

Previewing the Atlas Shrugged Movie - mikecane
http://www.atlassociety.org/atlas-shrugged-movie-atlas-society

======
ajg1977
_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._

(Source: <http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html>)

~~~
Symmetry
I don't know. For all that some people treat Ayn Rand's stuff as The End Of
All Wisdom it can also do good - it shook me out of some bland and
unconsidered pieties that Hollywood had instilled in me. I have a fair number
of huge disagreements with Rand and don't really respect her much as a thinker
- but I'm still glad I read the book when I did.

------
xenophanes
> David Kelley, founder and CEO of the Atlas Society, set the scene for them:
> the context of the whole novel and the significance of what they were about
> to see–the portrayal of businessmen as heroes, MORAL heroes.

This is inaccurate. Atlas Shrugged portrays _some_ businessmen as heros and
others as leeches, thugs, incompetents, moochers, looters, parasites, etc...
It glorifies a _certain type_ of businessman, not all businessmen.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
To be fair, in the previous paragraph that is explained, and so it makes sense
in context without further clarification:

 _Here, in one arresting scene, is James Taggart, who represents businessmen
who scheme to "take" their wealth by political pull and connections–and who
cause catastrophes–and Dagny, who represents those who "make" their wealth by
productive genius,_

I've never read the book myself, but I'm always amazed that something that
seems to center around the ability to affect political change via industrial
action (i.e. strikes) is so popular in the U.S., which generally seems very
anti-union. Certainly the groups pro-Rand and those pro-union don't seem to
overlap much.

~~~
xenophanes
Atlas Shrugged is not about a "strike" meaning the thing unions do. When a
union strikes they are saying, "We aren't going to work, and you can't replace
us either, just shut down until you give in to our demands." In Atlas
Shrugged, people _quit_ and leave and make no specific demands at all. They do
not care if they are replaced and they aren't using it as a negotiating
tactic.

------
crux
Man, I don't know about that. That review is suffused with so much over-the-
top ideology that I'm getting real Battlefield Earth vibes.

~~~
bradleyland
It wouldn't be true to the novel if it wasn't stuffed with so much over-the-
top ideology.

------
aphyr
May I humbly submit, for your theater-going enjoyment:

\- Drink every time women are portrayed as inferior to men. Bonus points if
it's done in narration. "...the diamond band on the wrist of her naked arm
gave her the most feminine of all aspects: the look of being chained."

\- Drink every time a statistically improbable fictional example is used as
the sole justification for an argument.

\- The last person to shout an obvious counterexample from the industrial
revolution takes an extra shot.

\- During hero worship, toast to the virtue of the character in question.

\- Waterfall during The Speech.

------
kylelibra
I always thought a mini-series would be a better format.

------
peteysd
I was interested until I read this: "... the movie is in three parts, each
separated by approximately a year ..."

Really? 3 parts? Sounds like they are really milking this for all it's worth
(a-la Harry Potter 7). Is it in 3D too?

Personally, I would have liked to see a single, longer movie. I think you
could distill the essence of the book into a movie 2-3 hours long.

~~~
davidw
I suppose it would be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel to make the crack
that the 2nd two hour installment will be John Galt's speech.

------
iwwr
This has been a long time coming and if the review is worth something, we have
a future cult film.

~~~
msbarnett
"Cult" being the operative word.

