It was Junior year in high school, and once again I was procrastinating. For that Friday, I had to read the entire second half of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, an assignment that has been assigned for the past three weeks. However, it was Thursday night, and I think I managed to only read ten pages. I was totally screwed! So what did I do? I went to my collection of movies, found, The Great Gatsby, threw it in the DVD player, sat back, and finished my homework assignment for the next day.

“What’s better, the movie or the book?” A question commonly asked in pretty much every English class at least once in our academic careers. Almost always, the book takes the prize for being better. Harry Potter, The Blind Side, The Lord of the Rings, and many more are examples that prove this common misconception. However, during this blog, I think I finally found an exception to this predetermined cliche.

I ended up eventually reading, The Great Gatsby, and to be honest, I think I will go out and say that I preferred the movie over the book!

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby is a romance-thriller, based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel of the same title. A young writer and aspiring business man, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), finds himself living next to the most famous and beloved billionaire, Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio). However, after finding out more and more about Gatsby, Carraway’s opinions on Gatsby shift both positively and negatively. 

For those of you who have not seen the movie or read the book, one of the biggest aspects of this film that I love the most is that it takes place during the 1920’s. The economy was booming. Prohibition which made drinking and making alcohol a secretive task. Eccentric places like “Speak Easys”, and people like Flappers made this time period an exciting one. However, why I think I love the movie more than the novel is simply for the fact that the movie made all of these thoughts come to life. The cinematography in this film was brilliant. With the flashy outfits, special effects, and people to play these roles, this movie definitely made you feel as if you too were in the 1920’s.

Aside from the awesome cinematography I mentioned previously, another awesome part of this movie is the musical soundtrack throughout. During the entire movie, the soundtrack includes top artists such as Fergie, Lana Del Ray, Jay Z, and many more. The coolest part however, is that these artists transformed their popular songs in a way that once again portray the time period. With different instrumentals and even beat patterns, these songs are revamped, if not improved from their original self.

The biggest take away from this movie is the classic adage, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” That not only relates back to this film but in our everyday lives as well. If you have seen this movie or read the book, you can see how this concept relates to characters such as Nick, Gatsby, and even Daisy. If you have not seen the movie or read the book, I suggest that you do so rather soon to experience this great story line and even better execution in this movie for doing justice to the novel.