How Movie is Better in Portraying The Story of "The Great Gatsby"

The battle of books being better than movies or vice versa has been going on since movies were first released. We live in an era where everything can be obtained instantly and are available at the tip of our fingers. Therefore everything is rushed and people do not have time to waste. Books take too much time and are not necessarily important or seen as entertainment anymore. It is much easier to watch a movie for an hour and a half then spending days reading a single book. Movies are more convenient to use for entertainment than books as they do not take much time and everything is visual. The film The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann is better in portraying the story.

Firstly, one point that is often put forward is that movies are visual meaning you do not have to use your imagination to try and figure out how the characters look. Movies can also have special effects that make it more intense such as in the opening scene of The Great Gatsby where Nick was standing in front of the frosted window and it started to zoom out while the image is blurred out by snow to indicate that he is having a flashback. Movies also do not take a lot of time such as books do some may take days to read and some up to weeks depending on how fast and often you read. It is much easier to sit and watch a movie for a little while and instantly understanding the plot. Zooming in to focus on a person’s facial expression is also an effective way to make the audience see exactly what the character is feeling.

In addition to movies being visual, it also stimulates your hearing by having music as a way to induce certain emotions from you. Baz Luhrmann used the same song, “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey, when Gatsby and Daisy met or spent time together. It conveys the feelings Gatsby has for Daisy especially when he says, “She makes it look so splendid” when he, Nick and Daisy are in his ballroom. Hearing people cry or scream has a greater effect on your emotions than just reading that the person was upset as you can physically see and hear the person’s pain or anger.

However books can use words to induce particular feelings from you by using emotive words such as when F. Scott Fitzgerald described Tom and Daisy when they left after Gatsby’s death as “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy ‒ they smashed up things and then retreated back into their money and let other people clean up the mess they had made, but it is not as effective as Nick losing his temper and screaming at all the reporters to “get the hell out of here”. The camera zoomed onto Nick’s face, as the volume of his screaming increased then there was dead silence. It creates a more dramatic and intense air than him just saying that Daisy and Tom were careless people.

As can be seen throughout the course of this essay, there are many arguments in favour of the idea that movies are better suited to convey a story than a novel is. These include the visual aspect of a movie to convey the character’s feelings by zooming in on their facial expression. However, I believe that there is more evidence to support my opinion, such as the ability to use music to induce emotions from you. Therefore movies can portray a story better than books as they stimulate the person visually and auditorily.