Free The Great Gatsby Essay Example

Wealth. Abundance. Prosperity. Treasure. That is what most people see in the movie directed by Baz Luhrmann and based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby. World first saw the adaptation in 2013 and it received different reviews. Some people view the film as an interesting story with lots of parties, nice special effects and stunning costumes. However, there are other opinions – opinions of people who find the movie to be a true piece of art.
The movie is about Jay Gatsby – a person who is the most hopeful man among all people Nick Carraway has ever met. Nick is the one who is telling us this dramatic story of Jay’s life. Gatsby is a rich man who lives in a huge house and has parties every weekend. The whole city is visiting them but no one has actually ever been invited there. No one but Nick Caraway. Later he finds out that all Gatsby has ever done was for his beloved Daisy, Nick’s cousin. Jay and Daisy were in love five years ago, but he was poor and later left for war. Gatsby promised to come back but then he wrote a letter to Daisy revealing himself and asking her to wait. But she got married to a very rich and honorable man Tom Buchanan. Gatsby soon became very wealthy and known person in New York. He has never doubted that he will meet Daisy again and that they will always live together. But his hopes became real only for a short period of time.
Analyzing the movie one can find a lot of elements and principles of art in it. The movie is filmed using such elements as lines, space, colors and values, and such principles as unity, harmony and emphasis. Furthermore, such fundamentals of art were used as contrast, content and symbolism.
Lines in the movie are very precise. There is no blurriness and mix of shapes, colors and so on. Space is also used on the movie. The events occur in three main places – Jay’s house, the valley of ashes and Tom’s house. Colors on a movie are bright and this is made to highlight the happiness and gaiety. Value as an element of art describes darkness or lightness of a color. The colors on the screen are shiny when it shows parties. However, they are more neutral during the scene when Daisy and Jay are talking beneath a tree during one of the parties and Daisy tells Jay that she wants to run away. When at Jay’s house Daisy was wearing a black dress. This was the episode when she cried and told Gatsby she wanted to be with him forever. Also, Gatsby wore black swimsuit on the day he died.
The movie incorporates principles such as unity and harmony. When once watches the movie he can easily follow the director’s idea and there is no unnecessary episode in the film. The main point is not obvious but people with deep feelings realize the tragedy of the movie and they understand why Nick added “The great” to Gatsby’s name in the end of the movie. Emphasis is widely used in the movie: glitter, colors, shapes – these all were used to grab spectator’s eye on some certain point. Weather emphasized the events in the movie: the argument between Tom and Jay happened on the hottest day of the summer; Daisy and Jay met in Tom’s house when it was raining; Gatsby was killed on the first day of autumn.
However, those are contrast, content and symbolism that make the movie a piece of art. Contrast is expressed in the movie in different aspects of it: affluence of Gatsby and Tom and poorness in the valley of ashes, Gatsby’s hope and Daisy’s betrayal, Tom’s boasting and Nick’s intelligence. Moreover, there are many symbols in the movie that deserve to me mentioned. The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s great hope, his belief in a different life – life with Daisy. The light is green for a reason – this color has always been a color of hope. He could touch the ray easily every evening but he could not reach Daisy who lived on the opposite side. The commercial of an eye doctor in the valley of ashes symbolizes the eyes of God who watches everything that happens in the valley. The fact that there is no face on the billboard – just eyes – can symbolize the unresponding and dead God.
It is difficult to explain content as everybody sees different things in the movie. Unfortunately, some people see no more but alcohol and entertainment in the movie and do not notice the drama that happens behind. The best way here is to just recommend to watch it yourself – this will not be waste of time. This will make you think of such aspects as dignity, hope and loyalty. This movie is a piece of art and it doesn’t matter how many principles and elements of art it incorporates; it incorporates more important things like life and death, hope and betrayal, tragedy and elation.