Film Review: The Great Gatsby

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The history of this film was 1920s social life, it seems as though that the film stayed pretty accurate to all the wonders of 1920s social life, from business to cars, and the life of music and specifically jazz. The film even touched on gangsters and the rise of mafias as Gatsby was connected and in the midst of it all. The “New Woman” was touched on a little bit throughout the film, more freedom in women was clearly displayed. None of the characters in this film are actually real, the characters are all fictional.

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The author of the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, that the movie is based on did live on Long Island for a bit and it is known that that is where he got the idea of East and West Egg, which are the two sides of the “world” of the film. It also seemed as though Fitzgerald was very much into the 1920s life based on where he lived for a short while and his incorporation with New York celebrities at the time.

So to wrap this part up The Great Gatsby was fairly accurate in all the main aspects and booming parts of the 1920s.

The film starts seven years ahead of where the actual story takes place with Nick Carraway who is a World War I veteran, he getting some treatment at a hospital and is told to right down his thoughts. Just happens to be that writing is Nick’s passion, this is where it all starts.

The summer of 1922, Nick moves from the Midwest to a small house in the North Shore village of West Egg, next to the mansion of Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a very mysterious man, no one really knows anything about him if you were to ask. Gatsby is known for his crazy parties in and outside of his massive mansion. Nick receives an invitation to one of these parties, but no guest has ever received an invitation before, they just typically show up. Nick finds Gatsby at his party and meets him, Nick is then invited to lunch in Manhattan with Gatsby himself. Gatsby tells Nick that he is an Oxford graduate and a warhero, so they have something in common immediately. They head to a bar type of thing specifically where gangsters hangout and listen to Jazz music while discussing business things. This scene was two of the biggest parts of the 1920s social life, Jazz and gangsters.

Gatsby introduces Nick to his business partner, Meyer Wolfsheim, he is a gangster himself and this is one of Gatsby’s “incomes”. Gatsby loves Daisy Buchanan, she is Nick’s cousin and she is married to Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy had a relationship before the war and Gatsby told Daisy to wait for him to make himself of something after the war but she went off and married Tom anyway. Gatsby was right and turned out into something for sure. George’s wife Myrtle was killed in a car crash, Gatsby was framed for it and was Myrtle’s supposed lover but it was really Tom. Daisy still loves Gatsby but before she can tell him how she feels Gatsby is shot and killed in his pool by George after being framed as the killer and lover, George then commits suicide. Everyone leaves come time for Gatsby’s funeral and Nick is the only one left for it. Nick was Gatsby’s only true friend in the end, Nick finishes his memoir in the hospital and titles it “The Great Gatsby”.

In conclusion, the film was really accurate for 1920s social life, it must’ve also been easier to get a good idea of everything that went on in the 1920s. One of the best accuracies was the booming production and use of automobiles in the 1920s, the use of these automobiles was clearly displayed throughout the film, they were everywhere. Gatsby had a really nice car himself, matched his personality perfectly. According to History.com, the Ford Model T was just $260 in 1924 and the cars that were used in the film of summer of 1922 looked very similar to the Model T. Another good example of 1920s social life was Jazz music in the Great Gatsby, it was all over the place, small gatherings, parties, radios, and the place where the gangsters/mobsters hung out. This film furthered my knowledge a lot because it gave me a very clear picture of how everyday lives were lived in 1920s and all the social life that went on, from gangsters and music, to cars and women’s new freedoms. It gave me an idea of how our society today got jumpstarted to life with the aspects of women, cars, and music, which are still three very important things to this day and they won’t go anywhere anytime soon.