Impressions on First Seeing the Atlas Shrugged Movie


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Of course, MSK, there is a dash of provocation intentionally thrown in. I admit it. Who hasn't spiced their posts up on OL or any other forum for that matter? Sue me!

One thing I'd like to say is I don't believe that 90% of movie critics have anti-Objectivism agendas.

What percentage of movie critics would you estimate are anti-Rand, and, or Objectivist?

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[...] this is one of the lowest quality movies I have EVER seen in theatres. It has no business playing on the big screen.

I agree that the movie was low quality. I was just glad, as PDS said on one of the movie threads, that it got past the "bar" of being terrible.

But I'd still like to know if you agree with the opening part of the white nationalist review which I posted on the "'Atlas Part 1' Commentaries and Reviews" thread: See.

Ellen

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Eddie Willers, on the other hand, I liked better than the character in the book. I always found Eddie a sore point. He gave me the squirms in the book, with his "Whatever is right" unimaginativeness, his feudal devotion to the railroad and hopeless love for Dagny, his stark, cheerless apartment. The character in the movie seemed to have the stuff to fill the role of Dagny's chief assistant.

Most readers liked Eddie a lot. He's on of my favorite characters in the novel; I found him to be both decent and smart.

Really? (re the "most readers" liking Eddie a lot). Most I've known were bothered by Eddie, including, with some, their fearing that they were only of Eddie stature compared to the other good-person characters.

As for the "Whatever is right", I don't think it has to do with Eddie being unimaginative, but with respect and loyalty to his employer of whose competence he was 100 % convinced.

The quote comes from the childhood description. Eddie was asked -- if I recall correctly, by a minister -- what he wanted to do when he grew up, and he answered, "Whatever is right." I would expect and like to hear a more adventuresome response from a boy his age at the time.

Ellen and Angela,

No reader of Atlas Shrugged whom I have personally known was troubled by Eddie raising a fear that they were of his level of abilities, rather than of the super-high levels of the novel’s leading protagonists. Every reader I knew liked Eddie very much. I wept at Eddie’s final scene in the novel precisely for the reason’s crafted by the author. Early on she had set the stage:

He thought of a summer day when he was ten years old. That day, in a clearing of the woods, the one precious companion of his childhood told him what they would do when they grew up. The words were harsh and glowing, like the sunlight. He listened in admiration and in wonder. When he was asked what he would want to do, he answered at once, “Whatever is right,” and added, “You ought to do something great . . . I mean, the two of us together.” “What?” she asked. He said, “I don’t know. That’s what we ought to find out. Not just what you said. Not just business and earning a living. Things like winning battles, or saving people out of fires, or climbing mountains.” “What for?” she asked. He said, “The minister said last Sunday that we must always reach for the best within us. What do you suppose is the best within us?” “I don’t know.” “We’ll have to find out.” She did not answer; she was looking away, up the railroad track. (6)

The final chapter of the novel is titled “In the Name of the Best within Us.” The Comet stalls in the desert in Arizona. Eddie is on board and has struggled many days to get this run from San Francisco going. “She was the child of his tortured effort to re-establish transcontinental service” (1160). No help to remedy the stalled Comet is coming from the company beyond; the company is evaporating; its personnel are leaving it.

Don’t let it go! his mind was crying. . . .

He was pulling at coils of wire, he was linking them and tearing them apart—while the sudden sense of sunrays and pine trees kept pulling at the corners of his mind. Dagny!—he heard himself crying soundlessly—Dagny, in the name of the best within us! . . . He was jerking at futile levers and at a throttle that had nothing to move. . . . Dagny!—he was crying to a twelve-year-old girl in a sunlit clearing of the woods—in the name of the best within us, I must now start this train! . . . Dagny, that is what it was . . . and you knew it, then, but I didn’t . . . you knew it when you turned to look at the rails. . . . I said, “not business or earning a living” . . . but, Dagny, business and earning a living and that in man which makes it possible—that is the best within us . . . . (1166)

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He thought of a summer day when he was ten years old. That day, in a clearing of the woods, the one precious companion of his childhood told him what they would do when they grew up. The words were harsh and glowing, like the sunlight. He listened in admiration and in wonder. When he was asked what he would want to do, he answered at once, "Whatever is right," and added, "You ought to do something great . . . I mean, the two of us together." "What?" she asked. He said, "I don't know. That's what we ought to find out. Not just what you said. Not just business and earning a living. Things like winning battles, or saving people out of fires, or climbing mountains." "What for?" she asked. He said, "The minister said last Sunday that we must always reach for the best within us. What do you suppose is the best within us?" "I don't know." "We'll have to find out." She did not answer; she was looking away, up the railroad track. (6)

The final chapter of the novel is titled "In the Name of the Best within Us." The Comet stalls in the desert in Arizona. Eddie is on board and has struggled many days to get this run from San Francisco going. "She was the child of his tortured effort to re-establish transcontinental service" (1160). No help to remedy the stalled Comet is coming from the company beyond; the company is evaporating; its personnel are leaving it.

Don't let it go! his mind was crying. . . .

He was pulling at coils of wire, he was linking them and tearing them apart—while the sudden sense of sunrays and pine trees kept pulling at the corners of his mind. Dagny!—he heard himself crying soundlessly—Dagny, in the name of the best within us! . . . He was jerking at futile levers and at a throttle that had nothing to move. . . . Dagny!—he was crying to a twelve-year-old girl in a sunlit clearing of the woods—in the name of the best within us, I must now start this train! . . . Dagny, that is what it was . . . and you knew it, then, but I didn't . . . you knew it when you turned to look at the rails. . . . I said, "not business or earning a living" . . . but, Dagny, business and earning a living and that in man which makes it possible—that is the best within us . . . . (1166)

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Stephen:

Two of my favorite special scenes are in your quotes. I too wept when Eddie's realisation jumped off that page. Furthermore, you make an excellent point about the call to enclaves from the speech.

I think this has begun in society already. I know people who have to one degree or another "gone on strike." I think it is accelerating as we speak.

As usual, thanks for your knowledgeable insights.

Adam

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