The Great Gatsby
Director: Jack Clayton
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 0.5
An atrocious filmization of one of the great works of American literature, this is not only incompetent, but also tedious. Francis Ford Coppola's idea of a script is merely retyping the text verbatim (and, when deciding to make changes, ruining Fitzgerald's original idea) and Clayton's choice of direction is letting his shapeless scenes run entirely too long. Like him or not, Robert Redford makes a fine Gatsby, but who ever cast Karen Black, Bruce Dern or Mia Farrow (who are all awful) made a serious blunder. Actually reading the book wouldn't take as long as sitting through this and be far more rewarding; high school students across the world, if given Arriflex cameras and a hefty budget, could have turned in a better interpretation.
