Atlas Shrugged Producer John Aglialoro on Ayn Rand's Enduring Impact

[Backlighting]

I'll see #3 when it hits Redbox in a few months.

If nothing else it will be a reminder to open the book, once again, & go on the journey. As before, new gems of wisdom will be discovered.

I'll see #3 when it hits Redbox in a few months.

Highly unlikely.

http://www.redbox.com/search/?q=atlas%20shrugged&d=

To early I believe to see it come up in a search. 1 & 2 were at Redbox. It should take 2-3 months before it hits there. DVD sales would come first, then rentals.

[Wolf DeVoon]

1 & 2 were at Redbox.

For how long?

[Backlighting]

1 & 2 were at Redbox.

For how long?

Don't know. Probably depends on the how the rental is doing.

[Jonathan]

1 & 2 were at Redbox.

For how long?

Don't know. Probably depends on the how the rental is doing.

Yeah, I've rented parts 1 & 2 from Redbox. I've also rented many other movies which are no longer available. It does not logically follow that if a movie is not currently at Redbox then it never was, or that a new sequel will not be carried.

J

[Jonathan]

I just checked Netflix streaming. Atlas Shrugged 1 used to be displayed prominently in one of the categories on the front page. Now it doesn't even come up in a search, but part 2 does. Nothing can be logically concluded about part 3's future availability based on this information.

J

[Brant Gaede]

If they had only gone with the total budget of the three movies and made only one covering the entire novel it could have been much better. From integrity the option should have been allowed to expire instead of that hurry up and get something done effort.

--Brant

[Francisco Ferrer]

The worst offense is not simply making a bad movie. It happens frequently in Hollywood--if not to the extreme degree of AS3. What the producers cannot be forgiven is making something so shabby, inaccurate and laughable that it will stand for a generation as a misdirecting signpost to those who might have been drawn to Rand's ideas.

[Ellen Stuttle]

[...] it will stand for a generation as a misdirecting signpost to those who might have been drawn to Rand's ideas.

That's if people who weren't already drawn to Rand's ideas see it.

Ellen

[Backlighting]

1 & 2 were at Redbox.

For how long?

Don't know. Probably depends on the how the rental is doing.

Yeah, I've rented parts 1 & 2 from Redbox. I've also rented many other movies which are no longer available. It does not logically follow that if a movie is not currently at Redbox then it never was, or that a new sequel will not be carried.

J

Yes, and as you know Redbox is in business to make money. One needs to really read & digest the daily rental reports, replacing the dead and almost dead titles with new ones. The machines hold up to 600 discs...only so much space. With new titles being released by the studios on a weekly basis, Redbox must decide which and how many of each of the new releases plus the previously released titles (back catalog, which is in the thousands) will be in the kiosk's inventory. Add to that many of the discs were released in the standard DVD format plus the Blu-Ray version.

I'm glad there is a Redbox and I salute their success...I use it often.

-J

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbox

[Brant Gaede]

Redbox will eventually go the way of the video stores and for the same reason: new technology. I doubt it will exist in ten years.

--Brant

[Jerry Biggers]

The worst offense is not simply making a bad movie. It happens frequently in Hollywood--if not to the extreme degree of AS3. What the producers cannot be forgiven is making something so shabby, inaccurate and laughable that it will stand for a generation as a misdirecting signpost to those who might have been drawn to Rand's ideas.

Are there instances of a badly-made movie significantly reducing the sales of the novel upon which it was based? Probably, but not for very long. Practically everyone who is literate knows that most, or many, movies only superficially resemble the book upon which they were based. James Michener, who wrote many "best selling" novels, sold most of them to the movie or TV producers. When it was pointed-out to him how far the resulting movie, (Hawaii, I think).deviated from his novel, his reply was (and this is only a slighty different paraphrase), "I don't care, as long as they get my name spelled right on the checks!"

As for "it will stand for a generation as a misdirecting signpost to those who might have been drawn to Rand's ideas." If that is the kind of dim-bulb signpost that they are looking for, then yes. However, this movie trilogy will likely sink quietly within weeks, if not days. But, in comparison to the deluge of anti-Rand articles that have been published ever since her novel was published over 57 years ago, and that have notably increased since the 2008 crash, the carping reviews of this movie - or even the movie itself, pales into insignificance. The long term effect of all this anti-Rand criticism has, to the increasing irritation and frustration of her critics, been to increase, not decrease, interest and sales of her books..

[Selene]

The long term effect of all this anti-Rand criticism has, to the increasing irritation and frustration of her critics, been to increase, not decrease, interest and sales of her books..

Precisely correct Jerry.

One of the other fatal aspects of the "Objectivist Movement" which severely limited it's growth, was

the inability to maintain a physical presence in the mediums of television and radio.

Having a presence at every left wing demonstration, meeting, press conference gets exposure.

Street theatre, carefully produced gets exposure.

A movement has to be on the move.

NBI was not dynamic. It was one critical piece to build a movement around. Standing alone caused it

to atrophy.

A...

[caroljane]

I think you're probably right...

I'm going to frame this.

I'm trying to think of something to spoil this for you.

--Brant

be patient

.

Ellen is right yet again!

[caroljane]

-Also Jerry. Hawaii is one of my altime favourite epics, I even enjoyed the movie. have watched it a couple of times but reread the book at least three.

[Backlighting]

Redbox will eventually go the way of the video stores and for the same reason: new technology. I doubt it will exist in ten years.

--Brant

Nonetheless, they've had a good run.

[Brant Gaede]

I think you're probably right...

I'm going to frame this.

I'm trying to think of something to spoil this for you.

--Brant

be patient

.

Ellen is right yet again!

Hey, hey, my girlfriend's back! You guys pickin' on me--you're gonna be sorry!

--Brant

[Jerry Biggers]

then there's the tunnel scene.

Jerry, what's wrong with the tunnel scene (sequence of scenes)?

A critical review of A.S. was published in The Intercollegiate Review, published by ISI, a conservative "reach-out" to college students, primarily. ISI is run by so of the National Review-type/Buckleyite" conservatives. The point of the review (published around 2003, probably still available on their website), if I recall correctly, was that it would be inlikely that eveeryone on the train was equally guilty of being "looters," and that this was sort of a "scorched-earth" policy of Rand's that reveals her underlying mean strek, despite her libertarian olical/economic views.

This article was followed up in National Review itself, a cover article (sorry, I don't recall the date. I think within the lasr two years. Anyway, I.m sure that the National Review search engine would pull it up.), something like "the trouble with Ayn Rand". The artcle also featured an analysis of the train disaster along the same lines as the earlier, Intercollegiate Review article. Being National Review, they, of course, dragged in their opening fire at Rand, the Whittaker Chambers 1957 attack..

[caroljane]

I think you're probably right...

I'm going to frame this.

I'm trying to think of something to spoil this for you.

--Brantbe patient

.

Ellen is right yet again!

Hey, hey, my girlfriend's back! You guys pickin' on me--you're gonna be sorry!

--Brant

.

Heyla, Heyla... she,s kinda a prig and she's often wrong....

[Francisco Ferrer]

Are there instances of a badly-made movie significantly reducing the sales of the novel upon which it was based? Probably, but not for very long. Practically everyone who is literate knows that most, or many, movies only superficially resemble the book upon which they were based. James Michener, who wrote many "best selling" novels, sold most of them to the movie or TV producers. When it was pointed-out to him how far the resulting movie, (Hawaii, I think).deviated from his novel, his reply was (and this is only a slighty different paraphrase), "I don't care, as long as they get my name spelled right on the checks!"

As for "it will stand for a generation as a misdirecting signpost to those who might have been drawn to Rand's ideas." If that is the kind of dim-bulb signpost that they are looking for, then yes. However, this movie trilogy will likely sink quietly within weeks, if not days. But, in comparison to the deluge of anti-Rand articles that have been published ever since her novel was published over 57 years ago, and that have notably increased since the 2008 crash, the carping reviews of this movie - or even the movie iself, pales into insignificance. The long term effect of all this anti-Rand criticism has, to the increasing irritation and frustration of her critics, been to increase, not decrease, interest and sales of her books..

I cannot cite sales numbers, but a terrible movie can affect a book's reputation. For example, Myra Breckenridge is a funny and critically acclaimed satirical novel by Gore Vidal and a terrible movie with Raquel Welch. The stench from the movie queered sales of the book, which, sadly, is no longer in print.

I have yet to see a film based on a Michener novel that distorted its source material as grotesquely as the AS series.

The general incompetence on display in the cinematic works of Kaslow-Aglialoro is so monumental that they may well be contenders for cult bad movies, products so shamefully rotten that they are sought out by fans who enjoy ridiculing them. Thus we may soon see the Atlas movies on a "best worst" list that includes Reefer Madness and Plan 9 from Outer Space.

In addition to getting Peikoff's name right on the checks, Kaslow-Aglialoro may well send thousands of bad movie cultists to the bookstore in the false hope that Atlas the Book is a laugh riot.

[Jerry Biggers]

Precisely correct Jerry.

One of the other fatal aspects of the "Objectivist Movement" which severely limited it's growth, was

the inability to maintain a physical presence in the mediums of television and radio.

Having a presence at every left wing demonstration, meeting, press conference gets exposure.

Street theatre, carefully produced gets exposure.

A movement has to be on the move.

NBI was not dynamic. It was one critical piece to build a movement around. Standing alone caused it

to atrophy.

A...

Well, I assume that you meant here that NBI "standing alone caused it to atrophy," the "it," being the Objectivist movement. NBI itself was as dynamic as could be expected, at that time (e.g.,growing rapidly, attracting the attention of what was then prime pillars of the print media (e.g., Look, Saturday Evening Post, Life ) and (so I was told around that time, informally, by people who knew members of Rand's Inner Circle, and who had been accurate about movement plans and activities in the past..[ N. Branden, by the way, denied that such plans were actively being considered].) was seriously planning to purchase a college campus - and presumably, the institution itself.

Whether, the college acquisition plans were accurate or not, I think it is quite likely that its course offerings, live and by tape transcription, would have expanded. And several books were also in the planning stage.But that was all ended by the Rand snit, denouncing Branden, and thus ending NBI. And the "movement,." temporarily. (Peikoff's later course offerings were on a much more modest scale)..

[Brant Gaede]

NBI moved into The Empire State Building lower level in 1967. Because the way the building was constructed you could not get an auditorium above ground level. The size was quite appropriate for its operations. Before that it had an office in an apartment at 120 34th where Rand and Branden lived. Lectures were given in rented hotel auditoriums. Becoming a college--acquiring a college? What NBI had acquired was a 15 year lease on a fixed amount of space and the expectation Branden would rewrite and redo the Basic Principles of Objectivism course. With all the nuttiness going on behind the scenes I doubt if NB could have got that idea halfway intro his mind. The biggie under construction in the summer of 1968 was Barbara Branden's adaptation of The Fountainhead for the stage in the hands of Phillip J. Smith and his wife, Kay. (Five years later they did Penthouse Legend.)

--Brant

[Selene]

Jerry:

I understand your perspective.

However, those of us who were learning the power of multi-media campaigns spoke to a number of people

who were interested in a targeted marketing plan and linking that to a political and street presence.

That aspect was just not "heard" by the folks who had their hands on the steering wheel of the

Objectivist movement.

A...

[Jonathan]

The general incompetence on display in the cinematic works of Kaslow-Aglialoro is so monumental that they may well be contenders for cult bad movies, products so shamefully rotten that they are sought out by fans who enjoy ridiculing them. Thus we may soon see the Atlas movies on a "best worst" list that includes Reefer Madness and Plan 9 from Outer Space

That's ridiculous. You've just got a hard-on for having art-panic attacks. You don't like something so you completely blow it out of proportion and act like the fucking world is going to end. You wrote in the same frantic, overblown terms on that silly thread about architecture: http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14488

Get a grip.

J

[Brant Gaede]

The general incompetence on display in the cinematic works of Kaslow-Aglialoro is so monumental that they may well be contenders for cult bad movies, products so shamefully rotten that they are sought out by fans who enjoy ridiculing them. Thus we may soon see the Atlas movies on a "best worst" list that includes Reefer Madness and Plan 9 from Outer Space

That's ridiculous. You've just got a hard-on for having art-panic attacks. You don't like something so you completely blow it out of proportion and act like the fucking world is going to end. You wrote in the same frantic, overblown terms on that silly thread about architecture: http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14488

Get a grip.

J

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a work of inadvertent cinematic genius forever in a class by itself. These Atlas movies can't touch it.

--Brant

[Reidy]

About Objectivist U, mentioned in #295:

The Objectivist, August 67 said "Reports have reached us of rumors to the effect that NATHANIEL BRANDEN INSTITUTE is planning to establish a college or university. NBI has no such plans, nor is it in any way connected with any such undertaking."