atlas shrugged, the movie


tndbay

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Considering how a great novel like The Fountainhead translated into a mediocre movie, perhaps it's for the best that Atlas simply remain a great novel rather than a potentially mediocre to bad movie. And I say this from the perspective of someone who truly loves the novel and would love to see the story and characters translated to the big screen, but only if the movie could be at least half as great as the novel.

Martin

Martin

I'm bound to say I rather agree with you about "Atlas" (even though I appear to be one of the few people who thought the "Fountainhead" movie was really rather good). Better not do it, perhaps, than do it badly.

Best regards

Adrian

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"Done deal" means a couple of phone calls. "In development" means one phone call.

Exactly so. See Atlas Shrinked

W.

Wolf,

I remember reading that when I was still in Brazil before I cam back to the USA. I used to read the J. Orlin Grabbe site (where Laissez Faire Times was linked) regularly because he is one quirky dude and I like quirky.

It was a delight to reread your piece. I believe the present producers of the Atlas Shrugged movie would benefit from reading it.

Here are a few quotes I especially liked:

(About Al Ruddy):

Huzzah! -- he's back. And guess who gave him the green light on Atlas? -- Red Ted and Hanoi Jane. Cripes in a tea kettle! (as Frank Capra used to say). Next it'll be a cartoon series of We The Living for Disney.

. . .

Trust me. $15-20 million will not produce anything more complicated than a soap opera shot on studio sets. Forget the Taggart Bridge, Project X, the tunnel disaster, etc. I will be morbidly curious to see Ruddy's production design for Atlas, hammered down to a tenth of the cost of The Godfather I & II (in constant dollars).

. . .

A "faithful" adaptation of Atlas Shrugged means it will be about as relevant to today's cable TV audience as The Bible is in a semiconductor factory.

. . .

Today, Atlas Shrugged reads with as much realism as F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "A Diamond As Big As The Ritz." This is not a criticism of Atlas as literature. But let's face it. Atlas belongs to a lost generation, who shunned it.

. . .

No one can talk sense to a nation led by Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno. CATO certainly doesn't. They specialize in the amazingly pointless enterprise of trying to talk sense to government officials.

. . .

... if Atlas makes it to the small screen as advertised. And Mr. Ruddy is a long way from achieving that. News reports quote him as saying that "a lot of powerful people all over the world" want to invest in his production. That means he has no money.

. . .

In my opinion it is not possible to communicate one percent of Atlas Shrugged to a television audience today, unless it's set in the present (airlines, semiconductors, global finance). Maybe folks could see the moral of a modernized version of the story -- that a few powerful men and women could sabotage Alan Greenspan and Bill Clinton. But not Tagny's choo-choo, with Eddie Willers left stranded in the desert, refusing on principle to join a group of cheery survivalists in covered wagons. We don't do things on principle any more. We shop. And if we feel like calling for help to diagnose what's wrong with a diesel-electric locomotive, it's a speed-dial away, on the other end of a digital cell phone or a laptop (except that Americans don't fix things when they break; they buy a new one with faster graphics and fewer bugs).

Michael

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The gist of the De Voon quotes is that Atlas Shrugged ought not to be selling these days or attracting attention (like for instance movie projects). It is, so any argument that entails otherwise fails.

Whether or not to adapt the novel "in period" is a decision for the moviemakers if they ever get around to it. The claim that people won't go to a movie with a historical setting, though, is easily refuted. The Black Book, in roughly the same period, and 300, in a much more remote one, are both in the theaters, the latter at least doing very well commercially. The Jane Austen adaptations of recent years and the miniseries Rome are also counterexamples.

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I also think the problem with an AS movie is not the "period" argument, but the book itself. Reidy is right that there are many succesful period movies (think only of all those WWII movies). Furthermore, AS cannot be modernized. The changes should have to be so drastic that there wouldn't be any resemblance to the original. The notion that a few dozen "top people" today could stop the motor of the world just by going on strike is ludicrous. It wasn't realistic in the 50's either, but with some suspension of disbelief it still could be made somewhat plausible in that setting. In a modern setting nobody would swallow it, and as it is the central plot of AS, a modernized version is impossible.

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Actually it would be a tremendous feat of ingenuity and persuasion for someone who might find a way to achieve the seemingly impossible as you suggest.

However, given that Man is characterized as having a "volitional conceptual consciousness" it should be within the realm of possibility.

Of course given the present state of mind of most of even the most productive members of society it would be a hard sell.

More likely it would take a movement the likes of which may never have been known to occur in the civilized world. The Protestant Reformation comes to mind or better still the Renaissance.

I do wonder what might happen if the movie Atlas Shrugged were done right it might become a kind of classic which might be sufficiently inspiring among the younger generation, meaning those who had not yet been subjected to a college indoctrination, to lead to an ongoing struggle sustained for long enough to encompass several generations of young folks who would grow up to produce leaders with a growing popular support thoughout the country.

So in the end Rand would be correct that a successful political implementation would require the establishment of a widespread philosophical foundation.

Why be so pessimistic? The idea does not require that we stop the motor of the world but to inspire it and get it to work for its own freedom!

galt

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The female part of the Baldwins at TOC Summer Seminar said she would be wearing her Reardan Metal bracelet. I guess will have Taggart Transcontinent calendars and Reardan Steel paper weights. I'm sorry I can't do better on the Baldwin's frist name.

Karen and Howard

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More likely it would take a movement the likes of which may never have been known to occur in the civilized world. The Protestant Reformation comes to mind or better still the Renaissance.

The Renaissance was not a movement. It was a period of time and events in Europe in which many things, some beneficial things were happening. The western hemisphere was being explored and exploited. New questions were being asked. Old beliefs were being challenged some overthrown.

During the Renaissance Galileo was tried for heresy. On the other hand Father Clavius of the Catholic Church was using a Galileo type telescope to explore the heavens. They even named a crater for him.

I do wonder what might happen if the movie Atlas Shrugged were done right it might become a kind of classic which might be sufficiently inspiring among the younger generation, meaning those who had not yet been subjected to a college indoctrination, to lead to an ongoing struggle sustained for long enough to encompass several generations of young folks who would grow up to produce leaders with a growing popular support thoughout the country.

Don't hold your breath.

Ba'al Chatzaf.

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More likely it would take a movement the likes of which may never have been known to occur in the civilized world. The Protestant Reformation comes to mind or better still the Renaissance.

The Renaissance was not a movement. It was a period of time and events in Europe in which many things, some beneficial things were happening. The western hemisphere was being explored and exploited. New questions were being asked. Old beliefs were being challenged some overthrown.

During the Renaissance Galileo was tried for heresy. On the other hand Father Clavius of the Catholic Church was using a Galileo type telescope to explore the heavens. They even named a crater for him.

I do wonder what might happen if the movie Atlas Shrugged were done right it might become a kind of classic which might be sufficiently inspiring among the younger generation, meaning those who had not yet been subjected to a college indoctrination, to lead to an ongoing struggle sustained for long enough to encompass several generations of young folks who would grow up to produce leaders with a growing popular support thoughout the country.

Don't hold your breath.

Ba'al Chatzaf.

If I were a movie maker and had 100% control and 200,000,000 dollars, I would not make "Atlas" into a movie, but not for any of the reasons put forth anywhere I've read. Those reasons can all be transcended one way or another. The sanction of the victim has little to do with the power of the sanctioned who are quite willing to reduce the population to living in caves and foraging for berries. The oppressors have no moral sensibilities and will just take what they want unless you get a gun and shoot them dead. I am not talking about the USA today, but about totalitarian dictatorship. What the sanction of the victim does is soften up the victims so they don't fight back. In America we can still fight back using peaceful means. That James Taggart turned into a bowl of jelly when he realized that he didn't want to live is literally funny; James Taggart doesn't care about that. He doesn't particularly want YOU to live. His characterization works because he heads the railroad, but in real life he likely wouldn't head anything, so his status is bogus to begin with. The drunk bum in the gutter isn't going to very well dramatize the power of the sanction of the victim.

This is why "Atlas" hasn't swept the world politically, but has benefited many private lives. It has given me and others a guilt free moral compass, but it can only weakly be used against the statists. It toughens up the good guys but doesn't disarm the badies. Over generations "Atlas" may make significant political headway forcing the statists back, or maybe sooner with some charismatic leader who, by the way, won't be living in Galt's Gulch.

--Brant

Edited by Brant Gaede
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Well lets be honest... Atlas Shugged was basically a fantasy. It simply couldn't occur as a single mass movement. Could it occur in small doses? Certainly. For example, a small European nation's brain drain. A large scale movement? No (well, in principle it is possible, it is just extremely extremely extremely unlikely).

After all, Rand never wrote to convey naturalistic reality. It was a romantic novel. Ideas robed in flesh.

Even so, I dont see the problem with an unrealistic movie. Lord of the Rings for example.

But is Atlas Shrugged really immune from modernization? I dont think so. The principles of the story are timeless. I think that Atlas could work in anything, from Art-Deco-Futurism to Cyberpunk to Modern Day to 30's. I mean, as long as there are still railroads.

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Well lets be honest... Atlas Shugged was basically a fantasy. It simply couldn't occur as a single mass movement. Could it occur in small doses? Certainly. For example, a small European nation's brain drain. A large scale movement? No (well, in principle it is possible, it is just extremely extremely extremely unlikely).

I would classify AS more as alternative history or possible future history than fantasy. There were no magical elements in the story. All events occurred within the realm of physical law with the possible exception of running motors on static electricity. The atmosphere acts as a capacitor, but there is not enough current available to run motors or electronic circuits on a steady basis. Some form of generator which transforms heat into motion or the kinetics of photovoltaic generation is required. TANSTAAFL, especially in the realm of physical processes.

So with the exception of Galt's generator as a plot McGuffin(gimmick), the novel was not a fantasy at all.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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tom kuhn wrote that the ingredients for a 'paradigm shift' were 2: when the current idea is widely understood to be bankrupt and at the same time there is an alternative idea that is widely understood to be adequate. as i watch the mystics rush headlong to their private Jonestown or literally bankrupt themselves trying to cover up their ugly nature- i also read that Atlas Shrugged may come out as a movie this year starring brad pitt and angelina jolie. does anyone have a presentiment about this?

Grim.

The story is too much for a motion picture of reasonable length to bear.

Look at what Peter Jackson had to do with -Lord of the Rings-. He mucked up the story line and left out a lot of important material. Is this what you want to see happen to -Atlas Shrugged-?

One of two outcomes:

a. the movie is not made

b. the movie is made, but it is dreadful. Admirers of the book will gnash their teeth.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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...The story is too much for a motion picture of reasonable length to bear.

Ba'al Chatzaf

I agree; Atlas, if filmed at all, needs to be a TV miniseries. It's a novel of speech and ideas; the small screen suits it better than the big screen.

And I have to admit that not only can't I see Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart, I'm not even sure I see why so many people think she's so hot.

Actually, when I think of Dagny, I picture Lauren Bacall ca. the early '50's.

Edited by Richard Uhler
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Actually, when I think of Dagny, I picture Lauren Bacall ca. the early '50's.

Very good! I agree.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Oh I think Angelina is exquisitely hot. But I certainly agree that a screen adaptation will be impeferct. As long as the ideas remain intact.

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~ Well, the question "Will it be made or won't it?" has, like the phoenix (and the attempts at making AS)risen once again.

~ I'm tempted to agree with Richard, but, find a difficulty in believing that any network will carry it, if it's done more-or-less 'faithfully' to the book.

~ I go with my originally argued idea: some really interesting movies have been made purely with a 'to video' orientation. AS should be made specifically for this (DVD nowadays) populace. Indeed, some 'theatre' movies I've decided to wait for the DVD versions. Note FIREFLY aficionados; most, I believe, became such after discovering it thereon; same goes for me re some tv-series which I never caught when running on tv. And, here's the 'plus': made-direct-to-DVD will get little critics' attention whilst, like the book (if it's adequately made), will get fandom for it growing, and growing, generation after generation. It's the safe way to make a good movie, though the money-return won't be quick.

LLAP

J:D

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I don't know much about film stars, so I just looked up who Angelina Jolie is, but I found her ugly, especially that weird deformed mouth. I don't know about her acting, but visually she certainly isn't Dagny for me, I think she looks too much like a porn star, which is not my first association with Dagny.

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I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea when in an earlier post here (60) I said James Taggart going nuts in the torture scene was "literally funny." In the context of the novel it wasn't funny at all but logical and appropriate. The idea of John Galt being tortured in order to make him be a dictator was one of Rand's most brilliant gimmicks.

--Brant

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~ Angelina Jolie 'looks too much like a porn star'?

~ Not the ones I'm familiar with (in past years, that is). Any comparisons re contemporaries worth naming, anyone? --- Oh, that 'deformed mouth' must be the source of the...ummm...impression of 'looks too much like'; to each their own re what's regarded as 'deformed'.

~ Ellen Barkin (whom I also consider an intelligent-looking 'hottie'), anyone? Here's a (chronically commented-on) 'deformed mouth' who just as well could believably play Dagny.

LLAP

J:D

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