Angelina Jolie as Dagny


Kat

Angelina Jolie as Dagny  

59 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think Angelina Jolie is a good choice to play Dagny Taggart in the Atlas Shrugged movie?

    • YES! ? She's perfect for the part!
      15
    • Yes ? Maybe not the best choice, but she'll do fine
      18
    • Neutral - no opinion either way
      6
    • No ? She is not a very good choice to play Dagny
      10
    • NO! ? She is horrible for the part!
      10


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I don't really like her for the part. She's too obviously "glamorous" and not obviously intelligent. I can't stop remembering the part in "Atlas" where the railroad workers suddenly notice that their vice-president is a woman and that she is beautiful. There's no way that one could say that about Jolie.

I'm another big fan of Jodie Foster for the part. In fact, I can't imagine anyone else in the role. She has the perfect blend of intelligence, fragility, vulnerability, toughness, and understated classic beauty that doesn't hit you over the head for the role. Remember her in "Contact"? She'd do the same thing in this film. She's also a Yale grad and an atheist in addition to being an incredibly talented actress.

Judith

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My ideal Dagny is Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster is a close second, both would be perfect for the part. Both actresses, are, unfortunately, too old for the part in Hollywood's eyes. Angelina is OK, but too much of a sex kitten IMHO. Also, I kind of think of her as the Sally Struthers (but less whiny and pudgy) of this generation with her cause, which doesn't exactly score points for her with Objectivists. But this is for a general international audience so that probably shouldn't matter anyway..but still...

For a school project a while back, I cast the X-Files characters in Atlas Shrugged, Scully as Dagny, Mulder as Francisco, the smoking man as Jim Taggert, Langley as Ragnar, etc. I had a real life person as John Galt (guess who). It was pretty fun.

Kat

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Angelina is OK, but too much of a sex kitten IMHO. Also, I kind of think of her as the Sally Struthers (but less whiny and pudgy) of this generation with her cause, which doesn't exactly score points for her with Objectivists.

I think Jolie will do fine, assuming she ultimately does get the role. However, I was more than a tad startled to find out that the favorite book of the man picked as director/adapter of Atlas Shrugged, the movie, is errm, Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis. :blink:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111795213...yid=13&cs=1

Wallace, who last wrote and directed "We Were Soldiers" for Paramount, said he and his college-age son made a deal last year to read each other's favorite books. His was C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity," which runs around 100 pages; his son's was "Atlas Shrugged," which runs more than 1,100 pages.

"I was fascinated by Rand's book. It was original and provocative," Wallace told Daily Variety.

If I'm going to worry about anything, I think I'll settle on that.

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Sounds like Jolie may be a done deal, but my vote, if it mattered, would be for Jodie Foster. Angelina Jolie is definitely too much of a sexpot for Dagny. Jodie Foster, on the other hand, would make a great "adding machine in a skirt" -- until she puts on her evening gown, at which point she can look glamorous. Plus, she just looks smarter than Angelina.

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I can't really imagine a more practical, more functional--more supremely capitalistically effective casting choice than Angelina Jolie right now. Anyone here have the peculiar fortune to see Oliver Stone's Alexander? Lousy movie, but Jolie was amazing.

As they say in Hollywood, this woman will open a movie, she will get the proverbial asses in the seats. Jodie Foster? Maybe, maybe not. Ms. Foster's excellent, don't get me wrong, but casting her at this point in her career could cut the box office take in half. She's a little older now and, to my mind, frankly a little too white bread.

I think the much more difficult casting decision is gonna be What's-his-face. Right now, I think Hugo Weaving would be an amazing choice.

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[Possibly a duplicate post]

On the other hand, Jolie could use that image to advantage, playing against our expectations to build up tension, then letting her sexuality explode at just the right moment. Garbo and Kate Hepburn and their contemporaries used to do this. We'll see.

Peter

Edited by Reidy
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In the News:

Looking through a magazine called Tribute, displayed in movie theaters, something interesting caught my eye.

A section in the magazine called Star scoop reads:

“Angelina jolie has won her dream role as author Ayn Rand’s iconic heroine Dagney Taggart. Jolie, a longtime fan of Russian-born Rand, has been quietly campaigning to play Taggart in new film Atlas Shrugged. The movie adaptation of Rand’s epic tome has been kicking around Hollywood for many years.”

So it looks like Jolie wins the part, and I’m very happy about that. I think too many people have been focusing on Jolie the person—not the actor’s range to play the vivacious Taggart--and saying "But she's not like Taggart'. Um, actors play parts. Jody Foster does not look the part. Rand describes Dagney Taggart as a beautiful woman, and Jolie is a talented actor who can manage what the part demands. She can actually act regardless of being very beautiful.

Edited by Victor Pross
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What bothers me about Jolie in the role is her woodenness, sort of an unfeeling stoicism....facial expression never changing. It's like the old joke: here's Jolie being angry...here's Jolie being happy...same expression, same pursed lips. Perhaps this is unfair. Perhaps I've only seen her in action movies where this kind of fit. But, Laure, being an emotionless "adding machine in a skirt" was a hostile caricature of Dagny, not something you'd like to see in every reel in her portrayal in a movie.

Jolie would be better for the more alienated, contemptuous of this earth, unable yet to shake of Nietzsche ande Hobbes Dominique Francon than Dagny Taggart, who is a much more psychologically healthy and more mind/body integrated woman than Dominique is till the last portion of the novel.

On the other hand, Michael pointed out that in at least one movie (Meet Mr. Black), Brad Pitt was able to play a rather Galt-like role, so has anyone seen a movie in which Angelina displays the "range" to pull off the enormously difficult role of Dagny?

Or even any movie in which she is not wooden, is emotional, clearly and convincingly comes across as a deeply passionate valuer (something indispensable to a woman, and more important...indispensable to portraying Dagny Taggart)?

I'd love to be proven wrong and I've not seen everything AJ has done.

So ....puuhhhleeezzzzzze!! ....give me some actual examples from her movies.

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Phil,

Playing by Heart is a great place to start appreciating Angelina Jolie as an actor. It's a really good movie, little seen by just about everyone. As I said above, she's amazing in Alexander, making you actually believe that she's Colin Ferrell's psychotic mother. She's got a hell of a range, actually, she's just a huge celebrity and has become unfortunately associated with a character from a video game.

Edited by Kevin Haggerty
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Phil,

Playing by Heart is a great place to start appreciating Angelina Jolie as an actor. It's a really good movie, little seen by just about everyone. As I said above, she's amazing in Alexander, making you actually believe that she's Colin Ferrell's psychotic mother. She's got a hell of a range, actually, she's just a huge celebrity and has become unfortunately associated with a character from a video game.

Kevin,

I'm heartened hearing this, as I was concerned about AJ having the acting skills to give Dagny the authenticity, power and vulnearability that I would have been looking for in the part. She does seem to be an actress who will pull the crowds in, which is hugely important.

If it wasn't AJ, I'm not sure who I would choose. I quite like Christina Ricci, and although she doesn't 'fit' for Dagny, she would probably play a good Cheryl.

Fran

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Kat, that photo of AJ put me over the top. (In endorsing her being chosen to play DT in AS the movie.) However, I was already headed in that direction (though at first I was appalled by the idea, for some of the reasons others have stated).

One factor that may have been overlooked in why she (I think) will be splendid as Dagny: she is best known for her "action figure" roles and the "Mr. and Mrs. Jones" movie, both of which have her as a very intense, physically active and focused person. Now, imagine that same dynamism ~channeled and constrained~ in the persona of a railroad executive. To quote Michael: Dayammmm! I think that her personal vibrancy and energy in that particular role will be ~explosive~ on the screen.

One small note, though: I hope that if they do the "rescue" scene where Galt is being tortured, Dagny takes out the guard with martial arts rather than shooting him. That would be better in so many ways. No gratuitous killing. Strong woman (rather than equalized with a gun) takes out male thug with her bare hands. More chance to see her physical dynamism.

REB

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One small note, though: I hope that if they do the "rescue" scene where Galt is being tortured, Dagny takes out the guard with martial arts rather than shooting him. That would be better in so many ways. No gratuitous killing. Strong woman (rather than equalized with a gun) takes out male thug with her bare hands. More chance to see her physical dynamism.

It might make for a more interesting movie, but it wouldn't be realistic, plot-wise. (But, hey -- when did that ever stop Hollywood?) I remember thinking back when we were having the ethics discussion about why Dagny shot the guard during this rescue scene that Rand probably had her do it because, as a woman, she simply didn't have the physical strength to overcome her adversary physically and tie him up as did her male counterparts. And it wouldn't have been very timely of her to hold him at gunpoint and wait for her male counterparts to come along and do it for her. So she had to shoot him.

But does anyone remember Madeleine Cosman's presentation from the 2005 TOC Summer Seminar? "Dagny Shoots and Flies." I had been debating whether or not to come to summer seminars for years, but the title of that one pushed me over the top, and I sent in my registration -- and the presentation was truly wonderful. I can still see Madeleine standing up there, saying, "My Darlings! It's ECSTATIC!"

So we know from the book that Dagny works insane hours, and flies enough to keep her pilot's license, and at least knows which end of a handgun to point at an adversary and how to pull the trigger. Is it realistic to assume that she also has the time to train in martial arts to any level of competency?

Judith

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