The Great Gatsby (1974) on Netflix
Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner on Long Island, is fascinated by his neighbor Jay Gatsby, a mysterious tycoon. Gatsby wants to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, his former love, and Nick is drawn in.
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- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb6.4/1029,205 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes40%
Trailer
Plot summary
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner, lives beside the estate of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious tycoon who throws lavish parties. He visits his cousin Daisy Buchanan and learns her marriage to Tom is troubled and Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, in New York. Daisy wants to pair Nick with Jordan Baker, a professional golfer. At a Gatsby party, Nick is invited to meet Gatsby privately. Later Jordan asks Nick to invite Daisy to his house so Gatsby can see her. Nick agrees, and Gatsby and Daisy meet again as former lovers who separated because he was poor.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Gatsby (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Evans sought 49-year-old Marlon Brando for the Gatsby role that Robert Redford wanted; Brando demanded a reported $4 million, saying it would recoup the $100,000 he lost selling his Godfather profit points, and Gulf + Western chief Charles Bludhorn vetoed the deal.
- Robert Redford campaigned for Jay Gatsby, but producer Evans rejected him because he wrongly believed Fitzgerald's novel specified Gatsby had dark hair; director Jack Clayton upbraided Evans for not knowing the book and got Redford cast.
- Evans first sought Warren Beatty as Gatsby, but Beatty turned him down, reluctant to act opposite MacGraw; he then offered the part to Jack Nicholson, who was also wary of acting with MacGraw and could not make a financial deal.
- Ali MacGraw lost the Daisy role after leaving Evans for Steve McQueen; the pair offered themselves to producer Merrick as a package, but McQueen was turned down because Redford was already cast, and MacGraw dropped the film.
- Francis Ford Coppola, who had read the novel but wasn't familiar with it, checked into Oscar Wilde's old room at a Paris hotel and wrote the script; shocked the book had almost no Daisy-and-Gatsby dialogue, he borrowed much of the authentic Fitzgerald dialogue from the author's short stories.
- Francis Ford Coppola said on his DVD commentary for The Godfather that the director of The Great Gatsby paid no attention to his script and that the screenplay he wrote was never made.
