Atlas Shrugged: movie any good?

Started by cockpitbob, March 27, 2016, 11:28:00 AM

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cockpitbob

A bit off topic, but I'm sure some people here know what I'm looking for. 
I must live under a rock because I just discovered they made a movie out of Atlas Shrugged (3 movies actually).  Amazon has the trilogy of DVDs for $24 which is almost what it would cost me to rent.  So, is it any good?  Did they do the book justice?  The reviews are generally good, but I think that anyone that can make it through the book will probably have a positive bias towards the movie.

gil

I saw the first two and liked them, more for the message than the cinematic value. I did read the book twice... They are worth watching for sure even though they won't win an Oscar. The films are pretty true to the book, as much as one can cram 1100 pages in a few hours. I need to find the third one!

Gil

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cockpitbob

That's good to hear they followed the book.  Last night me and my boys watched The Scorch Trials (2nd in the Maze Runner series) (targeted towards teens) and it had so little to do with the book it was astonishing.

I can't imagine how you read the book twice, but then, I'm a slow reader.

gil

The first time was for a college class.. Had a test on it Monday morning, but Saturday at noon I still had 620 pages to read. I did not sleep at all but finished it on time!

Gil.

cockpitbob

OK, I have to ask.  In this world of hyper political correctness, safe spaces and cry-bullies on campus, where were you, and what class was it that even allowed something by Ayn Rand???

gil

LOL, it was in Sarasota Florida, around 1997 maybe. The philosophy teacher there was doing a great job, opened my eyes to a few things.. I don't know how he got away with it. He never made any political statements, but Rand was required reading and he clearly agreed with Objectivism. If only there was more like him in academia! Especially here in France, I feel like I am talking to members of a weird cult here when debating politics...

Gil

Jimbiram

As an avid fan of the book, I was excited when the movies were announced.  But I was disappointed with the production of each movie since they did follow the book so closely, with the stilted language that is in the book.  But if one has read the book, you can keep up with what goes on, but for non-readers, it was difficult to follow the entire movie and certain scenes.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed them but was disappointed at the same time.  The actors changed from film to film which didn't help with consistency either.  Buy the films for your collection and watch them with non readers so you can translate.


Every Day is a Good Day Surfing...Some are just Better Than Others

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gil

I am watching the third one now. The acting is second grade and the music over the top. The message is there. As Jim says, dialogues are too close to the book. Yet the movie, all three have merit. They were done on a small budget and represent the only films on what might be the most important ideas in our times.

Gil

RadioRay

#8
I found the first movie to be quite good, especially the  'physical type' of the two main actors.  Dagny and The Engineer were excellent choices.



The Second movie was OK, the third seemed to me like one of those - 'God, let me finish this LAST sequel before I leap off of a bridge and just end it all' kind of dull, dry acting.

However, the message was consistent with the idea of a government generated, parasitic society, using the few , remaining productive people as a 'host'.  In this light - 'we have arrived' , only the degree of open exploitation of the 'builders' is not a obvious to perhaps, half of us who design and produce actaul, practical improvements , though that is changing. 

I see the initial indications of change in the wind - a correction - painful- but entirely necessary.


>RadioRay  ..._  ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

cockpitbob

I just ordered the trilogy from Amazon.  10 hours of movies will take me some time to get through, but I'm up to it ;)

cockpitbob

Trilogy of DVDs arrived.  But for the nrxt 3 days I'm stuck in a beach rental house with 14 inlaws celebrating my mother in-law's 80th birthday.  "Beach house" sounds nice, but it's in Gloucester, MA where it will be in the 20s tomorrow night.  Oh well.  Dagny will just have to wait.

cockpitbob


I can't believe I bought the movie(s) 3 months ago and am just now watching them.  I almost finished the 2nd disk last night.

I always have a problem forming an opinion on movies where I've read the book first.  I spend a lot of time thinking that people who haven't read the book wouldn't get much out of a lot of scenes that I fully understood.  So far, not bad.  It gets the message across without being preachy.  I think I liked the actors in disk-1 better than disk-2.

cockpitbob

#12
I finally finished the last disk in the trilogy last night.  It's really strange to watch a trilogy movie where the actors are different in each of the 3 ???
Definitely a low budget set of productions, but as others have said here, they stayed pretty true to the book and the message came across fairly clearly. 

Watching it now feels timely with England voting to leave the E.U.,voting out their Prime Minister and Trump{insert slightly scared emoji here} having a chance at being our president.  There's some momentum away from globalism :)

Edit:  forgot to mention I was pleasantly surprised to see several big conservative names doing cameos in the movie:  Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, some of the Fox News panelists.

2nd Edit:  Forgot to mention that in part-2, Ray Teller (the silent partner in Penn and Teller) had a brief speaking role.  Yeah, I now know what his voice sounds like.

gil

QuoteEdit:  forgot to mention I was pleasantly surprised to see several big conservative names doing cameos in the movie:  Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, some of the Fox News panelists.

Wow, I didn't see that.. It should be required watching for all high school students!

Gil.