Posted on 04/16/2011 10:47:22 PM PDT by presidio9
After more than 50 years, Ayn Rand’s seminal novel and ode to free market capitalism “Atlas Shrugged” is finally hitting the big screen this weekend, in the first of a planned trilogy of movies. Independently produced and distributed by entrepreneur John Aglialoro, chairman of UM Holdings Inc, the film “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1″ was budgeted under $10 million and includes a cast of little-known actors (newcomer Taylor Schilling stars as the powerful female industrialist Dagny Taggart).
At one time, Algialoro, who optioned the book’s rights 18 years ago, had struck up a partnership with Lionsgate Films to make a version of the movie, possibly as a TV miniseries for the new EPIX cable outfit. But when the project dragged on without getting the green light, Algialoro turned to entertainment attorney and executive producer Harmon Kaslow to get the film made quickly before the rights to the book reverted back to the Ayn Rand estate. Shot in just 26 days and completed several months later, the entire film’s creation, from green light to this week’s release, took about a year, according to Kaslow.
Reaching out to conservative organizations such as the Cato Institute,
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While advance interest in the film may be high among the film’s conservative base, reviews have been terrible. For example,
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(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
I wondered how much sense it makes to someone who has not read it. It was easy to follow because I did read it.
I wondered how much sense it makes to someone who has not read it. It was easy to follow because I did read it.
The philosophy of the movie is liberals’ worse nightmare. That's why all the critics panned it; 17 out of 18 reviews gave it rotten tomatoes.
Prove these Bolsheviks wrong. Go see it and enjoy it. It's refreshing.
The fact that liberals are afraid of it is recommendation enough for me. Will definitely check it out when it hits a theater near me.
With the exception of the curious and filmophiles like myself, the "people who have seen this movie" are 99% libertarian Rand fans. The liked the story and its message. The film itself wasn't that great. Again, I enjoyed (but didn't love the book). I don't hold Rand's atheism against her. This is about the most objective opinion you are going to get. The film itself will make money, because it cost so little to make, but libertarians are only a small percentage of the population. It is getting good ratings on unscientific polls for EXACTLY the same reason why Ron Paul used to win the CPAC straw poll every year, and it is just about as valid.
You have officially gone off the deep end when you start comparing this film to "The King's Speech." Compare it to "The Passion Of The Christ" if you like, for the way liberal critics are blackballing it. But it still comes up way short in acting and production quality. And of course, TPOTC had a billion more built-in fans, and the story was a lot better.
Check out Ed Morrissey's Film Review: Atlas Shrugged
Freedom Works is pushing a Viral mashup of the Atlas Shrugged trailer and the Obama administration policies and it is compelling..
Frankly, it is better than the theatrical trailer.. this thing has word of mouth going for it.. and frankly at $7 - $9 a pop, 2+ million tea partiers alone could take this to nearly $20M. It has a much broader appeal than you think. I am not a Libertarian but this has traction with me. I tried to read the book years ago.. and got bored to death. The critics and the filmophiles are the most critical of this for many reasons, folks who are starved for something they can relate to because of all of the Hollywood anti-American dreck are much less picky about the small things.
You hit he nail on the head with me: On one hand, I want this film to do well, because it will piss off liberals. OTOH, libertarians and their goofy ideas are polluting conservative political philosphy and this website. It’s a win-lose situation.
“It just solidifies how Ayn Rand’s philosophy and view of the world in 1957 is so relevant to what’s going on now, how she was able to see so many years ago that if we followed a path … this is what would happen,” Kaslow says, adding he expects to increase the number of screens showing “Shrugged” to about a 1,000 over the next two weeks. Most mainstream films are shown in anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 theaters nationwide.
My brother went with me last night. He hasn’t read the book. He was able to follow the plot well. Now he wants to read the book,,,he thought seeing the movie made it actually easier now to start the book.
:-) I wasn’t comparing the two — I was just wondering if there was a similar release strategy.
My wife has not read the book. The movie made no sense at all to her. She is a good testcase, because she is very conservative, but has not read the book. As I explained some of the backstory, etc., it began to make some sense. That said, this movie needed to tell the basic story and it failed badly at that.
Grade F-; zero stars out of 5, maybe negative 2. This material deserved better than it got. This is difficult material to work with, and it was important to get it right. If you wanted a dramatization of the book, you got that. If you wanted to explain to middle of the road people that this is why you’re conservative, it was hopelessly far afield.
No one who had not read the book would have any idea what was going on.
The Atlas Shrugged team would be idiots if they didn't try to learn a thing or two from Mel Gibson of course.
Ayn Rand makes liberals, "undecideds," and probably even some conservatives libertarian. She lacks the tools to makes anyone conservative.
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