The Great Gatsby (1974)

Short: Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) is intrigued by his wealthy and mysterious neighbour, Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford). As his cousin Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) tries to induct Nick into the upper crust to keep her company while her philandering husband, Tom (Bruce Dern), gallivants about town, Nick is manipulated into reintroducing Jay and Daisy, whose past he has only begun to uncover.

Despite the fact that it is also a bit too long and much too slowly paced, an infinitely better film than Alexander.

Okay, maybe not infinitely better. But better none the less.

Just don't ask me to compare the novel. I don't know. I've never read the novel. As much as I understand and even appreciate F. Scott Fitzgerald as a classic American writer and the definitive Jazz Age novelist, I've never picked up one of his novels. Short stories, on the other hand, I've read some of those. Just like me and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I guess I'm just not big on American novelists.

Regardless, this is a pretty good movie. I would agree with the jacket that described Francis Ford Coppola's script as elegant, and Jack Clayton (director) knows how to tell a love story, even if it is more of a fantasy.

Unfortunately, I don't know where he was going with Farrow as Daisy. I always thought that she was something of a manipulative seductress who didn't know her own mind, but Farrow's performance has led me to believe that she was, in fact, out of her mind. Was that the way it was in the book?

Redford lends credibility to the eternally hopeful Gatsby, and his lined forehead and occasional fleeting look of despondency tether his performance just enough to keep the audience captive.

Waterston's accent threw me a little, but I liked his Nick anyway. Nick's a sweet guy, really.

It was probably Scott Wilson, though, who brought the most emotion to his small but influential part as George Wilson. Wilson will not fail to break your heart.

Overall, either Coppola, Clayton, or Fitzgerald himself - maybe a combo of the three? - was much to heavy handed with the symbolism.

And there are plenty of ways to express the fact that it's hot besides having everyone be so darn sweaty. B