Overview – The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings.
Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering, blue-blooded husband Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
Baz does it big. Subtlety is not a word in Baz Luhrmann’s lexicon, as the Australian director has proven time and again in his small cadre of films. ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Australia’ stand as prime examples of the bold, glitzy, kitchen sink style that both distinguishes and often engulfs his work, with even the low-budget, high camp ‘Strictly Ballroom’ brandishing a manic, over-the-top edge. So it’s not surprising Luhrmann might be attracted to the high-living, out-of-control Roaring Twenties and the era’s fictional poster boy, the dashing and mysterious Jay Gatsby. A symbol of wealth, excess, and devastating glamour, Gatsby fits Luhrmann like an Armani suit, and the director’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel celebrates the drunken decadence, sky-high spirits, and reckless attitudes of The Jazz Age with his trademark love-it-or-hate-it flair.