"Atlas Part 1" Commentaries and Reviews

[Selene]

Several new reviews of AS can be found here:

http://randex.org/index.php

Mr. Hoyle:

Excellent!

Makes my job infinitely easier now!

Adam

[Selene]

Mark Levin just announced Atlas Shrugged is opening this weekend.

Sean Hannity is on and gave the website and told everyone to Google it and go see it.

Bob Beckel, a leftist, also told folks to see it. Mark is linking the movie website on his website today.

So who is going to stop us?

Adam

5 to 6 million listeners

Edited April 12, 2011 by Selene

[jriggenbach]

Mark Levin just announced Atlas Shrugged is opening this weekend.

Sean Hannity is on and gave the website and told everyone to Google it and go see it.

Bob Beckel, a leftist, also told folks to see it. Mark is linking the movie website on his website today.

So who is going to stop us?

Adam

5 to 6 million listeners

Not who. What.

Ignorance. Indifference to philosophical ideas about politics or anything else.

JR

[Selene]

Mark Levin just announced Atlas Shrugged is opening this weekend.

Sean Hannity is on and gave the website and told everyone to Google it and go see it.

Bob Beckel, a leftist, also told folks to see it. Mark is linking the movie website on his website today.

So who is going to stop us?

Adam

5 to 6 million listeners

Not who. What.

Ignorance. Indifference to philosophical ideas about politics or anything else.

JR

JR:

Sadly, I agree with you.

I had that phrase in my mind from one of the e-mails from the movie site that was sent on April 9th quoting Ayn:

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

-- Ayn Rand

Adam

[Greybird]

I've read every one of the reviews you linked and am glad you posted them.

Yeah, Steve, keep posting them as you find them. I don't mind reading through all the unrelated stuff that's now on the thread - some of it is even interesting - but I'm very strongly interested in the mission you had in mind when you established the thread.

I can't say I really had any "mission" beyond decluttering. Dozens of threads, started for each review, become a real trial. It also, I thought, would concentrate matters of assessing what elements of praise or criticism were being raised repeatedly. That's easier to compare among reviews when they're in one thread.

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward. Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

[Philip Coates]

> Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help. [Greybird]

Plus, it's repetitious.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Philip Coates

[caroljane]

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward. Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

After four months on the Internet I am still learning the language. Thread Drift is what I formerly thought of as Conversation.

[Selene]

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward. Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

After four months on the Internet I am still learning the language. Thread Drift is what I formerly thought of as Conversation.

You mean it is not someone on LSD doing needlepoint?

Wow, I am crushed.

[PDS]

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward. Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

After four months on the Internet I am still learning the language. Thread Drift is what I formerly thought of as Conversation.

Agreed. And let's state the obvious: putting up with a little thread drift isn't exactly just cause for a Purple Heart.

Edited April 12, 2011 by PDS

[Jonathan]

I can't say I really had any "mission" beyond decluttering. Dozens of threads, started for each review, become a real trial. It also, I thought, would concentrate matters of assessing what elements of praise or criticism were being raised repeatedly. That's easier to compare among reviews when they're in one thread.

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward.

I like thread drift. As Carol said, it's usually known as "conversation." Some of the most interesting and educational discussions I've read in online forums have been tangents on top of tangents. I was thinking that the tangential discussion here on the "Objectivist sense of life" and Rand's taste for fictional bad boys could've led to related interesting discussions, such as which works of non-literary art might be interpreted as expressing the same rebellious, bad boy attitude? Often times such discussions come back full circle and end up tying in well with the original topic and enriching it.

Now, granted, Steve, when you started this thread, you specifically requested how you wanted it to be used, so I apologize for my part in not honoring that request.

Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

You've got a point, but I also think that O-land needs quite a lot of "dwelling on personalities." Determining just how much dwelling is needed is a delicate balancing act. There are some really shitty people associated with Objectivism. They're no Lonnie Leonard, but they seem to have at least a few of his traits. A lot of Objectivists come across to me as very naive and easily charmed by anyone who appears to be promoting Objectivism, and they're very willing to trust such people, to overlook their vices, and to believe their lies -- and I don't just mean lies about others in the "movement," but about ideas, history, current events and happenings, etc. My opinion is that it's better to go a little overboard in nipping the mini-Lonnies in the bud rather than sitting around after the damage is done and coming up with excuses for why no one said or did anything when the shit was going down.

Plus, it's repetitious.

No doubt, it's repetitious, but in my experience, there are many Objectivists who need tons of repetition in order to accept reality. When they're wrong, they can be very stubborn about it. Rational argument without massive doses of repetition isn't enough to get through to them.

J

Edited April 12, 2011 by Jonathan

[Xray]

I like thread drift. As Carol said, it's usually known as "conversation." Some of the most interesting and educational discussions I've read in online forums have been tangents on top of tangents. I was thinking that the tangential discussion here on the "Objectivist sense of life" and Rand's taste for fictional bad boys could've led to related interesting discussions, such as which works of non-literary art might be interpreted as expressing the same rebellious, bad boy attitude? Often times such discussions come back full circle and end up tying in well with the original topic and enriching it.

Now, granted, Steve, when you started this thread, you specifically requested how you wanted it to be used, so I apologize for my part in not honoring that request.

Discussing on threads is often like opening a door to a room from which several other doors lead to more rooms.

I too would like to discuss the crucial "fictional bad boys" topic in more detail but can see Greybird's point.

Maybe we could discuss the "fictional bad boys" topic in another section of OL (in ethics for example)?

Edited April 13, 2011 by Xray

[Greybird]

Unfortunately, I consistently underestimate thread drift, and have done so for nearly thirty years on the Net, from precursors such as CompuServe onward. Constant dwelling on personalities in the O-milieu doesn't help.

After four months on the Internet I am still learning the language. Thread Drift is what I formerly thought of as Conversation.

Thread drift isn't at all a bad thing, as such. It gets byways of intriguing thought onto the discussion table that we wouldn't know about otherwise. It only becomes less helpful when a thread is intended for a more utilitarian or functional purpose.

As for its being "conversation," that generally is better suited to real-time chat rooms, whether on Webpages or through channels such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC). More linear and more considered thoughts work better in a forum such as this. Not that the two categories won't overlap, but it's a matter of trying to use tools to fit their intended design.

If you frequently use a screwdriver as a crowbar, it'll get chipped and won't stay in the screwhead slots. If too much thread drift occurs, any more direct purpose soon gets lost.

[Ellen Stuttle]

Maybe we could discuss the "fictional bad boys" topic in another section of OL (in ethics for example)?

I started a thread called "Bad Boys, 'swagger deficit,' 'n stuff" in the Living Room forum.

I copied a couple of posts from this thread, plus Rand's "bad boys" quote, for openers on the new thread.

Ellen

[Selene]

Screenwriter Brian Patrick O'Toole

"In anticipation of this movie, serious fans of Atlas Shrugged often oscillate between a persistent fear, profound hope, or both. For decades, we have all weighed the pros and cons of various approaches to making this movie: Should it be a mini-series? Should it use big name stars, or lesser-known actors?"

"I was totally floored by the asinine remake of Godzilla. Fifty years and twenty-two previous films and what do they come up with? A giant fish-loving iguana that has a crush on Matthew Broderick. Ugh! I mean, I’m no zoologist, but I’m pretty sure a creature that size would have its heart explode while running at the speeds that monster did."

"Once this skeleton was established, I had to decide what would stay, what would change, and what would need to be left out of the film. The first scenes that were dropped were the childhood flashbacks and Eddie Willers’s cafeteria scenes with the railroad worker John Galt. The childhood sequences were removed because we decided to keep a linear pacing to the film. Eddie Willers’s meetings with the worker were removed because they basically represented recaps for the readers — although I realized that I would lose the subplot of Eddie’s love for Dagny. When it was decided that Atlas Shrugged Part I would be a 90–100 minute film in order to keep theaters happy, I had to make some more difficult cuts. One scene I was really sorry to see go was after Dagny is visited by the head of the railroad union, who lets her know that he will not allow his men to work on the John Galt Line. Right after that scene, the next day, Dagny finds a sea of union men volunteering to work on the line. That was an emotionally rich scene but, because of time and budget restraints, it was left out."

Seems to me that we should be thanking these courageous productive artists for performing a minor miracle that is faithful to the ideals that we expected to see in the film version of this great novel.

Adam

[Selene]

Remembering the Real Ayn Rand The author of "Atlas Shrugged" was an individualist, not a conservative, and she knew big business was as much a threat to capitalism as government bureaucrats.

Mr. Luskin does a fine job in this piece.

"When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas Shrugged" whose every move weakens the economy, which in turn gives him the excuse to demand broader powers. Mr. Frank steered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to disaster with mandates for more lending to low-income borrowers. After Fannie and Freddie collapsed under the weight of their subprime mortgage books, Mr. Frank proclaimed last year: "The way to cure that is to give us more authority." Mouch couldn't have said it better himself."

[Selene]

Phil Coates Announces New Movie Dating Concept

"Most of us who love Ayn Rand feel at least somewhat isolated. Only a tiny fraction of the population are very interested. When the numbers are so thin, it can be hard to find people who share our values. Yes, you can do some things over the internet, but nothing beats face-to-face contact.

This weekend the Atlas Shrugged movie is hitting theaters across the nation, presenting us with a rare opportunity that is very analogous to what the Tea Party crowd experienced. Having started many groups, I have suggestions about how to leverage the movie to meet like-minded people in your area. First, advertise yourself and your values. Get a highly visible type of apparel, perhaps a cap, button, or a t-shirt. Bear in mind, people can’t see a button or t-shirt if others are in the way or if it’s covered up."

"Decide in advance whether you are primarily trying to meet someone for personal or romantic reasons, or if you are trying to start a club or discussion or social or activist group."

Kinda like today the movie...tomorrow ze vorld!

Good job Phil.

Good idea.

Adam

[9thdoctor]

Here's yet another review from Reason Magazine, this one pans the film.

http://reason.com/archives/2011/04/14/atlas-shrugged-part-1

[Greybird]

Here's yet another review from Reason magazine, this one pans the film. [link]

Kurt Loder pans damn near everything. He's a cultural-critic functional equivalent to a near-nihilist. I fail to grasp how so many media and individuals persist in describing him as "a libertarian." No one taking that much delight in denigration, unleavened even by wit, deserves the moniker.

Scroll down to the bottom of that page for a set of links to "additional Reason coverage" that clearly was inserted at the behest of the editors and other staff, who patently disagree with Loder.

[Selene]

Atlas is Shrugging

FreedomWorks

Go See Atlas Shrugged: Part One

Dear Adam,

On April 15, the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's classic novel Atlas Shrugged hits over 300 theaters across America. The film, Atlas Shrugged: Part One, celebrates values Tea Party activists hold dear: limited government, free markets and individual liberty.

In the film, the productive members of society or "Atlases" who hold up the world, slowly disappear and thus "shrug" from under the weight of a government that undervalues, suppresses and demonizes individual achievement.

Even though it was written more than 50 years ago, Rand's story shares ominous similarities with our nation today. Government bailouts of failing enterprises, crony capitalists perverting the free market and the skyrocketing price of oil—all newspaper headlines today—are themes ripped right from the pages of Atlas Shrugged.

And while the book and the film are fiction, the message hits home because when we look around at our floundering economy and hapless political leaders, one thing is clear: Atlas IS Shrugging.

To show this, we just released a mashup video and quiz showing the parallels between rhetoric used by Democrats today and government bureaucrats in the film. Watch it here and take our quiz:

Atlas Shrugged: Part One has the opportunity to introduce millions more around the world to the philosophy of freedom. Go see this film, and if it's not playing near you, demand that your theater shows Atlas Shrugged: Part One. If the message of individual liberty in Atlas Shrugged inspires you like it does me, please consider a donation to help us continue spreading this important message across America.

In Liberty,

<img alt="Kibbe Signature">

Matt Kibbe

President and CEO, FreedomWorks

Edited April 15, 2011 by Selene

[rhartford]

A Tea Party group in Charlotte, NC sent an email with an offer of a group rate they negotiated with a local theater.

Forty of us will meet together and attend the 2:40 showing on Saturday. A good way to build enthusiam and buzz.

[Philip Coates]

Really smart, clever idea!

[Greybird]

The first midnight showings here in Los Angeles let out two hours ago. They already have a baker's dozen of pro reviews linked on Rotten Tomatoes.

And the RT rating for this movie is currently ... zero percent. Oh-for-13. Did you expect anything different?

The reviews are not hatchet jobs, by and large. Most regret what had been done with the book on screen, and at least acknowledge the novel's importance, though many note their disagreements with it.

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle decries its quality but finds it entertaining nonetheless, saying he's ready to see Part II right now, possibly to make up for this one.

Others decry waste or amateurism, and note expectations are likely to be dashed. These include Roger Ebert, Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal (two paragraphs in a multiple-openings-today overview), and Michael Phillips, in both the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times — which movie-colony paper didn't assign any of its own three critics.

These are not money reviews. They are, however, notably mixed and show some signs of the reviewers wanting to try to find elements that are worthwhile, which is more generosity of spirit than is lent to many productions. Nearly all praise the focus and acting quality of Taylor Schilling as Dagny.

... Well, somebody had to be the first to post this. Don't kill the (insomniac) messenger, please.

[9thdoctor]

The Ebert review is quite nasty.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110414%2FREVIEWS%2F110419990

I feel like my arm is all warmed up and I don’t have a game to pitch. I was primed to review "Atlas Shrugged." I figured it might provide a parable of Ayn Rand’s philosophy that I could discuss. For me, that philosophy reduces itself to: "I’m on board; pull up the lifeline."

Alas, but this is from the critic who panned A Clockwork Orange.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19720211/REVIEWS/202110301/1023

In addition to the things I've mentioned above -- things I really got mad about -- "A Clockwork Orange" commits another, perhaps even more unforgivable, artistic sin. It is just plain talky and boring.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Ninth Doctor

[James Heaps-Nelson]

I saw the movie tonight. I made the mistake of thinking I could go to the early showing without an advance ticket. It was sold out and I had to wait a couple hours to see it. It met my expectations and more. I'll have more to say later.

Jim

[vfan1983]

I saw the movie tonight. I made the mistake of thinking I could go to the early showing without an advance ticket. It was sold out and I had to wait a couple hours to see it. It met my expectations and more. I'll have more to say later.

Jim

Good to see there was high attendance in some places. Not many people were at the showing I attended today (5pm).