MovieChat Forums > The Great Gatsby (1974) Discussion > Miscasting Hall of Fame!

Miscasting Hall of Fame!

posted 5 years ago by Otter (24464)
3 replies | jump to latest

Just saw this again, on one of the Mesothelioma Channels when I couldn't sleep. And I hate to say this, because a friend was an extra in this movie and thinks fondly of it, but the movie sucks - largely because all the major roles were miscast!

Redford's usual schtick of sitting back and letting the audience come to him doesn't work here, Gatsby needs to have an aggressive, superficial charm, and a deeper, more vulnerable charm underneath... and Redford displays no charm at all. Sam Waterston is to mature and knowing for the role of Nick, Nick should be somewhat innocent, easily swayed and easily seduced, in love with the glamour around him. And the role of Daisy is impossible, the camera sees through her long before the audience should, but Mia Farrow is neither beautiful enough nor upper-class enough to even attempt the role. And her voice is whiny, she's irritating rather than beguiling.

Really, the 2013 version is far better, even if it's not really a successful film.

[–] stevewyzard (1583) 5 years ago

Thank you for saying so succinctly just what is wrong with this movie. I think Redford tried to justify his aloof portrayal by saying he was attempting to "preserve the mystery" of Gatsby's character. As Dom DeLuise said in another movie from the same year, "WRONG!"

When the movie ended with "Ain't We Got Fun?" I wanted to scream. Total train wreck/miscasting hall-of-fame.

The 2013 movie is also a train wreck, but for entirely different reasons. The Great Gatsby (and F. Scott Fitzgerald in general) really needs to remain in its original Scribner's & Sons pages. This magnificent work is a time capsule of a long-vanished era and can only suffer when screenwriters/directors attempt to "modernize" it for today's world.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

I don't blame Redford and Farrow, well, not much. They're just very limited actors, and these roles were totally beyond their grasp. I do blame Waterston, he's a skilled actor and intelligent guy, and he should have known better. The thing is, IMHO the whole damn book is about falling in love with illusions. Nick falls in love with various illusions and we experience the process with him, we see most of the story through besotted eyes, including Gatsby being ruined by a love for something that doesn't really exist. So Waterston's Nick resists all the glamour, holds back from being involved, and that leaves us with the story of a man losing it all for love, which being clucked over by a prude.

So yeah, I agree that the story is unfilmable, because of the nature of film vs. the nature of a book. The story doesn't work unless we see all the events unfold through Nick's besotted eyes, and the film camera can't see through one character's eyes. That's also why Daisy will never work on film, the camera sees through her too early in the game.

So I don't agree that the 2013 version was a train wreck, I'd call it... an interesting failure. At least director Luhrman gave it a good try, he tried to show events through Nick's besotted eyes, and only miscast one major role out of three.

[–] liscarkat (18373) 8 months ago

I can't see Farrow anymore without thinking of what a psychopathic liar she is. Fortunately for me I never cared much about this movie, anyway.