
Atlas Shrugged film to be released in 2011 - marilyn
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/
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jbooth
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The
Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often
engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an
emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real
world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

~~~
grandalf
Note that most people who aren't fans of Atlas Shrugged resort to making dumb,
belittling jokes about it rather than articulating an argument.

The internet is full of parodies, etc., but there really aren't many people
who dislike the book and are also capable of persuasively arguing against it
without resorting to religious authority or mocking sneers (or both).

Why? Probably because most people haven't read the book. It's not the easiest
read. There are great audio versions, but audiobooks are generally viewed with
disdain by literary types...

~~~
secretasiandan
This phenomenon isn't isolated to Ayn Rand/Objectivism. And it doesn't occur
with Objectivism because Atlas Shrugged/The Fountainhead are hard reads.

Its because most people don't spend time objectively studying
topics/philosophies they don't have a positive bias towards.

~~~
dk
Your last statement is certainly true but it doesn't explain the vitriol. Most
people don't have a positive bias towards, say, Plato. But you don't see at
_every_ _single_ mention of his name this seeming compulsion to speak up and
smear his image and spread misconceptions about his thought. By people who at
times even confess that they haven't read his books.

~~~
secretasiandan
I would suggest that's because they don't (often) feel threatened by Plato or
by the way people present Plato's views.

Also, the objectivists they're speaking to/at aren't always looking for dialog
as much as "scoring points".

You can sometimes, with work and patience, introduce ideas that threaten
someone's worldview. But I think people's efforts to do that are as rare as
their efforts to objectively study ideas they aren't biased towards.

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aaronbrethorst
Five weeks of principal photography on a five million dollar budget
([http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/07/20/atlas-s...](http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/07/20/atlas-
shrugged-adaptation-full-of-compromises)).

Sounds like it's going to be hilariously bad.

~~~
malloreon
The director is also an actor who has to date only directed 12 episodes of the
WB tv show he starred in.

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cparedes
Here's some arguments against Ayn Rand's philosophy that aren't exactly
shallow: <http://noblesoul.com/orc/critics/>

~~~
lzw
Any worthy philosophy will have academics debating the meaning, meerits and
logic of it. That bothers me not in the least.

If any of the critics you see from leftists who attack it used these arguments
than I'd respect that. However, they just assert some nonsense and then engage
in adhominem and it is really pretty tragic.

~~~
shadowfox
Are you making this statements with regard to criticisms from the link above
or in general?

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gamble
The sequel is already covered:

<http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif>

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Hates_
The cast seems awfully young considering how I had always imagined them to be
while reading the book. I had pictured this early 20-century group of
"captains of industries" to be mid-forties to late-fifties at least.

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lurkinggrue
Going to have a separate film for that long-ass speech?

~~~
yummyfajitas
This movie is supposedly part 1 of a trilogy, so yes.

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Artifex
Right in time for election season.

~~~
grandalf
Do you think one particular party would benefit? I don't.

