nick leaves and then comes back to see Daisy and Gatsby, Nick points out that it is sunny and that Daisy and Gatsby are talking happily and seems as if they’re in love. Gatsby repetitively expresses his favorite phrase, “Old sport,” as well as a slightly affected accent to disguise his origins; Gatsby befriends Nick, whom he asks to arrange a date with Daisy, his sweetheart from five years earlier when he was a soldier off to Europe and the battlefront. When Gatsby talks about the past about Daisy, the movie has a soft effect as if it were taking place in his dream.
This is significant because it shows his love for Daisy. There are many times in the many where it is emphasized that Gatsby is madly in love with Daisy for example, he believes that Daisy and himself will always love each other (he points at a shooting star), ever since he was young he knew what he wished for would come true. Every time Gatsby and Daisy were acting like a couple, for example when they were dancing, the song “Young & Beautiful” by Lana Del Ray plays which represents Gatsby’s endless love for Daisy.
George punishes Myrtle and states how god sees everything and refers to E. J Eckleberg’s eyes because he over looks Eatonville. The death of Myrtle is emphasized by the usage of God’s eye view and using many crosscuts to show the elements to her death like when Daisy hits her and time just slows down as she hits the window and flies into the air as her pearl necklace breaks and falls everywhere. This is all viewed as if we were God’s eyes (E.
J Eckleberg) watching this happen. Also Luhrmann makes it seem as if Gatsby is responsible for her death, but later on in the movie, he reveals that Daisy was responsible for her death. Luhrmann also uses the same scene where Gatsby is looking and reaching for the green light at the beginning of the movie and at the end to show that he will never stop reaching for what he believes in, until he reaches his goal in attracting Daisy again, which is his American Dream.
Reaching for green light symbolizes society’s desire and the seemingly impossibility of achieving the materialistic American Dream. Attracting viewers and making a movie interesting is very complex. Luhrmann uses a variety of visual effects to accomplish the theme of true love. Although the book “The Great Gatsby” does not depict a love story, the support of Mr. DiCaprio and Ms. Mulligan transform it into a love story.
