The Great Gatsby Film Analysis

‘The Great Gatsby’ was directed by Baz Lhurmann and released in 2013. The plot of the film is narrated by Nick Carraway, one of the main characters in the film, depicting the fictional events surrounding the character of Jay Gatsby and his love for Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Throughout the film, the director utilises various symbols including green lighting, pathetic fallacy and the ‘Eyes of God’ to highlight the themes and attitudes throughout the film.
Colour was utilised to symbolise various elements in the film, including characterisation to highlight the themes that are explored throughout. Green, and in particular a green light, is a symbol of hope throughout the film and is particularly obvious in the final scene of the film after Gatsby’s death, Nick’s narration states ‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.’ The green light sits at the end of Daisy and Tom’s property and Gatsby sees it and reaches out to it, hoping that Daisy is there. Yellow is also utilised frequently throughout the film to symbolise the wealth that Gatsby has obtained through unknown circumstances. Everything that Gatsby owns
One scene that shows this is the scene where Gatsby is about to meet Daisy. The weather is miserable before seeing Daisy as Gatsby is really nervous about meeting her. Once the two have met and reconnected, the weather changes so the rain dies off and the sun comes out. Another scene that shows the pathetic fallacy is when Gatsby is with Daisy, Tom, Nick and Jordan, spending the afternoon with them and the weather is boiling hot. Lhurrman uses the weather to reflect on the tension between Tom and Gatsby which started while they were at Tom’s