"Atlas Part 1" Commentaries and Reviews

[Greybird]

Enough of Lindsay Perigo's esthetics and predilections. Please spare us.

I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them.

[Selene]

Enough of Lindsay Perigo's esthetics and predilections. Please spare us.

I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them.

Steve:

It's OK, I will. I pay attention to them and a few others do also.

Adam

Post Script: I am treating this like an election day wherein I am turning out a vote starting on Friday April 15th and going forward. It is a perpetual election day for me!!!!

Edited April 11, 2011 by Selene

[Jonathan]

Enough of Lindsay Perigo's esthetics and predilections. Please spare us.

I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them.

Point taken.

J

[Brant Gaede]

J - re producers/consumers/ - how do you think Rand viewed her middlemen - agents, lawyers etc? Were they Willers or second-handers or niche marketers or what?

She claimed her agent, or whoever it was who stood up for The Fountainhead, Archie I think his first name was, was a hero.

9th:

Yes. Archie Ogden [bottom of pg. 144 Heller], "He went to bat for the book with his boss, D.L. Chambers, the president of Bobbs-Merrill in

Indianapolis.

When Chambers wired him to reject the book, he wired back: 'If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you.'" Chambers responded: "Far be it from me to dampen such enthusiasm. Sign the contract. But the book better be good."

Later, she did call him a hero and, he was.

Adam

D.L. Chambers was a personal friend of my grandfather and published most of his books, including, ultimately, a not very good novel.

--Brant

[Philip Coates]

> I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them. [Greybird, 376]

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

[jriggenbach]

> I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them. [Greybird, 376]

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.

JR

[Philip Coates]

Subject: Dreaming Big . . .

Wouldn't it be great if the following happened:

i) The Atlas Shrugged movie proves so popular that it goes nationwide to every multiplex in the country.

ii) There is thus enough money to fund parts two and three -- with more time, not rushed, with major 'production values'.

iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand, there is no Oist movement, few copies of her books are sold.

iv) This produces enough 'buzz' for publishers to hire translators that will provide Rand's books in many more foreign languages. Especially in the places where people would be the most responsive.

v) Documentaries about Rand (such as Duncan Scott's "Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand") plus many more focused on explaining, illustrating, defending her ideas, making them plausible begin to play in movie theaters that have predominantly featured left-leaning or politically conventional documentaries by Michael Moore and Al Gore. And the producers can make enough money from them to continue doing such projects.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Philip Coates

[Philip Coates]

The last four things on my list probably are only workable if the first is successful.

[George H. Smith]

J - re producers/consumers/ - how do you think Rand viewed her middlemen - agents, lawyers etc? Were they Willers or second-handers or niche marketers or what?

She claimed her agent, or whoever it was who stood up for The Fountainhead, Archie I think his first name was, was a hero.

9th:

Yes. Archie Ogden [bottom of pg. 144 Heller], "He went to bat for the book with his boss, D.L. Chambers, the president of Bobbs-Merrill in

Indianapolis.

When Chambers wired him to reject the book, he wired back: 'If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you.'" Chambers responded: "Far be it from me to dampen such enthusiasm. Sign the contract. But the book better be good."

Later, she did call him a hero and, he was.

Adam

D.L. Chambers was a personal friend of my grandfather and published most of his books, including, ultimately, a not very good novel.

--Brant

How many books did your grandfather publish? His Madison bio alone runs six volumes.

I just finished reading Ralph Ketcham's bio of Madison (1990). He says the following in the Preface:

I owe another very special debt to Irving Brant, author of a six-volume life of Madison published between 1941 and 1961. Mr. Brant's volumes have literally been at my elbow throughout my own work....I hope no one embarrasses me by counting the number of citations I make to his work -- I would then have to admit that even that indecent number does not fully record my dependence!

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand, there is no Oist movement, few copies of her books are sold.

No need to go overseas for that. Just leap on over to Bloomington. One small leap for the feet, one giant leap for the mind.

For several weeks now, some local O'ist has been sending out emails announcing his plan to drive to Chicago to see the movie on April 15. He has room for 5 passengers, and the only expense will be splitting the cost of gas. According to an email I got yesterday, he only has 4 seats left.

Ghs

[william.scherk]

> I'm not going to post or link to any more reviews (the ostensible purpose of this thread, after all). Nobody appears to notice them. [Greybird, 376]

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

I concur. Keep 'em coming, please . . .

[Brant Gaede]

iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand, there is no Oist movement, few copies of her books are sold.

No need to go overseas for that. Just leap on over to Bloomington. One small leap for the feet, one giant leap for the mind.

For several weeks now, some local O'ist has been sending out emails announcing his plan to drive to Chicago to see the movie on April 15. He has room for 5 passengers, and the only expense will be splitting the cost of gas. According to an email I got yesterday, he only has 4 seats left.

Ghs

Is somebody going to have to ride on the roof?

--Brant

[Philip Coates]

Brant, are you a math major?

[Xray]

Ms. Xray...you really do not have to respond to one of my dumb spontaneous Junior High School jokes...you know that...right?

Don't judge yourself so harshly, Mr. Selene. I found the joke quite funny actually and always have to grin when you get yourself into gear against anything connected with "the state", from state employees to 'governemt-funded glasses'.

But I enjoy working for a public employer and don't see myself as a "slave for the state" (another of your frequently employed labels) at all.

P.J. O'Rourke's Lukewarm Review in Wall Street Journal

"But I will not pan “Atlas Shrugged.” I don’t have the guts. If you associate with Randians—and I do—saying anything critical about Ayn Rand is almost as scary as saying anything critical to Ayn Rand. What’s more, given how protective Randians are of Rand, I’m not sure she’s dead."

This man is hilarious!

Here is an excerpt:

P.J. O’Rourke: Atlas Shrugged. And So Did I.

In “Atlas Shrugged” Rand set out to prove that self-interest is vital to mankind. This, of course, is the whole point of free-market classical liberalism and has been since Adam Smith invented free-market classical liberalism by proving the same point. Therefore trying to make a movie of “Atlas Shrugged” is like trying to make a movie of “The Wealth of Nations.” But Adam Smith had the good sense to leave us with no plot, characters or melodramatic clashes of will so that we wouldn’t be tempted to try.

“Atlas Shrugged” presents other problems for a moviemaker. The book was published in 1957 and set in an America of the future. But time seems to have taken a U-turn, so that we’re back in a worse Great Depression with a more megalomaniacal business competition-loathing FDR-type administration. All sorts of things have been uninvented, such as oil pipelines so that oil has to be shipped by rail, railroads being the dominant form of transportation. Airplanes exist, but knowing where to fly them apparently doesn’t, because a secret hidden unknown valley in the Rocky Mountains figures in the plot, which also hinges on a substance that’s lighter and stronger than steel. This turns out to be a revolutionary new steel alloy! Because Rand forgot about plastics.

The “Atlas Shrugged” movie simply accepts these unimaginative imaginings. No attempt is made to create a “future of the past” atmosphere as in the movies about Batman (a very unRandian figure, trapped in his altruism costume drama). Nor is any attempt made to update Rand’s tale of Titans of Industry versus Gargantuas of government.

An update is needed, and not just because train buffs, New Deal economics and the miracle of the Bessemer converter are inexplicable to people under 50, not to mention boring. The anti-individualist enemies that Ayn Rand battled are still the enemy, but they’ve shifted their line of attack. Political collectivists are no longer much interested in taking things away from the wealthy and creative. Even the most left-wing politicians worship wealth creation—as the political-action-committee collection plate is passed. Partners at Goldman Sachs go forth with their billions. Steve Jobs walks on water. Jay-Z and Beyoncé are rich enough to buy God. Progressive Robin Hoods have turned their attention to robbing ordinary individuals. It’s the plain folks, not a Taggart/Rearden elite, whose prospects and opportunities are stolen by corrupt school systems, health-care rationing, public employee union extortions, carbon-emissions payola and deficit-debt burden graft. Today’s collectivists are going after malefactors of moderate means.

Hence the Tea Party, and Ayn Rand is invited. Not for nothing is Kentucky Senator Paul named Rand. The premise of “Atlas Shrugged” applies to every maker in a world of takers. What if, pace Adam Smith, the takers do indeed expect their dinner “from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker”? And what if the Safeway meat-cutter, the beer-truck driver, and the guy who owns the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise say to hell with “their regard to their own interest”? What if they go off with John Galt to a secret hidden unknown valley in the Rocky Mountains? A lot of people will be chewing air and drinking puddle water.

“Atlas Shrugged–Part I” has to be praised just for existing, for keeping the premise available. Perhaps Hollywood progressives—

inveterate takers—will take it. Many another movie could be made about a labor action by those who perform life’s actual labors. Maybe it’s a slacker comedy where Zach Galifianakis shaves, loses weight and refuses to speak in non sequiturs. Maybe it’s a sci-fi thriller where the Internet has gone on strike and mankind must face a post-apocalyptic world without Twitter. Or maybe it’s a horror film set at my house, “Wife on Strike!”

Mr. O’Rourke’s many books include “Don’t Vote—It Just Encourages the Bastards.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/04/06/atlas-shrugged-and-so-did-i/

Edited April 11, 2011 by Xray

[caroljane]

Subject: Dreaming Big . . .

Wouldn't it be great if the following happened:

i) The Atlas Shrugged movie proves so popular that it goes nationwide to every multiplex in the country.

ii) There is thus enough money to fund parts two and three -- with more time, not rushed, with major 'production values'.

iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand, there is no Oist movement, few copies of her books are sold.

iv) This produces enough 'buzz' for publishers to hire translators that will provide Rand's books in many more foreign languages. Especially in the places where people would be the most responsive.

v) Documentaries about Rand (such as Duncan Scott's "Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand") plus many more focused on explaining, illustrating, defending her ideas, making them plausible begin to play in movie theaters that have predominantly featured left-leaning or politically conventional documentaries by Michael Moore and Al Gore. And the producers can make enough money from them to continue doing such projects.

I told you Phil's handwriting shows he is an incorrigible optimist!

[Selene]

Ms. Xray:

FYI: the link that is provided in my post opens to the article. So you did not need to put the excerpt into your post, unless you were going to comment on a part of it which I do not see you doing.

Adam

confused by the work product of the government teacher

[Selene]

Movie review: Atlas Shines

OK Marotta, come clean, you wrote this under Bruce Edward Walker for the Michigan View!

"This isn't a movie, it's a newsreel," commented my "Atlas Shrugged, Part I" viewing companion - an old Mackinac Center colleague. Spot on.

Our current situation is dire, and Rand - ever the scold even 29 years after her demise - speaks from her grave: "I told you so.

"Full disclosure: I was never a fan of the 1,200-page doorstop Rand dared call a "novel." Sorry, Randroids, it's the lit major in me. The tome suffers from poorly drawn characters, plodding plotting, and stilted, didactic dialogue that could've been supplied by any given window washer at the end of the exit ramp. It may be one of the 20th century's best-loved books, but while it succeeds as a novel of ideas it's not literature in this author's humble estimation. [Very clever Mike, but you can't fool us!]

The big question for moviegoers, however, is whether the makers of "Atlas Shrugged, Part I" succeed in capturing on film the spirit of Rand's ideas concerning Big Government criminals and their corporate bedfellows. In this, I can affirm with a resounding yes.

Ignore the book at your discernment. Ignore the film at our peril."

From Pittsbugh - Nothing to 'shrug' at

"Individualists and freethinkers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your servility and capitulation."

"This above Pittsburgh release was a basic descriptive "review"...with some quotes from the novel.

Atlas Shrugged: The Movie Scenes from the 38-year struggle to film Ayn Rand's famous novel

The film's direct father is, like many of Rand's heroes, a highly successful businessman: John Aglialoro, a private equity whiz and CEO of the Cybex exercise equipment company. Aglialoro was named by Fortune magazine in 2007 as the 10th richest small business executive in the country. He has never made a movie before. He is not in the movie business to make movies per se, or to make money, though he hopes to. Aglialoro is in the movie business to make Atlas Shrugged, a book whose message—that individuals do not owe their lives to the collective—"zapped him," he says, when he first read it in the late 1970s."

Reflecting on the transfer of the rights to the movie to Aglialoro, Brian Doherty, slices at "Rand's intellectual heir," stating:

"Very much not in the spirit of Rand, Peikoff relinquished control over any movie Aglialoro chose to make."

Nothing like a little fresh heir - eh?

"It's eerie watching actor Grant Bowler bring Rearden to life as I sit, out of camera range, in the anteroom of "his" office in a sleek industrial space in Santa Monica, California. I've been a fan of Rand's work since my late teens. I wrote a book (Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement) that is partly a biography of Rand. Her characters and ideas occupy a special place in my mind, and in the minds of millions of other Rand lovers—and haters. The Atlas Shrugged movie will likely stand or fall in Rand's beloved marketplace on the question of whether people who found Atlas a life-changing experience can embrace the movie as emotionally theirs."

Wiki limk to the book by Doherty

In this long review, Doherty provides an excellent history of the attempts to create the film. Commenting on Aglialoro's depressing decision to give up:

"At this point Aglialoro was ready to give up. He had never wanted to be the guy actually making this movie; he was more interested in hooking up with a professional studio and letting the professionals do what they were qualified to do. That, Peikoff had told Aglialoro, was something Rand had always told him.

But Aglialoro's wife told him that he'd regret it all his life if he didn't do everything possible to make this movie, and he decided she was right. Indie producers Howard and Karen Baldwin, who had originally brought the project to Lion's Gate, introduced Aglialoro to producer Harmon Kaslow, who had worked on more than a dozen films, mostly on the legal and financial end. Kaslow didn't know much about Rand, but he did know something about how a movie gets made."

Ah, the woman behind the man!

As to his evaluation of Johansson:

"Johansson is brash and charming, very much a dude's dude, alternately serious and funny. Soon after I first speak to him at length, on a shooting day at a ranch in Piru, California, where Rearden and Dagny are tracking down clues to the inventor of a mysterious motor, he makes sure I understand both that he sees his bookshelf as defining his life and that he once cold-approached Cindy Crawford for a date and got it. He tells me he gained extra respect for Grant Bowler, his Rearden—"a Daniel Craig type, not a George Clooney"—when he learned Bowler had been in a scrap or two in his native Australia.

Johansson immediately starts grilling me about libertarianism during our first conversation, testing the limits of Rand's, and my, antipathy toward government. Schools? Police? Johansson doesn't instantly embrace the radical answers I offer, but he doesn't argue against them much either. He talks about his disdain for most modern journalism and the compromises it makes—'a word Ayn Rand despised, compromise.'"

Interesting observation of Johansson:

"Johansson keeps a hardback of Atlas on his monitor board as he films. We bond as Rand fans when he comes back from giving some direction to Bowler during the scene where the bureaucrat is trying to buy his metal. "Did you tell him to not say 'please' to the guy when instructing him to have a seat?" I ask him. "Yes!" Johansson says with a you-got-it gesture. Johansson claims he is reworking O'Toole and Aglialoro's script daily. O'Toole alludes to problems with the headstrong director but gives no specifics."

and again here...

"Johansson has some Roark in him. Filming Rearden's office scenes, he confronts Kaslow about plans to recut the movie after Johansson is done. Johansson is shooting a scene at Rearden's desk. A statue of Atlas holding up the world is centered between Rearden and his computer monitor. Kaslow doesn't like how it looks. "Why are you bothering to tell me this now?" Johansson snaps at Kaslow, in front of Kaslow's young son. "Aren't you just going to take the film from me and do whatever you want to it afterward anyway?" The director makes things so uncomfortable for Kaslow and his son that they leave the set."

Fascinating section on page three (3):

'All the Objectivists Are Going to Fucking Hate Me'

(Page 4 of 4)

The Finished Film

"No message movie has ever shifted the culture. Despite the sense of desperate ideological importance that suffuses Rand's novel, no one involved in the film project is arguing that the movie is going to jump-start a renaissance of reason. O'Toole stresses his hope that the movie gets people to seek out the book."

"I think it will work as a piece of entertainment first," Aglialoro says. But attentive viewers may "pick up the message that you are not born to serve society, that government should just protect our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and that we are entitled to the fruits of our labor."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a great piece by Doherty!

Frankly, in today's context, I think this has been a remarkable achievement worthy of Ayn and her ideas.

Objectively eager to see this film,

Adam

Edited April 11, 2011 by Selene

[Xray]

Ms. Xray:

FYI: the link that is provided in my post opens to the article. So you did not need to put the excerpt into your post, unless you were going to comment on a part of it which I do not see you doing.

Adam

confused by the work product of the government teacher

No need to be confused. Of course I didn't need to put the excerpt in my post - I wanted to put it there.

I don't know about you, but I like it when other posters put - even if the link is given - excerpts from articles in their posts to share with the forum.

"Political collectivists are no longer much interested in taking things away from the wealthy and creative. Even the most left-wing politicians worship wealth creation" (O'Rourke) http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/04/06/atlas-shrugged-and-so-did-i/

What do you think? Is O'Rourke right about that?

Edited April 11, 2011 by Xray

[Philip Coates]

> Wouldn't it be great if the following happened: i) The Atlas Shrugged movie proves so popular that it goes nationwide to every multiplex... ii) There is thus enough money to fund parts two and three... iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand... iv) This produces enough 'buzz' for publishers to hire translators that will provide Rand's books in many more foreign languages... v) Documentaries about Rand...begin to play [everywhere]... [Phil, post 384]

> I told you Phil's handwriting shows he is an incorrigible optimist! [Daunce, post 392]

Daunce, if I were an incorrigible optimist, I would have expected my positive imaginings above to have resulted in, first, a great wave of respectful and awed applause, and, second, in a vast wash of looking forward and benevolence and a renewed rolling up of shirtsteeves and dedication to hard intellectual work on this site as we first ring around the rosy here. Then all join hands as we hum the John Galt Theme and skip steadily toward a sunlit Objectivist future.

I would Candide-istically see, in this best of all possible worlds:

Adam and Xray stopping sniping at each other for longer than one full week, Jonathan offering me a flower rather than a stiletto in the kidneys, George promising to write shorter paragraphs with fewer obscure allusions to historical figures no one knows, Jeff diligently providing evidence for his sweeping claims about who is the 'greatest' writer or best novel or best science fiction story, Brant writing posts as long as an entire page, Michael stopping psychoanalysis of everyone else, Baal writing a post on something from the humanities and people instead of subatomic particles, and yourself occasionally writing some posts which are not so clever and eruditely written in code that I can't actually understand them.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Philip Coates

[9thdoctor]

I would Candide-istically see, in this best of all possible worlds:

Adam and Xray stopping sniping at each other for longer than one full week, Jonathan offering me a flower rather than a stiletto in the kidneys, George promising to write shorter paragraphs with fewer obscure allusions to historical figures no one knows, Jeff diligently providing evidence for his sweeping claims about who is the 'greatest' writer or best novel or best science fiction story, Brant writing posts as long as an entire page, Michael stopping psychoanalysis of everyone else, Baal writing a post on something from the humanities and people instead of subatomic particles, and yourself occasionally writing some posts which are not so clever and erudite that I can't actually understand them.

No requests for me! Phil loves me just the way I am!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPClzIsYxvA

[Philip Coates]

Damn! I forgot ND....

[9thdoctor]

Damn! I forgot ND....

Just step away from the keyboard, there's been enough thread drift here already. Or start a new thread about those passionate feelings I inspire in you: the love, the laughter, the frustration, the hate...

[jriggenbach]

. . . George promising to write shorter paragraphs with fewer obscure allusions to historical figures no one knows, Jeff diligently providing evidence for his sweeping claims about who is the 'greatest' writer or best novel or best science fiction story . . .

Just out of idle curiosity, would you consider E. L. Doctorow to be an "historical figure no one knows"?

JR

[caroljane]

> Wouldn't it be great if the following happened: i) The Atlas Shrugged movie proves so popular that it goes nationwide to every multiplex... ii) There is thus enough money to fund parts two and three... iii) And it's financially worthwhile for the movie to leap overseas, to places where they have never heard of Rand... iv) This produces enough 'buzz' for publishers to hire translators that will provide Rand's books in many more foreign languages... v) Documentaries about Rand...begin to play [everywhere]... [Phil, post 384]

> I told you Phil's handwriting shows he is an incorrigible optimist! [Daunce, post 392]

Daunce, if I were an incorrigible optimist, I would have expected my positive imaginings above to have resulted in, first, a great wave of respectful and awed applause, and, second, in a vast wash of looking forward and benevolence and a renewed rolling up of shirtsteeves and dedication to hard intellectual work on this site as we first ring around the rosy here. Then all join hands as we hum the John Galt Theme and skip steadily toward a sunlit Objectivist future.

I would Candide-istically see, in this best of all possible worlds:

Adam and Xray stopping sniping at each other for longer than one full week, Jonathan offering me a flower rather than a stiletto in the kidneys, George promising to write shorter paragraphs with fewer obscure allusions to historical figures no one knows, Jeff diligently providing evidence for his sweeping claims about who is the 'greatest' writer or best novel or best science fiction story, Brant writing posts as long as an entire page, Michael stopping psychoanalysis of everyone else, Baal writing a post on something from the humanities and people instead of subatomic particles, and yourself occasionally writing some posts which are not so clever and eruditely written in code that I can't actually understand them.

"code", hah, weasel word! I feel about my Canadian spelling as you feel about your snippets.

Your wishful sunlit OL universe would be ideal,Candide, but I fear it would be quite monotonous.

[Backlighting]

Several new reviews of AS can be found here:

http://randex.org/index.php