Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (2011)

[InformationGeek]

My oh my, look what showed its ugly head finally.  Atlas Shrugged Part 1 is the adaption of the book, Atlas Shrugged (Well no duh says the audience).  However, the movie's got blasted to pieces by the critics (12% on Rotten Tomatoes) due to it being a poor adaption and the horrific acting.  One critic said it was like it GQ put out a movie.  Now there's an image!

Having no defining interest in a movie about a book that I have no interest in to begin with, even if it partically inspired BioShock, I have no idea what it is really like.  Anyone care to give this thing a look?

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlas_shrugged_part_i/

[Flick James]

I am a fan of the novel, and of Ayn Rand in general, although I understand that her characters are idealized versions of what she thinks humans are capable of, but who rarely actually demonstrate.

I did not see the film, and maybe I will on NetFlix at some point. I figured it was going to be a disaster before it was released, for a couple of primary reasons.

First, This book is IMPOSSIBLE to adapt to film, IMHO. The novel takes places in a ficititious near future, where the present was when the book was written, the mid 50's. Not only that, but the style of the novel is very noir-esque, emulating a feel that is more 40's than 50's. Therefore, trying to keep that stylistic context is impossible. And so the only option is to try and adapt the novel's concepts into a near future of now. Extremely difficult to say the least. Ayn Rand's novels are difficult enough to adapt to film, and Atlass Shrugged is by far the most.

Second, This adaptation had been in development purgatory for years. At one point, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were attempting to get it made. All the difficulties this type of undertaking were exactly why it sat in limbo for so long. Finally, with film rights coming close to expiration, there was a final stab at getting something released, and so we got this thrown-together film that was released earlier this year. They tried to create some hype by releasing it on tax day and tying it in to the economic woes of the last couple of years. About the only people who turned up were libertarians and Tea Party people.

Finally, the movie was dead on arrival from a critical standpoint. Fans of the novel are not going to be satisfied by such a thrown-together mess, and certainly the Hollywood left are not going to support such a film even if it were done well.

As I said, I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually, but part of me want's to skip it altogether.

[Archivist]

Trailer for Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W07bFa4TzM
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How is it that all the actors look really familiar, and yet I don't recognize any of their names?  For example, who is the hot blonde?  

It's strange, the way the trailer is cut looks very exciting and dramatic, and the production values look decent.  And yet I have no idea what the plot is supposed to be.  Some guy has a train or a train line.  Some guy is named John Galt.  The government wants to tax steel.  Ummm... Then what?

Ooh, I like the looks of the sequel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seKhVJDOzlQ&feature=related
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[Archivist]

Okay, after a little digging, I've come up with the cast, but I still can't account for why some are familiar.

The cute blonde is an actress with few credits to her name, and has not been in anything I would have seen.  I have no idea why she looks familiar.

The guy who plays Hank Reardon is a New Zealand actor who has been in heaps of Australian TV shows and in the HBO series True Blood.  So that accounts for the familiarity.

The fellow who plays James Taggart was the young sniper in Rambo IV, Resident Evil: Extinction, and Transformers 2.  That explains it.

The black dude who is briefly in the trailer was in two Twilight movies and in X-Men First Class.

I find it funny that some actors just slip under the radar, appearing here and there but never really placing themselves in the forefront of your consciousness.  They just flit from one thing to another and always seem familiar.

[Mofo Rising]

Ayn Rand is the very definition of a cult author. She wrote gargantuan books which were very thinly veiled philosophical screeds. You know the sort of book. Something you would discover in high school and then take very seriously.

Don't get me wrong. Same thing happened to me, I just read different authors.

But Rand has a cult of personality that isn't able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This movie being made is very similar to the Battlefield: Earth debacle of a few years ago. In that case, the true believers wanted to make a movie that would communicate their deeply held beliefs. But they were incompetent, and it was not so good.

This movie strikes me as well-meaning Objectivists trying to make a movie, but not doing it well. Eh, it happens.

[Flick James]

Ayn Rand is the very definition of a cult author. She wrote gargantuan books which were very thinly veiled philosophical screeds. You know the sort of book. Something you would discover in high school and then take very seriously.

Don't get me wrong. Same thing happened to me, I just read different authors.

But Rand has a cult of personality that isn't able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This movie being made is very similar to the Battlefield: Earth debacle of a few years ago. In that case, the true believers wanted to make a movie that would communicate their deeply held beliefs. But they were incompetent, and it was not so good.

This movie strikes me as well-meaning Objectivists trying to make a movie, but not doing it well. Eh, it happens.

It was more a case of throwing a movie together because the film rights were about to expire, but I understand what you mean.

I like Rand, but you're right, she is a cult author to be sure. She was also incredibly smart and I wouldn't want to get into a debate with her, but I wouldn't because I agree with her in very fundamental ways.

My theory as to why she is so "cult" and largely ignored by mainstream conservatism is based on two premises. One, mainstream conservatives, for all their talk about defending capitalism, don't actually practice it, and if asked probably couldn't even give you a decent definition of it, and so Ayn Rand is pretty much over most of their heads. Two, she was a straight-up atheist who had a very vocal disdain for religion. What's more she was very good at demeaning religion. Christianity is heavily embraced by mainstream conservatives in, so naturally, reading Rand would make them uncomfortable. So instead, they listen to other conservatives who take those parts of Rand that appeal to them and that leave out the atheist bits.

One of her recurring arguments was that capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with religion. I happen to agree. I think Ayn Rand embraced the more deistic spirit of some of our Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, who were more inspired by the Enlightenment than the Reformation.

Ayn Rand tends to make most people uncomfortable in one way or another, which is why she is "cult." That's my analysis anyway.

[Archivist]

Ayn Rand is the very definition of a cult author. She wrote gargantuan books which were very thinly veiled philosophical screeds. You know the sort of book. Something you would discover in high school and then take very seriously.

Don't get me wrong. Same thing happened to me, I just read different authors.

Funny you should say that.  In my first year at university, I met a friend who I had not seen since I was six and he went to live in another country.  He was very smart, had very strong opinions about politics, and yes, practically worshipped the ground Ayn Rand walked on.  He would have discovered Ayn Rand in high school, although I never found out.  He was still a great guy but politics bores me to absolute tears.

I've read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia and I still can't see how the trailer conveys any semblance of plot.  There are trains.  There are government taxes.  There's some fellow called John Galt.  Some guy exclaiming, 'they won't get my metal!'  And that's about it.

[Mofo Rising]

In the interests of transparency, I've never actually read any of Rand's works, so my familiarity with her philosophy of Objectivism is cursory at best.

I'm much more familiar with the phenomenon of the humorless Objectivist teenager.

Not saying that's the way it always goes, but it has become something of a cliche. The people working at the Ayn Rand Institute are notorious for being, well, a bit uptight.

My favorite Objectivist has got to be Steve Ditko. Yes, the Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man and other comic mainstays. His later work is eccentric to say the least, but well worth checking out. He reclused himself at a certain point, after his disappointment with the comic industry, but he kept making comics. They're hard to find, but they're pretty fascinating artifacts if you can get a hold of them.

[Jim H]

Not saying that's the way it always goes, but it has become something of a cliche. The people working at the Ayn Rand Institute are notorious for being, well, a bit uptight.

Everything I read about Rand makes me think that personally she was a terrible person.  Normally I wouldn't care too much when someone is known as a fiction author what they're like personally, but when their fiction is largely used to try to present what is essentially a combined political, economic and moral philosophy I find it hard to ignore.  Doesn't make her ideas invalid (if someone's a sociopath, should you take their moral ideas seriously?), I'd say, but it does make me suspect them at the least. 

Not to mention I've yet to really hear anyone defend Atlas Shrugged as being genuinely good as a work of fiction. 

Still, this has got to be one of the most difficult to adapt works ever done, so I'm kind of curious about it.  Also, I work in retail and have had several people ask for copies of the movie on Blu-Ray.  It's interesting to note the type - they're obviously well-to-do businessmen. 

[Flick James]

I'm much more familiar with the phenomenon of the humorless Objectivist teenager.

I didn't know there was such a phenomenon as Objectivist teenagers. I'm intrigued.