The Great Gatsby (2000) Mira Sorvino, Toby Stephens, Paul Rudd, Martin Donovan [DVD, Import, All Regions, NTSC]

I reviewed the 1949 and 1974 movie versions of The Great Gatsby novel before witnessing this 2000 A&E made-for-television version. This prepared me well for comparing all three and winnowing out a deepened understanding of how small changes in plot details and casting can amplify deviations between versions and away from the original F. Scott Fitzgerald story. All three versions are love triangle movies in which Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan compete for the love of Daisy Buchanan, Tom's wife. All three depict party-happy and rich Northeastern American behavior during the 1920s jazz era. Driven by curiosity, Nick Carraway arrives on the scene from the American Midwest, befriends Gatsby and becomes a witness to and narrator of the story. Complexity is added to the basic love triangle by a car accident that kills Tom's mistress with confusion over who was driving and by a murder with confusion over its justification. Additional confusion is added by the needs to document the common threads of shallow, selfish behavior laced with disregard for others that seems rampant among newly rich partygoers. For clarity, we can strip away comparisons embedded in all sources of complexity and focus on the love triangle and its witness involving Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Nick. For additional clarity, we can omit Daisy since she plays a similar role in all three movies, being flattered, confused and mentally buffeted about by male egotists like the ball in a ping-pong match or a hen courted by two roosters. This approach allows us to compare the impacts of only three people (Nick, Gatsby and Tom) in an effort to see how casting can amplify differences between three movies on the same subject and differences between any of these movies and the novel they are trying to portray. Nick is supposed to be an outsider from Midwestern America, although Nick looks like a smooth Northeasterner who is comfortable with rich partygoers in both the 1949 and 1974 movie versions. Nick (Paul Rudd) is perfectly cast in the A&E 2000 version. He looks out of place, skeptical and open minded. Gatsby is assertive, forceful, convincing and likeable in the 1949 version and handsome, neutral and relaxed in the 1974 version. Gatsby (Toby Stephens) is cast in the A&E 2000 version as a sneaky lesser mortal with a habitually crooked smile who is overreaching his talents in courting Daisy. Tom is cast as an easy to dislike man clearly inferior to Gatsby in the 1949 and 1974 versions. Tom (Martin Donovan) is cast as a big, strong, mature man with leadership ability who is rotten in his own way, but clearly superior to Gatsby and worthy of keeping his wife who Gatsby is trying to steal. Someone watching the 1949 movie could disbelieve Nick, pull for Gatsby to succeed and love the thorough early information on exactly how Gatsby got rich. The same person watching the 1974 movie could miss learning how Gatsby got rich, Disbelieve Nick, think Gatsby isn't acting and is too soft to fight his way to wealth. The same person watching the A&E 2000 version could miss learning how Gatsby got rich, think Nick was the perfect, lost-looking narrator and believe Tom should fight off the Gatsby sleazebag and keep his wife.

Great movie with great actors and actresses it's recommended.

Good price and stuck to the original story just like the other Gatsby movies! Loved it!

Excellent DVD......Great Classic Movie

I bought this to show in my 11th grade English classes. Reading Gatsby can be rough on some students & it's good to have a visual to set the scene. With the upcoming Baz Lehrman Gatsby coming out soon, I have a lot of students that are interested in reading the book, but have little idea of most of the nuance. Showing this movie, or parts of it, was a lifesaver. I loved many of the choices in casting and direction. The script is true to the story and little is missing.Good if you like Gatsby, great if you teach and need a visual.... totally appropriate for the classroom.

I have grown old, and I have loved Robert Redford in the role of Gatsby for years, but Toby Stephens (who is the actress Maggie Smith's son, by the way) is a close second in my opinion. Mira Sorvino may not have been the best choice for the part, but Paul Rudd puts forth an admirable performance. If you like Stephens in this role, check him out in Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre as Mr. Rochester. In both Jane Eyre and in this one, a person cannot remove their eyes from him. He dominates the screen.

Although this film looks beautiful and has some great moments (and Paul Rudd is very good as Nick Carroway), the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version, despite a few cringe-worthy moments, is superior to this one and a better choice for students who want an insight into F. Scott Fitzgerald's amazing novel. I don't think the wonderful British actor Toby Stephens was miscast as Gatsby, as many other reviewers here have stated, so much as mis-directed. Stephens' gruff American accent and informal diction (although that's the writer's fault) directly contradicts Fitzgerald's insistence that Gatsby spoke with a "gentlemanly" formality just short of absurd. Given Fitzgerald's instructions, and the fact that the events took place in 1922, Stephens' accent should have been pitched much more mid-Atlantic. He plays Gatsby as a more shallow, thuggish man than Fitzgerald presents him, almost completely without the American-dream romantic longing that makes him fascinating and sympathetic. Stephens is more than capable of acting several contradictory aspects of this character at once, but the director chose to focus on the shallow bootlegger at the expense of the pining lover. Redford's performance gives a more tragic insight into Gatsby's Alger-esque illusions and the pain they cause him -- although he could have used some of Toby Stephens' menace. BTW, Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the Redford/Farrow version, had good cause to sue the producers of this one, who lifted a great deal of his script and staging almost word-for-word.

Lot of people complain about a movie, when They read the book before watching a movie. Which is not fair. Book gives a majority of theme as well as soul, detailed description of place,site,emotions, expression which many times is not possible when making movie. Sometimes write wants to give a little twist on his own to make movie more interesting.Given that as my point of view, I think this movie was great. The acting , the back drop, the elegance, the disgrace, the curiosity, the sequence of every incidence, situation, was done marvelously.I particularly liked the acting part. Both Servino and stephan Toby have really lived the characters.I wont write extensive details or extensive review since people dont read long ones anymore.

One of my favourite movies of all time, and probably my favourite version of The Great Gatsby made to date.

great version starring Toby Stephens.

Etant fan de Tobby Stéphens j'aime tout ce qu'il fait !!!!Belle histoire d'amour.""Les histoires d'amour se terminent mal ......en général !!!!!

原作を読んでみたくなりましたもちろん　日本語です英語だけだったので　わかったところ　わからなかったところ　想像力で　補ってしまったところｗｗｗ等ありましたので＾＾

OK... there has been 3 version of this movie,well, one in 1949, which isn't good...This version is as faithfully to the book, as thelast one made before it, with one exception.In the 1974 version, it does not have the lastlines from the book... which is a big miss! Thisversion doesI love the book, but this version still leaves outlines from it. Lines like "little Montenegro", butover all, it is a very good movie adaptation ofthe novella... Go and read the book, and watchall 3 versions of it, and make your own mind upwhich is the best...