So it’s fair to say that I prepared myself for a difficult slog, but to my surprise, Atlas Shrugged Part I turned into an intriguing, stylish film that did not water down the Randian message in the least. In fact, the film format seems to free the characters in some sense from the limitations of Rand’s prose and give more clarity and purpose to the story, while keeping its message firmly at the film’s center.
***The best word to describe Atlas Shrugged Part 1 is … surprising. It’s surprisingly well-paced, surprisingly intelligent, surprisingly well-acted, and surprisingly entertaining. Perhaps most surprising of all, it has me thinking about re-reading the novel again. I would highly recommend it to friends and their families.
So on one side, you have Captain Ed. On the other, you have everyone who has ever watched a movie before in their life.
I find this… unsurprising.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
well…Captain Stupid was also the only person with an IQ over functional retardation that liked Expelled.
Except for Glenn Reynolds I guess.
Morbo
The critical vs. audience disparity is just hilarious. Keep fucking that chicken, Randroids.
malraux
I honestly wish one of the positive professional reviews was just troll guy saying “C-C-C-Combo Breaker!”
Chad N Freude
Fixed for accuracy.
nancydarling
I have lately noticed conservative use of the word “turgid” as in Capn Ed’s 5th paragraph:
Any one want to speculate?
TaMara (BHF)
This was my favorite:
Kirk Spencer
Look, he’s a Rand fanboi, and the movie is an almost exact match to the book.
Like all book-to-movie fanbois, he’s going to be delighted if everything is left in, while everyone else will be BORED at all the stuff left in.
This, even before we get into whether the story itself is any good or not.
Ash Can
‘Cause “kids’ movie” is the first thing I think of when I think of an Ayn Rand novel.
Surreal American
Shorter wingnuts: libthinkers unbellyfeel randspeak. a.s. doubleplusgood.
Amir_Khalid
It’s obvious now: Atlas Shrugged is to Randians, and more generally right-wingers, what Battlefield Earth is to Scientologists: the film of a novel by the founder of their religion, made by true-believing followers with the intention of spreading that founder’s most profound ideas.
But both films fail to connect these lofty foundational ideas to a coherent screenplay, or to competent filmmaking. In the end they manage only to expose just how half-baked those ideas are, and how silly the followers are to espouse them.
There are other parallels between Randians and Scientologists, of course. Right, guys?
Edited to be more specific.
Dave
I am stunned, STUNNED, that one of the two “professional reviewer” positive reviews came from the New York Post.
Redhand
Captain Ed?
“He died in my mind a long time ago. And that’s that. …” Cf. District 9 Script.
Maude
@Ash Can:
We’re talking about a woman who couldn’t even spell her first name right. Ann or Anne, that’s Murkan.
cmorenc
I noticed that on the Rotten Tomatoes Review link for “Atlas Shrugged” that while only 8% of critics gave it a positive rating, nonetheless 85% of the audience who went to see it “liked it”. This extremely disproportionate disconnect more likely says something about the skewed demographic of the audience interested enough to see this film than it suggests that the demographics of film critics are skewed so far to the left that only 8% of them are ideologically fair enough to give the film an objectivist, er…objective viewing.
Like some of the movie dreck aimed at males in their teens and twenties stuck in perpetual adolescence, the target audience doesn’t give a damn what the critics think; they’ll firmly believe all the critics panning this film for its poor acting, script, or production values are simply a bunch of effete snobs who aren’t going to tell them what to like and not like, but with an ideological overlay in this case.
So Randoids will go and see and love this film; the rest of us can stay home and not waste our money on this dreck. We’re not going to change the perpetual politico-economic adolescents who think this kind ideological car chase and crash (er…train) movie is wonderful stuff even though we think it’s absolute crap.
Bobby D
Check the comments over there, pure comdey gold. GOLD Jerry, GOLD!
“When I tried reading the book, I had to stop after Chapter 3 because I was so disgusted with the Reardon family and how they treated Hank….
While watching the movie, I both sympathized and empathized with Dagney and Hank. There are so many times that I have felt as alone and outnumbered as they were. On my bumper are two stickers:
“Who is John Galt?”
“I am John Galt”
…
I put them there because of the way my company treated me, actually punishing me because I worked harder, put in longer hours, and was better at my job than other employees (who complained that it would be unfair to reward me. Eventually, they started a paper trail and eventually fired me so now I truly am John Galt because my talents have been removed from society.
…
TimLenox on April 17, 2011 at 11:46 AM”
LMFAO! You go Galt-boy Timmy, you go. He was so productive they had to fire his ass. Is one of you parody trolling over there? Come on now, fess up. That can’t be real?
c u n d gulag
First, how could they like a movie about trains?
I thougnt they hated choo-choo’s!
Yeah, and from reviews, I guess Atlas wasn’t the only one who shrugged.
God bless anyone Liberal who pays to see this thing.
Or even watches it for free.
Me?
I wouldn’t watch it unless I were renditioned down to Gitmo and told I had to start talking or else I had a choice of either watching ‘Atlas Shrugged or getting water-boarded.
And even then, I’m not so sure.
I read her mind-rottingly boring, nihilist screeds 30 years ago in a misplaced youthful attempt one summer to see if Nietzsche’s adage ‘that whatever doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger,’ was true.
In retrospect, sticking by male private parts in a blender, and turning it to frappe, would have been less painful, and caused less long term emotional damage.
And any sex scenes I might ever have been involved in after that, would be more realistic and emotionally satisfying than any ‘love’ scene in her insipid ode’s to utter, endless, unmitigated greed.
Rand set out to turn Marx’s principle of “To each according to his contribution,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_each_according_to_his_contribution
onto it’s head – to take it away from rewarding labor, and assign it instead to the capitalists, since she felt that they were the only ones who contributed anything anyway.
I’m surprised she didn’t volunteer to be Henry Ford’s ‘Suck & Fuck Bitch” in his doddering senility.
It’s only after reading Rand that you realize her horrendous writing style makes anything by Karl Marx seem like a John LeCarre thriller. And if you’ve ever read Marx, you know what I’m talking about.
She is the worst “major” writer in the history of the English language – with barely two-dimensional characters, jejune dialogue, the rare combination of childish, boring, and violent sex scenes, and endless monologues that make the reader who’s a believer in God say to Him/Her/It, ‘Look, if you’re going to take me anytime soon, please do it now, for fuck’s sake!!!’
And yet one is driven to finish her books, both to prove ones own tolerance for endless masochism bordering just short of suicide (you almost need a ‘safe’ word for yourself), and to see how her books end – as train wrecks, which is at least appropriate. But who knew any writer could be so bad as to make an absolute train wreck of an ending boring?
I’m against banning books and writers, but if there was one writer who I’d ban to stop the spread of ‘stupid’ in society, and in order to keep the human genome on a path towards positive Darwinian evolution, it would be Ayn fucking Rand.
b-psycho
It’s amazing how a political movement can simultaneously traffic in religion-based crankery and the philosophical barf of an atheist with her own personality cult.
Martin
The best part of this will be 6 years from now when Cole is naked mopping the bathroom and slips and falls and breaks his leg. Unable to move but with the TV clearly audible but remote unreachable, picture visible but reversed in the full-length closet door mirror, USA will make the Atlas Shrugged trilogy the USA movie of the week and he’ll have to watch it over and over again, conflicted between crying out for help and being found naked, watching Atlas Shrugged or having and unfed Tunch come and rip out his esophagus, allowing him to mercifully escape into the warm, salty embrace of death.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Someone woke up in an interesting mood this morning.
cleek
even Kurt Loder (?!), writing at the ironically-named Reason thought it sucked.
Martin
@WaterGirl: Heh. I’m sore from head to toe and I hardly slept at all because every time I moved I woke up from the pain. Perhaps my attitude is a bit morbid today. Maybe more coffee will help.
Malron
@Morbo: I chuckle at the Kochbots frantically praising the movie.
TheF79
@b-psycho:
That issue has been a perpetual motion machine of wonderment for many people. Best I can figure, Atlas Shrugged and Rand provides “intellectual” cover to prosperity gospel B.S. that pervades the hard right, which would otherwise just be one of a zillion alternative religious interpretations. At the same time the prosperity gospel (and affiliated ideas) provides a “moral” justification for the sociopathic selfishness in Atlas Shrugged. So taxation is simultaneously against God’s Will and leading us to the ruin of society. Play some mental gymnastics ignoring that hippie Jesus stuff and the fact that Rand was a vocal atheist, and voila, a consistent philosophy that conveniently protects wealth and privilege.
zmulls
Hey, WATCHMEN wasn’t such a great movie on its own terms. It was a wonderful representation of the graphic novel, and anyone (like me) who loved the source material really enjoyed the movie. But as much as I enjoyed it (*because* it was like having the novel put right on screen, shot by shot), I didn’t think it would work for someone who didn’t love the original work.
So ATLAS SHRUGGED is getting the WATCHMEN reaction.
(Where, LOTR managed to be faithful to the source material *and* entertaining to someone who hadn’t read it — and loved three-hour movies)
SFOtter
Looks like they are trying to freep the audience reviews. Lots of 4 and 5 star glowing reviews from folks who don’t have any other activity on their profiles. Pathetic.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Uh oh. Not fun. Is this the prelude to a Soonergrunt-Martin marathon of who did what to themselves this weekend? Or is the cause of this pain not self-inflected?
joe from Lowell
I can top that: Eric Dondero, a former Ron Paul staffer, writes:
Perhaps the greatest movie ever made.
I’d put it up there with Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.
I swear to God I am not making this up.
bend
@Bobby D:
i traditionally take no solace in the pains of the unemployed….
But!
That is hilarious.
Martin
@WaterGirl: Oh, just a fuckton of home projects. Tearing out tile this weekend along with a half dozen other things. No real injuries, but I’m far from in peak shape and the muscles and joints aren’t taking kindly to 12 hours days of physical labor. A weekend is one thing, but this is 3 solid weeks now and I’m feeling it.
On saturday a guy stopped by with a free load of granite slabs (for outdoor landscaping – maybe 12″x18″x4″ thick max) and one of his helpers was this old asian guy who must have been north of 80 hauling these 75lb slabs out of the back of the truck. I felt like a fucking piker next to that guy. I’m sore and brused up, but fuck if I’m going to complain about it at half that guys age.
Ruckus
@Martin:
More coffee might help your pain but it won’t change one great inside move review. Your rundown of the consequences to our headwaiter of this piece of crap is epic.
Ruckus
@c u n d gulag:
A safe word? I found it easier to just run screaming into the night.
I’ve often wondered what is the maximum level of maturity that it is possible to have and still believe any of Rand’s crap. Or that of L.Ron either. I always thought it was 12 but I have over the last couple of years lowered that to 10.
NonyNony
@cmorenc:
Has Rotten Tomatoes actually put in some kind of mechanism to ensure that people rating the movie have actually seen the movie?
Because I just figured that that 85% came from Randian fanbois who did their duty to go to RottenTomatoes and spam the system to show up those elitist liberal film critics by showing that the “Real ‘Mericans” liked it. Even if they haven’t actually seen it.
johnnymags
Ebert panned it, Rotten Tomatoes.com panned it and just about everyone else. Wonder what kickback Capn Ed is getting back from it.
It is, in Stan Lee verbiage, a perfidious piece of pedantic puffery and post partum putrescence.
johnnymags
@Maude:
Not to mention a speed freak ( on dexadrine for “weight problems”) , serial killer fangirl and eventual “moocher” of the system she so decried- using her brothers last name to hider her “shame” of having to crawl to the US Gov for benefits when she was dying of cancer. We call that hypocrisy where I come from.
Nutella
@johnnymags:
Alisa Rosenbaum (her real birth name) used her husband’s last name for the government benefits, not her brother’s. Still a shameless hypocrite, though.
Brachiator
I find this especially surprising. I couldn’t finish the book the first time around.
techno
@Martin:
Oh man, I have been there doing home improvement projects past 40. The worst part is that after 40, you don’t get any stronger from your labors–you just get sorer.
Two summers ago, I got roped into replacing the carpets on the second floor with laminate that came in pieces 7 inches wide and 5 feet long that was suppose to look like Brazilian Rosewood. She bought it at Costco–don’t ask.
I mean, how hard could that be? In my youth I had installed a lot of nice hardwood floors–this should be easy. But I was 59 and though I am no longer 6’3″, the floor was still an amazingly long way away. And it was’t just the ripping out carpets, tack strips, etc. and moving the trim, unmounting doors, on top of the install job, this was space we were living in including two home offices that are pretty busy–lots of moving furniture and paper. And the boss wanted to paint everything so long as masking and drop cloths were optional. Oh, and the flooring got delivered to the garage and it had to be carried up two flights.
Everything went amazingly smoothly and it looks great yet I was sore for three months. And far from making me stronger, I just think it shortened my life–seriously.
Go eat a big steak–you need it. You have EARNED it.
nostromo
PROTIP:
Everyone check out the “memorable quotes” section on the review. There are some great troll quotes that are up.
Also, too, the box office performance so far is about $1.7 million in what was supposedly a 300+ theater release (according to the official website). Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator”, on the other hand, was released into fewer theaters and broke to #9 on the box office.
Comrade Luke
My favorite review is from Gin and Tacos. I loved this part:
Triassic Sands
Wooden actors portraying cardboard characters — what’s not to like?
I just can’t figure out how they managed to squeeze roughly of third of the book into only 1 hour and 37 minutes. At the least, to be true to the book, the first installment of a film trilogy should have been at least 18 hours long. (With the director’s cut adding another 3 or 4 hours.)
Obviously, they must have cut out a lot of Rand’s droning sermonizing. Yawn.
This is one of those films where the more they cut the better the film gets, until it reaches absolute perfection at 0 minutes and 0 seconds.
Triassic Sands
@cmorenc:
I, too, looked at the RT ratings and noticed the 8% versus 85%, although I think clicking on “Top Critics” (7%) is usually a better and more reliable measure of film quality. What surprised me though was that in an audience self-selected to like the film only 85% did. I would have expected the percentage to be crowding 100%. What would John Galt think?
Nerull
@cmorenc: The demographic who saw it certainly plays a part, but another thing to remember is that we’re dealing with the Randroid bible. And why are they called Randroids? Because of their habit of spamming forums/comment sections/usenet with sockpuppets any time ‘Ayn Rand’ is mentioned. I see it a lot less often than I used to, but it’s still out there. Is it any surprise they would spam film reviews too?
These people are the devout followers of a personality cult.
Death Panel Truck
@Comrade Luke: My favorite part of the Gin and Tacos review is the last paragraph:
Death Panel Truck
@Bobby D:
Working the night shift straightening shelves at Kmart is a crucial talent, goddamnit. Who’s going to pick up the toys from the floor and ensure that the boxes of Clairol hair coloring are facing front at Timmeh’s local Big K now that he’s been shown the door? The other straighteners are slackers, fer fuck’s sake.