The Nice Gatsby
Studio: Kino Lorber
Aug 18, 2025
Internet Unique
Pictures by Kino Lorber
The Nice Gatsby is a narrative that seldom wants summarizing. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s title and novels are sometimes spoken in the identical sentence because the phrase “nice American.” With The Nice Gatsby being his hottest story, but one which reached essential acclaim a number of years after it was printed, there have been a number of (six) movie variations.
With the 1926 silent image, The Nice Gatsby, not in circulation and probably destroyed altogether, Paramount Photos’ 1949 remake is the primary accessible reimagining of the traditional novel. It’s additionally necessary to notice that the movie’s greenlight doubtless outcomes from its try to experience the novel’s reputation after World Conflict II. (Regardless of many veterans having a pocket copy of the e book, the movie didn’t carry out on par on the field workplace.)
Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray launch makes an attempt to offer the dusty, adaptational blueprint a second life. Director Elliot Nugent’s model, tailored from each Fitzgerald’s novel and the play by Owen Davis, clocks in at a brief and candy runtime of 91 minutes–a lot shorter than that of Baz Luhrmann’s extra acquainted, up to date 2013 movie (which is a lofty 142 minutes).
What attracts me most into the newly minted bodily copy of The Nice Gatsby is the audio commentary from creator and movie historian Paul Talbot. His voiceover, peppered all through the movie, is actually partaking and informative. Not solely does it present comparability to the e book, it additionally contextualizes the movie inside a broader socio-cultural lens. Along with Talbot’s specification of examine being the works of actor Alan Ladd, the discharge additionally incorporates a barely outdated 2012 interview with Ladd’s son, David. Together with his efficiency because the lead, Jay Gatsby, it is smart that that is Alan Ladd’s second favourite movie that he labored on. Plus, we be taught that he actually put his Hollywood stardom into the venture to make sure the film even made it to manufacturing (and later to the large display).
Remaining true to the novel’s key plot factors, The Nice Gatsby (1949) solely scratches the floor of the story’s advanced entanglements. Nevertheless, it doesn’t shrink back from the unglamorous backstory of the titular character, unfolding the movie right into a noir-like characteristic. The movie is bookended by pictures of a tombstone etched with “Proverbs: 14:12,” a verse within the Bible that reads “There’s a approach that seems to be proper, however in the long run it results in dying.” This line proceeds a extra becoming verse for the decision of The Nice Gatsby: “Even in laughter the center might ache, and rejoicing might finish in grief.” We start with a foreshadowing notice that later leaves the viewers feeling unsure how the characters really felt.
Identical to the e book, Gatsby and Daisy’s romance is the central battle, nevertheless it lacks longing; Ladd’s lavish confidence and dedication interprets as social ineptitude. Supporting characters, neighborly Nick Carraway (Macdonald Carey) and jazzy Jordan Baker (Ruth Hussey), mirror the way through which the viewers is kind of dredged alongside for the drama–numerous aspect eyes and sighs. Because the story oscillates by means of time, it creates a Russian Doll of flashbacks. After we lastly attain the purpose the place Gatsby and Daisy reunite, the sound design and rating work collectively to cease time all collectively on this silence, we maintain our breath for only a second, hoping for a second that it’ll prove in another way. Like Daisy’s proclaims, for a second, I too “am intelligent typically however not very clever.”
Remarkably, Nugent’s model of the story embodies a capability to translate coloration regardless of being shot in black and white. Though the script typically weaves in key descriptors like “yellow automobile” and “inexperienced gentle,” the set and costume design converse for themselves. The strategic framing exhibits us the grandiosity of Gatsby’s goals, his capacious void of companionship.
Within the midst of the 20s of a brand new century, The Nice Gatsby reminds us that the strategies of mating have at all times adopted the identical patterns. Reconnecting with our exes, mutual associates as fixer uppers, cash as the center man in virtually all conflicts. If solely the pacing, of each the movie and its relationships, permitted for extra depth and extra intimacy within the intricacies of previous connections.
