By Solomiya Syvyk
Literary Editor

With its fifth film version, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby”, has once again been recreated and moved onto the big screen. On May 10, lines extended, tickets were vigorously bought and theatres became packed because Gatsby had returned.

Since there had been previous adaptations in 1926, ‘49’,74 and 2000,remaking the story once again was addressed as a challenge; a challenge that director, Baz Luhrmann took head on.

To those not familiar with the classic book, originally published in 1925, the plot follows a young man named Nick Carraway who moves to West Egg, Long Island in the summer, during which he plans to visit his cousin, the lovely Daisy Buchanan. His next door neighbor turns out to be a mysterious man by the name of Jay Gatsby who no one has ever seen but have always known, due to the extravagant and rambunctious parties which he throws each weekend.

When Carraway eventually befriends Gatsby, he gets swept away into a lifestyle of glamour, innocence, affairs and passion. As the story unfolds, revealing that Gatsby and Daisy used to date, a chain of destruction is set off. “Well, clearly there had to be a reason for why Gatsby bought a mansion across the river from Daisy’s home; unless it was a completely discouraging accident,” said sophomore Yoonjung Kim.

In the 2013 adaptation, the actors for each part were chosen spectacularly, each pin-pointing their character’s personalities; Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker, the golfing professional who continuously helps Daisy and falls in love with Nick. “DiCaprio plays Gatsby with a charm that veers into neurotic – allowing him to waver between hero and anti-hero, one to be admired and one to be pitied,” commented Tierney Sneed from U.S. News.

The anticipation for the release of this movie was great to not only movie-goers, but also critics who could not wait to comment on Luhrmann’s interpretation of the great American novel. Luhrmann took the straight approach of sticking to the story’s details and even reciting the dialogue exactly from the novel’s pages. Although, at times it was reversed as he followed the mood of the scene by incorporating actions and scenes which were not clarified in the original book. “The circus of visual effects, elaborate camera work, jaw-dropping sets and gorgeous period costumes (designed by Luhrmann’s wife Catherine Martin), exemplify these characters’ skewed perceptions of reality, love and distraction of materialism and their hollow notion of love,” wrote Justin Craig from Fox News.

Luhrmann evidently creates a carnival-esque setting and succeeds in allowing the viewers to travel back in time to the chaos of the roaring 1920s, considering the booming of Wall Street and the low prices of alcohol. These memories were expanded with the alluring music which appeared to be a mix of modern hip-hop featuring artists such as, Jay-Z and Beyonce, and 1920’s jazz.

Even though film aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes has an 84% audience rating for “The Great Gatsby”, the website itself rated the movie 48%, being only one out of the large amount of critics who are commenting negatively about the movie. Some are making crude remarks about the actors; “Carey Mulligan, though a fine actress, is simply overmatched by the part of Daisy Buchanan; she doesn’t invest the character with style or with substance, doesn’t have a sufficiently high-handed irony or sense of intimate secrecy,” said Richard Brody, The New Yorker.

Others are criticizing the way the characters explained their actions instead of performing them, emphasizing their dislike of the way Nick Carraway narrated a majority of the film while writing a book, especially wondering why he was explaining to the audience the history and motives of Gatsby, overall making him the weakest link. There are also complaints of too much original text in the script, that too little was left to interpretation.

From the beginning it was foreshadowed that no matter how well the movie was promoted and interpreted, most would automatically compare it to the original and timeless novel. A.O.Scott from The New York Times wrote, “The best way to enjoy Baz Luhrmann’s big and noisy new version of “The Great Gatsby” — and despite what you may have heard, it is an eminently enjoyable movie — is to put aside whatever literary agenda you are tempted to bring with you.”

The son of some very wealthy people. The murderer. The war hero. The German spy in the Great War. Old sport, it’s “The Great Gatsby”.

4 1/2 out of 5 turkeys