Der große Gatsby (1974)
5KDer große Gatsby: Directed by Jack Clayton. With Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black. A Midwesterner becomes fascinated with his nouveau riche neighbor, who obsesses over his lost love.
“Itu0026#39;s funny how time seems to change attitudes towards many works of art, including the 1974 film treatment of Fitzgeraldu0026#39;s novel u0026quot;The Great Gatsby.u0026quot; At the time of its release the movie received some of the most scathingly negative reviews I can recall for any film. The reviews were no doubt a response to the enormous publicity that preceded the movieu0026#39;s release with promotion people at Paramount working overtime in promoting the movie as the finest film achievement since u0026quot;u0026quot;Gone With The Windu0026quot;. Compared to the type of promotion that goes on today, this movieu0026#39;s promotion machine pales, but at the time it was quite a unique approach to marketing a movie. The film was on the cover of every imaginable magazine, including the very first issue of People magazine, and primed for failure from the start from all those in Hollywood who love to build something up only to revel in it being destroyed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNone of this back story had anything to do with the actual movie itself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI recall seeing the movie on the first weekend of its opening and being utterly enchanted by the performances, costumes and ambiance of the production. I saw the movie a second time a few weeks later, only to be disturbed by the cuts that were made to the film, no doubt as a result of that critical backlash. A number of scenes were shortened with one whole character, the Owl Man, played by Tom Ewell completely edited out of the film. These cuts became permanent, with the film today showing the evidence of the cuts by occasional abrupt traditions. I have never seen any version of the film that had these cuts restored.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow, 36 years after itu0026#39;s release, the movie has undergone the type of reassessment that only time can provide with it being appreciated for the lovely film that it is. With the movie certainly on itu0026#39;s way to Blu-Ray, itu0026#39;s the right time to see these cuts restored to the film so that people can finally see the ENTIRE film as it was initially intended and not the film formed by the hostile criticism it received.”
