film report the great gatsby 2013 course culture of english speaking countries

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH ---FILM REPORT THE GREAT GATSBY 2013 COURSE: CULTURE OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES Student name

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

-FILM REPORT

THE GREAT GATSBY (2013)

COURSE: CULTURE OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Student name: Vu Nhat Giang

Student code: 11201136

Class: 05

Instructor: Nguyen Thi Thien Huong, M.A

Ha Noi, 2022 TABLE OF CONTENT

The Great Gatsby (2013)

I Introduction………3

II Film summarization……….4-11 II.1 Author and novel introduction……… 4

II.2 Director introduction……… 6

II.3 Characters introduction………7

II.4 Film summarization……….8

III Individual analysis………12-16 III.1 In-depth film analysis……… 12

III.2 Course reflection……… 15

IV Conclusion ……… 17

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I Introduction

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”

_ F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby_

Portraying stunningly and pictorially the Roaring Twenties, an era of glittering jazz, flapper

culture and the infamous American Dream The Great Gatsby (2013) , has strike an unforgettable impression in me When I first had the chance to watch this film, I was only 17 years old and I had not read the original novel of Francis Scott Fitzgerald Nevertheless, this novel adaptation from the mastermind Baz Luhrmann still dazzled me with its sheer artistry theme, lavish cinematography, captivating soundtracks, and the phenomenal performance of the entire cast on

an intriguing storyline After reading the book version, I consider The Great Gatsby (2013) an

enthralling essence capture of one of the greatest novel ever written and also one of my all time favorite films The movie also tells stories which illustrate valuable lessons about moral, love, ambition, and also the class consciousness in a fast-changing materialism world of America As for the reasons above, I have chosen The Great Gatsby (2013) for my report in this semester

Culture of English speaking countries course to analyze and to reflect its storyline on the

knowledge that I have learned throughout this class

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II Film summarization

II.1 Author and novel introduction

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, also known as F Scott Fitzgerald, was an American short-story writer and novelist He was born on September 24, 1896, in St Paul, Minnesota, and passed away on December 21, 1940, in Hollywood, California His works that portray the extravagance and flamboyance of the Jazz Age are what made him most well-known He produced 164 short stories, four story collections, and four novels namely Side of Paradise (1920) The Beautiful,

and Damned (1922) The Great Gatsby (1925), , and Tender Is the Night (1934) during his

lifetime Fitzgerald acquired critical acclaim only after his death and is now regarded as one of the finest American authors who had the best narrative gift of the 20 century, despite onlyth

experiencing fleeting popularity and prosperity in the 1920s

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young love affair Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King and the wild parties he attended on

Long Island's North Shore in 1922 served as an inspiration for the book The Great Gatsby

garnered largely positive reviews after Scribner's published it in April 1925, however some literary critics thought it fell short of Fitzgerald's earlier works Fewer than 20,000 copies of Gatsby were sold by October, a poor sales performance compared to his other books, and Fitzgerald's aspirations of financial gain from the book were dashed The author believed his work had been forgotten when he passed away in 1940 and that he had failed

The novel had an extraordinary popularity boost during World War II when the Council on Books in Wartime gave away free copies to American soldiers fighting abroad The work quickly became a staple of the majority of American high school curricula and a part of popular culture

as a result of its newfound popularity, which sparked a critical and scholarly re-examination In the decades that followed, there were numerous theatrical and cinematic versions

The Great Gatsby continues to be studied by academics and the general public The novel's

depiction of socioeconomic class, inherited versus self-made wealth, gender, race, and environmentalism, as well as its critical attitude toward the American Dream, are highlighted by

modern scholars Antisemitic stereotyping is one accusation that keeps coming up The Great Gatsby is a literary masterpiece that has been nominated for the Great American Novel award.

II.2 Director introduction

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Australian film director, producer, writer, and actor Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), better known by his stage name as Baz Luhrmann, is also an actor He is recognized by some as a modern example of an auteur for his style and strong engagement in the writing, directing, design, and musical components of all of his work, with projects spanning the film, television, opera, theatre, music, and recording industries Four of his movies are in the top

10 highest-grossing Australian movies of all time, making him the most commercially successful Australian director

The visual aesthetic, directing, storyline, performances, soundtrack, and the movie's adaptation

of the original material all garnered praise and criticism from critics of The Great Gatsby The audience reacted more favorably, and Fitzgerald's granddaughter said Scott would have been proud with the movie With approximately $353 million in international box office receipts as of

2017, it is Luhrmann's most successful movie The movie took home awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at the 86th Academy Awards

II.3 Characters introduction

Major characters in The Great Gatsby (2013) are:

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University, served in World War I, and moved to West Egg at the age of 29 (after 30) He sells bonds and lives next door to Gatsby Carraway is laid-back and optimistic

Jack Gatsby: a North Dakota native, young, mystery millionaire with questionable business

connections who was eventually identified as a bootlegger Gatsby met his lifelong love, debutante Daisy Buchanan, when he was a young military soldier stationed at Camp Taylor for the US Army in Louisville, Kentucky, during World War I

Daisy Buchanan: a Louisville, Kentucky debutante and young socialite who

was labeled a superficial and self-centered flapper She is Tom Buchanan's wife and Nick's second cousin twice removed Daisy was in a romance with Gatsby before she wed Tom One of the major tensions in the book is how she decides between Gatsby and Tom

Tom Buchanan: A millionaire who resides in East Egg is Daisy's husband.

Tom is a large, muscular man with a harsh voice and a disdainful posture He

is a white nationalist and a former Yale football standout

II.4 Film summarization

Nick Carraway, a Yale alum from the Midwest and a veteran of World War I, travels to New York City in the spring of 1922 in order to find work as a bond salesman He leases a home in the

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multi-millionaire who throws lavish parties but doesn't attend any of them.

In the posh community of East Egg, Nick enjoys dinner with Daisy Buchanan, a distant relative Tom Buchanan, a former Yale football player who Nick knew in his undergraduate years, is Daisy's husband In a home just across the bay from Gatsby's estate, the couple recently moved there from Chicago Jordan Baker, an arrogant flapper and golf champion who was Daisy's childhood pal, runs into Nick there Nick learns from Jordan that Tom has a lover named Myrtle Wilson, who blatantly calls him at his house and resides in the "valley of ashes," a large garbage dump Nick sees Gatsby alone on his lawn that evening, gazing across the water at a green light

A few days later, Nick reluctantly rides the train to New York City with a belligerent and inebriated Tom They make a pit break an route at the garage owned by George Wilson, a mechanic, and Myrtle, his wife After Myrtle joins them, they travel to a little New York apartment that Tom had reserved for their trysts The party starts with guests arriving, and when Myrtle mentions Daisy, Tom slaps her and breaks her nose

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is humiliated because he doesn't recognize anyone and starts to drink a lot till he meets Jordan.

As he is conversing with her, a stranger approaches him and claims to be Jay Gatsby, insisting that he and Nick both served in the 3rd Infantry Division during the war Nick observes Gatsby following him as he departs the party after Gatsby makes an effort to win Nick over

Nick and Gatsby eat lunch at a speakeasy in late July Gatsby tries to win Nick over by bragging about his military valor and his time at Oxford Nick then runs into Jordan once more, this time

at the Plaza Hotel Jordan says that around 1917, while Gatsby was an officer in the American Expeditionary Forces, he first met Daisy Although they fell in love, Daisy unwillingly wed Tom when Gatsby was sent up to go overseas Gatsby expects Daisy would change her mind with his newfound fortune and lavish parties Gatsby sets up Daisy's reunion with Nick, and the two start dating as a result

When Daisy casually talks Gatsby with shameless closeness in front of him in September, Tom learns about the relationship Later, Gatsby and Tom quarrel about the affair in a suite at the Plaza Hotel Daisy must affirm that she never loved Tom, according to Gatsby Daisy upsets both Gatsby and Tom by claiming to love them Tom confesses that Gatsby is a con artist who makes

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Knowing that Daisy will never leave him, Tom mockingly instructs Gatsby to drive her home.

hit Myrtle with their automobile while passing by Wilson's garage She died instantly Later, Gatsby admits to Nick that it was Daisy who was behind the wheel, but he plans to take the blame for the collision to keep Daisy safe Gatsby resists Nick's advice to leave the country to avoid being arrested George, who is inconsolable upon learning that Gatsby is the owner of the car that hit Myrtle, concludes that the owner of the vehicle must be Myrtle's boyfriend In the swimming pool of his estate, George shoots Gatsby

to death before taking his own life

Henry Gatz, Gatsby's father, shows up for the poorly attended funeral a few days after his son's murder Following Gatsby's passing, Nick grows to despise New York and concludes that Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and himself were all Midwesterners who weren't cut out for life in the East

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who told George that Gatsby was the owner of the car that had murdered Myrtle Nick visits Gatsby's estate once more before heading back to the Midwest and looks across the bay at Daisy's dock's green light

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III Individual analysis

III.1 In-depth film analysis

The American Dream

After The Great Gatsby's resurgence, following reviews of the book centered on Fitzgerald's disappointment with the American Dream during the hedonistic Jazz Age, a term Fitzgerald claimed to have invented The dream is the conviction that any person can pursue and

accomplish their chosen goals, no matter where they come from "be they social, financial, or political It is an example of how the idea of America—the land of opportunity—is expressed in

literature ".

The American ideal is represented by Gatsby as a false prophet, and those who seek it will only

be disappointed since it is unachievable The green light on the Buchanans' pier, which can be seen from Gatsby's house across Long Island Sound, is usually seen in this analytical context as a representation of Gatsby's impractical desire to woo Daisy and, in turn, accomplish the American Dream

Class permanence

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deeply ingrained class gaps in American culture The book emphasizes how the American lower class cannot rise above their station in life

Fitzgerald's book demonstrates that a class permanence endures despite the nation's capitalist economy, which rewards innovation and adaptability, even though the central conflict in The Great Gatsby is between established sources of socioeconomic power and upstarts like Gatsby who threaten their interests Even if the poorest Americans grow wealthy, they will always be inferior to the "old money" Americans As a result, Gatsby and other novel characters are constrained by the rigid American class system

Gender relations

The Jazz Age's cultural gender standards are examined in The Great Gatsby Daisy Buchanan has been especially characterized as personifying the newly developing flapper cultural image Flappers were often young, contemporary ladies with short skirts and bobbed hair They consumed alcohol as well and engaged in extramarital sex

Fitzgerald's work critically investigates the ongoing restrictions on women's agency during this time despite the unprecedented cultural freedoms obtained by flappers in the 1920s Daisy must abide by societal conventions and gender expectations as an upper-class white lady in East Egg during this time period, including actively carrying out the duties of obedient wife, devoted mother, and charming socialite Daisy's predetermined status as a "pretty little fool" who depends

on her husband for financial and social security can be partially blamed for many of her decisions, which ultimately lead to the catastrophic automobile crash and sorrow for everyone

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stability that her marriage to Tom Buchanan offers.

Race and displacement

The novel’s treatment of race and dispacement can be seen through the scenario of “old money” American who perceives newer immigrants as a threat, raising worries about a decline in socioeconomic level Tom's animosity for Gatsby, the personification of "latest America," in this environment of immigration and displacement, has been understood as partially mirroring status issues at the period involving anti-immigrant sentiment Gatsby, whom Tom disparages as "Mr Nobody from Nowhere", serves as a cipher due to his mysterious ancestry, his hazy ethnicity and religion, and his ambiguous social position Therefore, Gatsby's socioeconomic rise is seen as a threat because he is an outsider

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III.2 Course reflection

Connecting the details inside The Great Gatsby’s storyline with the course, I have had the

opportunity to explore in greater depth the issues introduced in several topics throughout the lectures

First and foremost, The Great Gatsby is a graphically depiction of the social and economic

excess of America in the 1920s, which can be related to our course’s lesson 5 about Economy and everyday life The film portraits the commodity fetishism of that era where money and

objects are what define the value and importance of an individual This is also the ideology of

capitalism society “you are what you own” Thus, the old rich can get away with whatever they

done, for example murder, and so this demonstrates moral decay situations during this period of America

In addition, the movie highlights the inequality gap between the rich and poor in American society in the 1920s Examining the film in a greater depth, it can be witnessed that most of the wealthy members in the society do not work, live in luxury accommodation, and spend much of their time at lavish parties Meanwhile, people who are less wealthy have to work constantly but can not possess a higher social status and reside in Valley of Ashes – a wasteland destroyed and abandoned by the rich This gap between two classes has created a materialistic society where everyone only adore the wealth and opulence

Finally, The Great Gatsby is also a vividly picture of the 1920s American social class division,

gender stereotypes, and race discrimination This links to our course’s lesson 7 about People, Identity, and Attitudes The difference between “old money” and “new money” in the

American society can be seen clearly, as the class system during that period restrained individual with low background such as Jay Gatsby to achieve the American Dream Moreover, the film shows a cliché of women during the Jazz Age in America as an object, a possession of men and their values are determined by the wealth of their husbands Last and not least, the white supremacy in American in the 1920s is also depicted Authentic Americans such as Tom

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