"Atlas Part 1" Commentaries and Reviews


Greybird

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Yesterday, over on the Fox Business Channel, Atlas Shrugged Part I got thoroughly trashed on John Stossel’s “Libertarian Year in Review.”

Here’s what Kurt Loder of Reason magazine had to say:

It’s just crap. It’s just horrible. Everything about it was bad. The acting was bad, the directing was bad.

And a female reviewer—identified as Kennedy, a former MTV VJ—said:

If I could sue for those 97 minutes of my life back, I would.

Stossel: "Well, I didn’t think it was that bad."

I’m very disappointed in Stossel, who made a big deal out of the fact that Rand’s epic had finally made it to the big screen in 2011. Why did he allow these two a-holes to trash the film, with no effort to balance their bullshit with a better review? If he wanted to promote the film and encourage more people to buy the DVD, he could not have done a more disgusting job.

I'm not sure Loder knew much of anything about the book. He questioned whether AS could even be made into a movie at all because "it's about trains."

Stossel is obviously sympathetic to Rand and Objectivism. He can usually be counted on to represent Rand very well. He really blew it this time.

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Stossel is obviously sympathetic to Rand and Objectivism. He can usually be counted on to represent Rand very well. He really blew it this time.

It really was not that good a movie. One cannot make a Gucci Gag from a pig's tuchas.

I saw the movie. And I reacted the same way as I did toward Peter Jackson for completely f*cking up Lord of the Rings.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Stossel is obviously sympathetic to Rand and Objectivism. He can usually be counted on to represent Rand very well. He really blew it this time.

It really was not that good a movie. One cannot make a Gucci Gag from a pig's tuchas.

I saw the movie. And I reacted the same way as I did toward Peter Jackson for completely f*cking up Lord of the Rings.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Bob,

The film was far from perfect, but it did do an excellent job of introducing the novel to a vast new audience. (And Taylor Schilling, in the role of Dagny Taggart, was fantastic. Seeing an actress bring Dagny to life before my eyes was thrilling beyond belief.)

Given his sympathy with the book's theme, Stossel should have made every effort to motivate his audience to see the film. Instead, he did just the opposite. That's what is so disappointing.

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Given his sympathy with the book's theme, Stossel should have made every effort to motivate his audience to see the film. Instead, he did just the opposite. That's what is so disappointing.

Would Stossel have been doing his audience a favor by promoting a second rate motion picture?

I happen to think too much of the novel -Atlas Shrugged- to not give that second rate flick the Bronx Cheer.

How about applying some high standards here?

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Given his sympathy with the book's theme, Stossel should have made every effort to motivate his audience to see the film. Instead, he did just the opposite. That's what is so disappointing.

Would Stossel have been doing his audience a favor by promoting a second rate motion picture?

I happen to think too much of the novel -Atlas Shrugged- to not give that second rate flick the Bronx Cheer.

How about applying some high standards here?

Ba'al Chatzaf

Dennis is obviously just trying to impress Taylor Schilling and advance her career so her publicists notice his activities, and he might get to date her.

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Given his sympathy with the book's theme, Stossel should have made every effort to motivate his audience to see the film. Instead, he did just the opposite. That's what is so disappointing.

How about applying some high standards here?

Ba'al Chatzaf

Dennis is obviously just trying to impress Taylor Schilling and advance her career so her publicists notice his activities, and he might get to date her.

Well, it worked with Lindsay Lohan. You think promoting AS Part One is a tough sell. Try sticking up for Freaky Friday. (It was worth it, though.)

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Given his sympathy with the book's theme, Stossel should have made every effort to motivate his audience to see the film. Instead, he did just the opposite. That's what is so disappointing.

How about applying some high standards here?

Ba'al Chatzaf

Dennis is obviously just trying to impress Taylor Schilling and advance her career so her publicists notice his activities, and he might get to date her.

Well, it worked with Lindsay Lohan. You think promoting AS Part One is a tough sell. Try sticking up for Freaky Friday. (It was worth it, though.)

Way to go! How did you make out with Jodie Foster? Any two for ones included in the deal?

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Way to go! How did you make out with Jodie Foster? Any two for ones included in the deal?

No ménage-a-trois. In fact, Jodie and Lindsay's mom were both totally opposed to our liaison.

It was probably my fault. I should never have tried to pass myself off as Walt Disney.

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  • 1 month later...

Spoilers. I saw “Atlas Shrugged” last night on netflix and I liked it. But it was too short! The first few times the actor’s said, “Who is John Galt?” caused a welling up of emotion in me.

The special affects were adequate, though not on a par with Jurassic Park, but what is? Lord of the Rings certainly wasn’t. I thought the affects in AS were far superior to those in the Tudors and Game of Thrones.

Dagny and Hank were portrayed in the right fashion. Hank’s acting was especially good, and Dagny was surprisingly sexy and terrific looking but could gain about ten pounds. Francisco was hidden behind too much hair and had only a few lines to speak.

A person who has not read the book may be asking you to explain things occasionally, so the film may not be a self contained script.

I still hope an HBO type twelve or even twenty four part mini series could be done.

Peter

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I still hope an HBO type twelve or even twenty four part mini series could be done.

Peter

Unlikely.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Project Update #6: A Great Year for the Ideas of Ayn Rand!

Dear Kickstarter Donor,

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated you on “Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand” (IMAR), and if you’ve been wondering if something was going on, you’re right--exciting things!:

As you know, the goal of IMAR is to bring Rand’s extraordinary ideas to a wider public audience. This is also the goal of the movie version of Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged.” The first part of the trilogy was released last year and, as was just announced, Part Two is going into production and is slated for release in the Fall of 2012!

I am very pleased to tell you that I have officially joined the production team of “Atlas Shrugged, Part 2”! My job will be working to help ensure that Rand’s ideas are presented in a dramatic, cinematic and compelling manner. Specifically, the producers commissioned me to draft a screenplay that brings out the crucial themes of Rand’s novel. I have been working on the screenplay for several weeks and I’m happy to report that it will be completed soon. In addition, during the course of production and editing of the film, I will continue in an on-going role that might best be described as creative advisor, although details are still being worked out.

As you can imagine, I’m thrilled to be working on a second project that parallels the goals of “Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand”: to spread the ideas of Ayn Rand, especially at this critical time in our nation’s history.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, my work on the “Atlas Shrugged, Part 2” will delay completion of our documentary. While that does mean waiting longer to see IMAR, new opportunities have opened up for promotion, visibility, financing and other ongoing support that is essential to completing the film. With each release of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy, curiosity about Rand’s ideas is sure to grow. IMAR will be a more detailed and systematic non-fiction examination of the ideas presented in dramatic form in “Atlas”.

Please keep in mind that all first-phase pre-production of “Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand” has been completed. This is the part of this production that you made possible with your Kickstarter donations. Your support helped launch the first film project to present Ayn Rand’s ideas with both an independent and comprehensive approach.

All Kickstarter rewards have been shipped (other than rewards that must wait for the completion of the IMAR film, of course). The single exception is T-shirts. After long negotiations, we were unable to license the key art we planned to use on the shirts. We are already going forward on a new design and look forward to sending out the shirts in the near future.

I thank you once again for believing in what we are doing. I hope you share my excitement that there is now a second way to bring Rand’s ideas to a wide audience--one that that could potentially number in the millions.

“Inside the Mind of Ayn Rand” will move forward to completion as soon as humanly possible. I will continue to keep you updated. Film-making can be a marathon--often a grueling and harrowing one, and I’m honored to have your support through to the finish!

Atlas, Part 2 Link: http://blog.atlasshruggedmovie.com/2012/02/atlas-shrugged-part-2-officially.html

All the best,

Duncan Scott

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It begins...the pre release savaging of Atlas Pt. II...

The first installment of the movie gathered huge advance press because many of America's most prominent businessmen and women are Rand fans.

The above statement is about as ignorant a statement as could possibly be made and without any evidence.

Audiences stayed away in droves. If every Rand fan in the U.S. went to see the movie within the first couple of weeks of its release (when the majority of its box office was earned) it would mean that there are only
392,498 actual Randians
in the country.

There is the alleged "teaser" and an alleged spoof by Second City:

Read more: http://www.businessi...2#ixzz1lp5S7Kor

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  • 1 month later...

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.

Was this Steve's last post?

--Brant

edit: hardly

Edited by Brant Gaede
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