Plot: What’s it about?
For many years I had heard various opinions on this movie from both ends of the spectrum. The majority of the opinions were negative. It was also an intriguing chapter in the studio head career of Robert Evans at Paramount that started as a promising project to a hyped project with undermining results. Despite it’s disappointing status, I wanted to give this film a shot with an open mind. What I got was not only an intriguing surprise but also the third version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel brought to the big screen.
Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) has lived a modest lifestyle in 1920s Long Island. His cousin, Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow), is in a marriage with her wealthy but unfaithful husband Tom (Bruce Dern). No matter where Nick goes, there’s never a day that goes by without a story about Nick’s neighbor, a mysterious gentleman by the name of Gatsby (Robert Redford). Every night, a party is held at Gatsby’s house and Nick has never acquainted with his neighbor until an invitation to one of his parties is given to him one day, which leads Nick to meeting Gatsby not knowing that it will lead him to getting to know the face behind the stories, but linking Gatsby unexpectedly to his cousin for which they were lovers in the past. This link causes Gatsby to give up his daily routines to win back the one love he had obsessed about all these years.
From the start, it looked like the negative word was about to be true with some minutes of overacting and with the notion of not buying the idea of Robert Redford being cast as the illusive Gatsby. I thought the movie was going to plod and drag and there would be no end to it. I was wrong.
As the movie goes along, I came to grips with it’s visually striking look and it’s music which a key piece of it was used to a great extent in Robert Evans docu-journey “The Kid Stays In The Picture” Once I got past the first few minutes leading to Nick’s meeting with Gatsby, I got involved with the story all the way through and what looks to be like a wasted moment comes back to be key later on. I also bought the idea of Redford in this role and he plays it satisfactorily along with the rest of the cast.
When the mystery of this man is revealed, the film gripped me more to come along with Nick, Daisy and Gatsby. Every time Daisy spends time with Gatsby, Tom’s curiosity about Gatsby gets even more so until the very end. Jack Clayton did a commendable job capturing the time with the fancy cars and the period music which mixed in nicely with the story. I always like a surprise when it comes to films of the seventies and this was certainly a good one indeed.
Video: How does it look?
This is the first time Paramount has presented this movie in a widescreen presentation of 1.85:1 and it is a beautiful. The print does get speckly at times during darker scenes but for the most part it remains bright and not too soft during the daytime shots capturing the multi-color palette nicely. A very nice job.
Audio: How does it sound?
The 5.1 remix soundtrack is a pleasant one for a film of the 70’s, but there are times when the background music can be louder than it should be. Nevertheless, the front channel uses the sound greatly with dialogue and not too much background sound mixing well with Nelson Riddle’s score. The disc also has an English mono soundtrack along with English subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There are no extras on this title and judging from the hoopla at that time resulting in the first People magazine cover with Mia Farrow, it would’ve been worthy to see a trailer.
