Atlas Shrugged, the movie

[SCantiGOP]

Was having a conversation with a couple of friends on-line about the movie. One came back with this quote:
"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."

I was one of those 14 year olds who read Ayn Rand. Fortunately, by the time I got to college I had turned to pretty radical politics.

[geardaddy]

1. Your friends answer was excellent.

[hifiguy]

2. Most excellent response!

I read Lord of the Rings in my mid teens and loved it. Didn't read Rand until my mid 20s and never made it through "Atlas Shrugged" which contained, hands down, the worst-written, most turgid and pretentious prose I have ever read up to and including this very day. Thought about the implications of Rand's philosophy for about ten minutes one day and it turned my stomach.

[pulledpork]

3. Your friend quoted Jonathan Chait quite well

http://mattschiavenza.com/2009/09/20/why-people-like-ayn-rand/

[SCantiGOP]

4. He didn't claim the quote was original

He said he had saved it from somewhere before. Thanks for the link, it was an interesting article.

[hifiguy]

5. Here's a great link that tears Rand to shreds

not that it isn't fairly easy, but this is both smart and snarky.

http://www.pekingduck.org/2009/09/ayn-rand/

More here: http://www.samefacts.com/2009/09/uncategorized/8530/

Money quote: "Rand is Nietzsche for stupid people." 'nuff said, in the words of Stan Lee.

[bif]

12. "Nietzsche for stupid people." Love it!

Nice line.

[Orrex]

6. How about a spoiler alert next time?

[Bucky]

7. There is one shocking meat video that can change your life

[geardaddy]

8. I just looked at IMDB

and this fucking tripe is gonna be a three-parter.

:puke:

[cemaphonic]

9. unlikely imo

My understanding is that this was one of those movies that studios occasionally put out on the cheap to avoid losing the filming rights to the source material.

[6000eliot]

10. Wouldn't want to let THAT golden goose go.

[Taverner]

11. My prediction: Epic Fail

They'll make the first, which will hemorrhage money so much that they will never get parts 2 and 3 greenlit

[geardaddy]

13. Hopefully

The cast are all no-names or lesser-known actors. The reviews on IMDB are hilariously pro-Randian.

[regnaD kciN]

14. It can't lose TOO much money...

...since the whole thing only cost $15 million. Considering that Titanic cost over thirteen times that to make (and that in 1996 dollars), we're talking nowhere near the big-budget, star-studded epic Randroids have been dreaming of for years. Remember the reports from a few years back that had Angelina Jolie playing the female lead? Nope...instead, we've got someone named Taylor Something -- and, after Taylor Firth, Taylor Swift, and Taylor Dayne, it's my firm belief that anything involving a female entertainer with the first name of "Taylor" is hopeless from the start.

Oh, and it's being written by someone with a long track-record of low-budget slasher movies, and directed by someone best known for episodes of One Tree Hill. At least the director is keeping to Rand's dictum of Ego Über Alles...he's cast himself as John Galt, the heroic paragon of humankind. :eyes:

[cemaphonic]

17. I like that about the biggest name in the cast is Armin Shimerman

who played Andrew Ryan in Bioshock, which for those who don't play computer games, was a giant unflattering deconstruction of Randian themes. Also, he was Quark of course - I think the casting director may be in on the joke.

OTOH, why Jon Polito, why? Aren't there an inexhaustible supply of police procedurals for you to play grouchy, possibly corrupt detectives in?

[meegbear]

15. Hoepfully it'll be like this version of her other work ...

The Fountainhead

[kentauros]

16. I remember reading "The Peter Principle" in my mid-teens

Any chance of seeing that as a movie?

:P

[progressoid]

18. The trailer looks really good!!11!

http://youtu.be/6W07bFa4TzM

:eyes: