The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann, 2013)
Leonardo DiCaprio, the parties at full volume, and songs executive-produced by Jay-Z.
The parties were the loudest thing in 1922. Make them loud to an audience now.
You want spectacle, and you want the parties loud.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: Fitzgerald’s plot and his people, in their period.
Changes: the sound and the frame: modern songs over 1920s parties, and Nick telling the story from a psychiatric hospital, writing it down at his doctor’s suggestion.
Baz Luhrmann sets 1920s parties to songs executive-produced by Jay-Z and The Bullitts, and frames the story as Nick’s memoir, written in a psychiatric hospital. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Amitabh Bachchan.
Whose story is it?
Nick’s, written as a memoir. Tobey Maguire plays Nick, Carey Mulligan Daisy, Joel Edgerton Tom and Elizabeth Debicki Jordan.
How much time does it ask?
142 minutes. Rated PG-13. It won Academy Awards for production design and costume design.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Amitabh Bachchan.
Where to find it
Other ways to get it: Blu-ray — Amazon · Warner Bros.’ page · Find where it’s streaming — JustWatch
Common questions
Why is Nick in a psychiatric hospital in the 2013 Great Gatsby?
It is the film’s framing device, not the novel’s: in December 1929 Nick is being treated for alcoholism, and his doctor suggests he write down his memories of Gatsby. The film is presented as what he writes.
More ways into West Egg: The Great Gatsby (1949), with Alan Ladd · The Great Gatsby (1974), with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow · The Great Gatsby (2000 television film)