The Great Gatsby

In the beginning of the movie, dogs appeared in almost every scene. Dogs were at the apartment, city, Buchanan house, and even Gatsby's party. The book had only one dog, Myrtle's, which played an important role later in the book. I think that dogs were used so much because the screenplay writer wanted the viewer to remember the dog for later in the movie.

In the book, Nick met Gatsby at the party and had no idea who he was. The movie had Nick summoned to Gatsby and they met in a more formal fashion. This meeting did not last as long and Nick never mentioned that he was in the war. Nick knew who Gatsby was right from the start, which kept the dialogue short and less was learned about the two men.

In my opinion, the most important scene in the book occurred when Daisy ran over Myrtle. The movie left out this gruesome yet enjoyable scene completely, which took away from the viewing experience. The loss of this scene also added to the confusion of who killed who in the movie. As a result of this scene, Gatsby is killed and then Wilson kills himself. The writers made a terrible decision by taking out this important precursor to the holocaust at Gatsby's. The 2000 version had an excellent accident scene, something which was needed in the 1974 movie.

I strongly feel that this movie was not an accurate portrayal of the book, The Great Gatsby. Important scenes such as Owl Eyes, Dan Cody, Myrtle getting run over, and many more were left out. The end of this movie left the viewer with so many questions about these subjects. The book, however, tied up almost all the loose ends, leaving the reader satisfied with what they had read. Like so many others, the book was better.

Similarities: Basic plot, Nick moves to west egg, meets Gatsby, helps Gatsby get together with Daisy, Daisy runs over Myrtle, Gatsby is blamed, Gatsby gets killed.

Differences: In the movie, Myrtle looked out the window and saw Tom with a girl getting gas at the Wilsons' gas station, she then got mad and punched the window, this never happened in the book. In the book, Gatsby canceled his parties and replaced his staff after he got together with Daisy, this never happened in the movie. Owl-eyes was a prominent character in the book, but he never appeared in the movie.