Summary
The film opens with several shots of the Gatsby mansion: his fancy cars, the lavish interior, the pool, a scrapbook filled with pictures of Daisy Buchanan.
We see Nick Carraway in a small motor boat, grabbing his hat from the water, and narrating that he lives in West Egg on Long Island, "on the less fashionable side." Meanwhile, he tells us, his cousin Daisy Buchanan lives with her husband, Tom (whom Nick knows from college), in East Egg. As Nick's boat approaches the shore, Tom Buchanan rides up on a horse holding a polo mallet. The two men greet each other, and get in a car together.
Back at the Buchanan mansion, Tom asks Nick where he's staying and Nick tells him he's in a small cottage for $80 a month. "I am now just a struggling bonds salesman on Wall Street," Nick reminds his old friend. In a white room, Daisy calls out to him and greets him, happy to see him. She introduces him to Jordan Baker, a pro tennis player, as her second cousin once removed. Daisy asks if the people in Chicago miss her, and he jokes that they all have their back left car wheels painted black in mourning.
Tom invites them to all have a drink, and Jordan asks Nick if he knows Gatsby, who lives in West Egg. At the sound of that name, Daisy looks startled: "What Gatsby?" she asks, and they all go to have a drink on the veranda. Daisy and Jordan want to plan an event for the longest day of the year. Daisy then notes that her finger is black and blue, pointing out that it's Tom's fault, before saying, "That's what I get for marrying a brute of a man."
Tom asks Nick if he's read The Rise of the Colored Empires, but he hasn't. "It's a fine book, and everyone ought to read it," Tom says it. As Tom goes into a racist rant, a butler comes out and whispers something in his ear, and he abruptly excuses himself. Daisy tries to distract Nick from Tom's rudeness by telling him that he's an "absolute rose," before rushing into the house herself.
Nick turns to Jordan and tries to talk, but Jordan wants to eavesdrop on Daisy and Tom's conversation. Apparently Tom has a "woman in New York." Daisy and Tom come back out and Daisy comments on a nightingale on the lawn; "it's romantic, isn't it Tom?"
Later, Nick gets in his boat and goes home. Daisy and Tom wave from the dock, and the sky is a deep pink color. Nick narrates that he felt very good that day, but that "by the autumn, my mood would be very different...I would want no more privileged glimpses into the human heart."
As Nick arrives on shore, we hear him narrate in voiceover, "Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." Nick sees Gatsby standing outside his mansion in a tuxedo and looking out at a green blinking light across the harbor. Nick goes back to his cottage.
The next morning, Nick drinks coffee on his porch, and looks over at Gatsby's mansion, where scores of servants mow and tend to the lawn preparing for a party. We see cooks and servants preparing a giant feast for the party, then Nick eating a humble steak dinner on his porch. At Gatsby's, a party is beginning. "I believe that few people were actually invited to these parties. They just went. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby's door, come for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission." Nick watches the party guests dance in silhouette in a large tent.
We see a large billboard advertising the services of an oculist named Echleburg, in a small neighborhood in Queens in between the two Eggs and New York. Nick narrates that this area is a "valley of Ashes, a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat." Tom and Nick drive up to Wilson's garage, and Tom invites Nick to come into the garage and meet his mistress, Myrtle.
Wilson, the owner of the garage says hello to Tom, and wants to know when he can buy his car, as Myrtle comes down the stairs. When Wilson goes to get something, Tom whispers to Myrtle that he wants her to get on a train to meet him in the city. Nick and Tom leave.
Later, Myrtle meets them in the city, climbing over Nick in the car to kiss Tom. As they begin to drive, Myrtle spots a man holding a litter of puppies, telling Tom she wants to buy a dog for her apartment. Myrtle asks the seller for a "police dog," and he hands her an Airedale. Tom forks over $10 to pay for the dog, and they go to the apartment that Tom keeps for Myrtle. Nick doesn't want to come in, but Tom insists and Myrtle tells him she'll invite her sister Catherine over.
They throw a party in the apartment, and Catherine wanders over and introduces herself to Nick. She tells him she was just at a party at Gatsby's house. "He's German...a cousin or nephew or something of Kaiser Wilhelm. That's where all his money comes from," she tells Nick. Myrtle comes into the room and shows everyone the puppy she just bought, as Catherine whispers to Nick that neither Tom nor Myrtle can stand their spouses. "Myrtle's been living over that garage for 11 years, you know, and Tom's the first sweetie she ever had," Catherine says to Nick.
In another part of the room, Myrtle tells a woman that she met Tom on the train when she was going to visit Catherine. Nick smiles as Myrtle tells the story, getting weepy as she thinks about the day and insists, "You can't live forever!" As Tom comes over to comfort her, he accidentally steps on the dog, and Myrtle scolds him for being clumsy. When Myrtle goes into an adjoining room, Tom follows her. Catherine turns to Nick and tells him, "It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic, and they don't believe in divorce."
Myrtle and Tom come out of the room fighting. Myrtle is yelling Daisy's name, when suddenly Tom punches her in the face and gives her a nosebleed. As she sobs, Tom embraces her.
The scene shifts and we see Jordan and Nick arriving at a party at the Buchanan estate. Jordan apologizes for being late, and they go in the house to get ready. We see Gatsby standing outside his house at sunset, looking at the green light across the harbor.
Jordan plays golf in a tournament. Nearby, on a bench, Daisy tells Nick that she's going to set them up to get married. "Daisy, I have no money. Would Jordan marry a man with no money?" Nick says. "Of course not," Daisy laughs, adding, "It'll just have to be an affair then." After noting that Nick wasn't at her wedding, Daisy begins to tell him that she's had a very bad time, when suddenly she's interrupted by her daughter, who waves to her from the field. Daisy then tells Nick, "Let me tell you what I said when she was born: She was less than an hour old, and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and I asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, so I turned away my head and wept. 'All right,' I said. 'I'm glad it's a girl, and I hope she'll be a little fool.' That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
As she wipes her eyes, Tom walks up and asks what they're talking about. Daisy tells him they're talking about the Nordic race, as Jordan hits a golf ball.
Later, a messenger from Gatsby's approaches Nick at his house and hands him an invitation to a party that evening.
Analysis
The film sets a dreamy, moody, and romantic tone from the very beginning. The camera travels around Gatsby's luxury home as sultry, wistful music plays. We see a scrapbook, filled with photographs of Daisy Buchanan, as a soundtrack of muffled party sounds becomes a song about love lost. With these shots and this soundtrack, the viewer can tell that the film will look at romance and the spark of love, but that this will not be a simple story. The tone of the opening credits foreshadows the bittersweet nature of the narrative, the fact that love in The Great Gatsby will prove more complicated than a simple "boy meets girl" story.
Leading us through the story is the voyeuristic Nick Carraway, who has only recently arrived in Long Island to make a life and work in the city as a bond salesman. He is the perfect protagonist and narrator, in that he is somewhat blank and impressionable, an observer rather than an actor, who slips in and out of people's lives and articulately muses about their circumstances. He is a steady but also unknowable character, a stand-in for F. Scott Fitzgerald, the writer of the original novel on which the film is based. Sam Waterston's characterization of Nick is rather sober and neutral; his Nick is someone in whom it would be easy to confide.
The art direction, design, and photography of the film contribute to the narrative in key ways. The initial shots of Gatsby's lavish lifestyle—ballrooms and cars and pools—acclimate us to the luxurious setting. Additionally, the costumes, set pieces, and beautiful shots of the Long Island harbor heighten the romanticism of the narrative. Upon arriving at the Buchanan estate, Nick enters a lavish environment, complete with dog-wrangling butlers, society women in flowing white dresses, and flower-filled verandas. Then, when Nick takes his boat home from the Buchanans', the sky is lit up with an almost radioactive pink color, and we see Gatsby's giant mansion from afar, lit up from within.
The character of Nick's cousin Daisy is more complicated than she first appears. When we first meet the young debutante, played with a breathy elegance by Mia Farrow, she seems lighthearted and fun-loving. Soon, however, the implicit tragedies of her life begin to appear. Her marriage to the brutish Tom is less than ideal, and it seems like he is both physically rough and emotionally manipulative. Underneath the surface of her seemingly picturesque life is a tremor of doom, as if life has passed her by and she has been tragically duped. As we learn more about Tom—his philandering and deceit—we can see that Daisy is trapped in an inescapably difficult arrangement.
Nick floats through the lives of all the characters, a trusted confidant to each of them, turning himself into an almost omniscient narrator. One minute Daisy is confiding in him about her unhappiness, the next Jordan is filling him in on the gossip, and the next Tom is taking him to visit his mistress Myrtle, at their secret shared apartment. A man of no means and very few connections, Nick has no choice but to float through these relationships and interactions, learning more and more as he goes along.
