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For those who once wondered why we held a blogathon for Roy Edroso back in the day, this is why.
That was what I hoped for as I watched the thing last night, because as much fun as it is to slag rotten movies, it is much better to be surprised by a good one, especially when you’ve reached the stage in life where two hours in front of a stinker sets you dreaming of the warm couch and leftover sesame chicken that you left back home. But it is my great regret to inform you that Atlas Shrugged: Part I is neither good nor good-bad, but bad-bad-bad-bad. I dreamed, not of sesame chicken, but of my own swift and merciful death, and that of the director, not necessarily in that order. It is not a pleasurable surprise, not a hoot, nor an outrage; it is Rand’s granite crushed, reconstituted, and spread across the screen with steamrollers.
Someone had to go and see the Atlas Shrugged movie and report back, making Roy the moral equivalent of those Japanese guys who keep going into the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant complex.
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Ooooh, if the Boss Man goes a movie-watchin’ I am SO busted!
I don’t know, in some ways that sounds like it’s a fairly realistic portrayal. I suppose the banksters and traders produce wealth for themselves, at least, but most of the people who bother to think about the “philosophical” side of things enough to even be Randroids spend all their time blowing smoke screens out of pure fantasy in service of the others.
As I think we touched on earlier, the whole idea of a “railroad tycoon” as the embodiment of the objectivist message is dated to the point of absurdity anyway. Nowadays it would the Wall Street Masters of the Universe lobbying their politician friends to stop the spread of Socialism by High Speed Rail. I mean in France it’s called the TGV, you know who else used an acronym with “G” in the middle that sounded vaguely almost as if it ryhymed with that, don’t you? That’s right, Moose and Squirrel, Boris and Natasha.
It’s funny because in the book, Rand is at pains to show her superhuman entrepreneurs actually doing the work the employees do — only better, of course! — but the moviemakers looked at it and said, “No, no, that’s action. It would take time away from having the characters standing around and talking about action, so we’ll just cut it out.” Even she knew that you have to show your hero in action once in a while, but this movie, in its rush to leave in as much of her talkity-talk as possible, carefully snips out anything that might be exciting.
It’s as if they knew that much of their audience is one loud noise away from a heart attack, and didn’t want to lose potential viewers for the other two parts. If they can read the writing on the wall, the filmmakers might wise up and try to cram the rest of the book into one part. Or better yet, say they were just kidding and release one movie, a bit over two hours long, and give up the dream of filming every talking scene from the book.
Roy will now have to pull that train in Tijuana to get his self-respect back.
Whoa – UVP overcrediting the big money boyz? Did you forget Volcker’s slam?
Oh I agree with Volcker entirely. And then some.
Pumping and dumping the entire economy does nothing for society as a whole, except destroy it, but it enriches them, you have to admit.
I can picture Roy stumbling dazed out the theater after having to endure that dreck and being asked by a concerned citizen if he was “ok”–ala Bruce Willis to Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction after the buggery.
Roy: “Nah man, I’m pretty fucking far from ok.”
No no no no no no no!!! Atlas Shrugged is a great movie! It will do for objectivism what Battlefield Earth did for Scientology!!
I can’t believe no one has linked to this, In which the vengeance of God is justly meted out on earth.
I am not sure, but the guys in Japan may have risked less than Roy did.
“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.” — Unknown
Also.
Actually, known.
Except by Megan, who pretends that it’s been around for twenty years.
Then again this is her so you know, two, twenty, two hundred, whatever, she’s only the business and economics editor, this isn’t sports or something.
As I think of it, by 1957 weren’t railroads beginning their decline just a bit—since air travel was already becoming more common? And wouldn’t air travel’s ultimate domination just be free market economics at its best?
Oh, right—old/old thinking people (even in 1957) didn’t LIKE air travel (again, my great Aunty, who was afraid of flying, endlessly insisted that trains would ultimately rise up and “lots of people were like her”)—so of course trains were better.
1957 or ’58 was the year my parents took me to visit the relatives in Virginia by train from Indianapolis for the express purpose of giving me the experience, as it was clear said experience (overnight travel in a Pullman car) would not be available much longer.
Oddly, I remember leaving from Union Station Indy, and vaguely, a stop in Cincinnati, but I can’t recall the final destination…well, I was 7 yrs old at the time. And sleepy.
Well, I took a train cross country and had a sleeper cabin from Chicago to San Fransisco in ’78.
One of the best trips I’ve ever made.
What was that website TBogg linked to for the release of Expelled that tracked ticket sales vs. production costs? Should be good for a lot of laughs again.
Oh. My. God.
That’s perfection.