The Great Gatsby: Midnight in Manhattan

The Great Gatsby, a classic book that was wrote by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 tells the story of parties and romance in the 20's. Celebrating it's 75th year (back in 2000), the documentary The Great Gatsby: Midnight in Manhattan was made for the fans of the book, the writer, and anything related to the story of Nick Carraway. Narrated by Fitzgerald's granddaughter, this documentary gets the views of other famous writers like Hunter S. Thompson, George Plympton, and more as the story of the Great Gatsby unfolds.

Ok, that's about as best of a description as I can give for this documentary because other than knowing of the author and the book, my knowledge goes no further. I've never read The Great Gatsby nor any of Fitzgerald's works, which made watching this documentary a little bland for me. There are a lot of good interviews with other writers who know a lot more about the topic but as they talked and the story unfolded I was still in the dark. They talk about writing styles, what motivated Fitzgerald, how other aspects of his life influenced his writing, and so much more but I knew nothing about what they where talking about. Watching this documentary was being told about a topic I don't know about but leaving out anything that tells about the topic.

I didn't expect this documentary to go into detail about the story but I expected a little more information about the story then what is given. For anyone that has read the book, liked it enough to remember it, and knows about Fitzgerald, then this documentary will be entertaining. It does have enough facts to keep in interesting to anyone else that has knowledge of the book and the author but nothing in it for anyone that don't know. Documentaries are supposed to entertain and teach, at least good ones will, and what this one does is talks about the topic without teaching. I would have to read the book and learn about Fitzgerald before I could get the full entertainment value out of this documentary. However, the bonus feature of the play, that is shot to make it feel less like a play, was more entertaining than the documentary. This play delves into the life of Fitzgerald rather than just talking about some things he did and how he made a impact on writing.