"Atlas Shrugged--" has anyone seen it?

[User1626]

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Ayn Rand, this movie looks like a preachy suck-fest, and I'm wondering if anyone's seen it.
If so, what are your thoughts?

[Mr. Oragahn]

If there's something that's really a suck-fest, preachy, and all for the wrong reasons, it's probably that un.think.able flick.

[sonofccn]

I have and in likely an anomoly for this board I actually enjoyed it. What can I say I'm a sucker for a love story directed at raw naked capitalism.

[2046]

It couldn't possibly live up to the book, and there were many missed opportunities along the way . . . it was a rush job due to some contractual nonsense, after all.

For example, at one point I thought I saw an Oldsmobile and a Pontiac on the screen and thought for an instant that the director had brilliantly been using dead brands to make a social comment about government motors, but then I saw Toyotas and whatnot and realized there was nothing going on at all.

I had a low expectation of most of the actors, but they generally availed themselves well. Dagny was a very pleasant surprise, for instance.

The Rearden headquarters set design was rather jarring. I never imagined Rearden as one to waste so much money on techno-foo-foo lighting and silly design and whatnot. I would've figured his tastes to be more middle-of-the-road, with the ostentatious nonsense of his home being foisted upon him by his wife and his office (and self) being more plain and direct in purpose.

All of the above having been said, it was worth the price of admission to see the gleaming Rearden metal on the screen. Also, a man's wife was sufficiently engaged in the story that she was crying at the end of it, so it was not without its successes, but it could've been so much more.

[User1632]

I have and in likely an anomoly for this board I actually enjoyed it. What can I say I'm a sucker for a love story directed at raw naked capitalism.

Oh yeah right, if there's one thing which was driven by raw naked capitalism with absolutely no interference on its behalf by the government, it's the railroad-industry... just like all female captains of industry are spankable uber-babes.
What the hell was Ayn Rand smoking, besides Camel unfiltered's with extra tar?

Also, railroads are a general anachronism today, which few people even think about other than when it delays their daily commute at crossings; if these guys really wanted to make the story relevant in the movie, they'd have updated the story to pertain to superspeed bullet-trains, and the Rearden-metal to some super-conducting mag-lev substance. This would also help distance it from the legacy of the American railroad, which has such a bad name that it even made Jesse James a hero in some films.

But perhaps it's more telling as is, since this underlies the hypocrisy behind Ayn Rand's brand of "capitalism--" which is what she believed existed in Czarist Russia before Bolshevism; in other words, she agreed with Marx's definition of Capitalism, but believed that's how it should be; i.e. she believed in Social Darwinism, claiming that the fittest earned their survival, and that Scrooge was right in "letting the poor die, and decrease the surplus population--" vs. the reality that the upper classes in feudal countries didn't "earn" squat, and that a truly free market generally equalizes incomes and productivity on average, rather than stratifying them, via removing artificial barriers to the marketplace (which is the real secret of elite success of the super-rich).

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good-- just like up, for lack of a better word, is red."

[sonofccn]

I have and in likely an anomoly for this board I actually enjoyed it. What can I say I'm a sucker for a love story directed at raw naked capitalism.

Oh yeah right, if there's one thing which was driven by raw naked capitalism with absolutely no interference on its behalf by the government, it's the railroad-industry... just like all female captains of industry are spankable uber-babes.
What the hell was Ayn Rand smoking, besides Camel unfiltered's with extra tar?

Also, railroads are a general anachronism today, which few people even think about other than when it delays their daily commute at crossings; if these guys really wanted to make the story relevant in the movie, they'd have updated the story to pertain to superspeed bullet-trains, and the Rearden-metal to some super-conducting mag-lev substance. This would also help distance it from the legacy of the American railroad, which has such a bad name that it even made Jesse James a hero in some films.

But perhaps it's more telling as is, since this underlies the hypocrisy behind Ayn Rand's brand of "capitalism--" which is what she believed existed in Czarist Russia before Bolshevism; in other words, she agreed with Marx's definition of Capitalism, but believed that's how it should be; i.e. she believed in Social Darwinism, claiming that the fittest earned their survival, and that Scrooge was right in "letting the poor die, and decrease the surplus population--" vs. the reality that the upper classes in feudal countries didn't "earn" squat, and that a truly free market generally equalizes incomes and productivity on average, rather than stratifying them, via removing artificial barriers to the marketplace (which is the real secret of elite success of the super-rich).

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good-- just like up, for lack of a better word, is red."

You didn't like it. That's fine, I did and do agree with her that capitalism not misplaced guilt are the answer to our woes.

For example, at one point I thought I saw an Oldsmobile and a Pontiac on the screen and thought for an instant that the director had brilliantly been using dead brands to make a social comment about government motors, but then I saw Toyotas and whatnot and realized there was nothing going on at all.

I think you might be over anaylising it. :)

What's next Rearden metal versus Durasteel, which is the ultimate techno-metal? ;)

Through it would have been neat if they did that, and someone told me about it since I'm always clueless about such things.