The Great Gatsby Film Analysis

The Great Gatsby tells the tale of a writer and wall street trader named Nick Carraway, who finds himself drawn to the past and luxurious lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Baz Luhrmann, the director of The Great Gatsby, is known for using vibrant color schemes in his movies to enhance and describe different emotions throughout the story. The Great Gatsbyis no exception to this; Luhrmann uses four kinds of color schemes to achieve a dream-like and over-the-top movie. His use of color schemes creates a movie that comes alive through more than simply the places and people. The different color schemes tell a story of their own. The colors combined with special effects and music create a version of The Great Gatsby that stands out amongst other movies based on the same novel.

One of the most noticeable color schemes scene in the movie is the bright, vibrant colors used to show the luxurious lifestyle of the wealthy that live in West and East Egg. All of the scenes that are shot of the wealthy are characterized by bright yellows, vibrant reds, and gold accents that show the extravagancy of the wealthy side over the poor. These outstanding colors are shown through every scene that displays the parties Gatsby continuously throws attempting to gain attention from Daisy. These parties contain gold champagne towers, exotic dancers wearing colorful clothing, and more. Majority of the party scenes are shot by a camera flying above Gatsby’s entire mansion to obtain the full effect of how ginormous his house is. The camera flies over Gatsby’s mansion, capturing the bright lights and massive crowds of people flowing in and out of the building. Nick mentions to Gatsby, “Your place looks like the World’s Fair” (Fitzgerald 85). The West and East Egg symbolize the American Dream. The vibrancy and loudness of the color schemes in this part of Long Island help exaggerate what it is like to have fulfilled the American Dream. The colors in these scenes sharply contrast those in the Valley of Ashes, and are supposed to make you feel envious of the characters.

White occurs numerous times throughout the film, and most of the time, it is centrally associated with Daisy. White represents immaculate, pure beauty, nobleness, and purity. Daisy is constantly surrounded by white. The director illuminates the extravagance of Daisy and the West and East Egg by using cold white light instead of warm yellow light in all of the scenes. This provides a sense of luxury and elegance. An example of this is an early scene in the movie when Nick visits Daisy and Tom for dinner. When Nick walks in the sunroom, Daisy and Jordan are lying on a white couch while bright white curtains are flowing through their hands and all around them. The cold white lighting in this scene makes the entire room glow. It brightens everything in the room. The lighting also reflects off of all the diamonds and jewelry the ladies are wearing which shows luxury and richness. Nick describes Daisy saying, “Daisy Buchanan, the golden girl” and “her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes with a bright passionate mouth” (Fitzgerald 15). Especially in this scene, these qualities of Daisy are illuminated with the help of the lighting. The cold white light reflects off of Daisy’s “bright eyes”.

Opposing the exotic colors of the wealthy side of New York, the poor side is shown in bleak colors such as grey and black. The Valley of Ashes is described as,

a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air (Fitzgerald 28).

Throughout the movie, whenever the Valley of Ashes in shown, a grey color scheme is used to exaggerate the emptiness and corruption of this part of town. By using these colors, the director is capturing the grotesqueness of the characters who live here and their lives. It creates a vivid picture of a true “wasteland” filled with people that feel depressed, hopeless, and afflicted (Zhang). As seen in the movie, even the characters’ clothing in the Valley of Ashes exhibits their poor lives. Characters such as Myrtle and George who live there are shown wearing dull, grey clothing covered in dirt and ash. This color scheme produces very different emotions than the bright color scheme of West and East Egg. The bleak colors are supposed to make the audience feel disheartened and sad while watching these scenes, compared to feelings of happiness when shown the rich.

In The Great Gatsby, Jazz is mainly used with trumpets mixed in with modern tunes to exemplify the setting of the movie: The Roaring 20’s. Lana Del Ray’s song, “Young and Beautiful”, is used throughout the entire movie. It is incorporated into many scenes with different tempos. The different tempos are able to portray contrasting feelings depending on the scene. The lyrics in the song emphasize the sadness in Gatsby and Daisy’s love story. The title, “Young and Beautiful”, describes Daisy. The song is written through Daisy’s perspective and as she sings, “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?”, she is asking Gatsby if he will still love her when they are grown up (Del Ray). After Gatsby and Daisy have tea at Nick’s, Gatsby takes them to his house and in this particular scene, the song is playing slowly then continues to speed up as Gatsby gives Daisy a tour of his house. Daisy spins around the mansion and the sun shines bright on her. While Daisy does this, she appears to be carefree and innocent. The song plays in the background and underlies how Daisy becomes an innocent girl when she is with Gatsby. It sends her back to when she was young and in love (Luhrmann).

Baz Luhramm created a dream-like movie that exhibited emotions throughout each scene. By adding different color schemes and special effects, Luhrmann gave The Great Gatsby new life. The director mixed the roaring 20’s and modern society together to create a new adaptation of an old novel. The audience is able to peak into what the roaring 20’s might have looked like, while still relating to it. The color schemes and music not only make the movie aesthetically pleasing, but they also tell a story. Without the color schemes one wouldn’t be able to live vicariously through the characters’ lives.