Atlas Shrugged: Part 1

Year: 2011

Grade: C-

Country: USA

Director: Johansson

Review

watched this one out of curiosity since there was a good deal of talk about it from both sides. the conservatives said it was going to be great and was a necessary political philosophy film during an oppressive time. the liberals trashed it as awful and stupid. it wasn’t awful, the production values were actually pretty much on par with a lower level hollywood production. the acting wasn’t very good, but it didn’t fall under the “awful” category. the writing, though, left plenty to be desired. sometimes it was just so transparently preachy that i had to chuckle. look, i know it’s an ayn rand book and that there’s going to be some heavy handed treatment of the individual and the role of government, but it got ridiculous at times. the two main characters would drive to an abandoned factory and the conversation would literally be “well, the management gradually eliminated their best employees by flattening compensation rates thereby drowning out entrepreneurial motives. it’s the way the whole country is going, the new “anti-dog-eat-dog” legislation being just the most recent example of liberal nanny state fascism.” ok, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but you get the point.

all that said, when part 2 comes out ,i’ll watch it. there’s no freaking way i’m reading all 1200 pages of the book just to see what happens. i’ve always thought of rand as a philosophical lightweight. her ideas are pretty simple and simplistic as best i can tell, and this film certainly didn’t elevate her in my eyes.