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I was wondering if anyone else has seen the film adaptations to Atlas Shrugged?

I recently saw Atlas Shrugged Part 2 in a nearby theater, twice, when it was showing there. I also watched on DVD Atlas Shrugged Part 1. I will be buying both eventually, too.

This topic is all about the movie. I will give my thoughts about them soon.

Here is the movie website:

http://www.atlasshruggedmovie.com/

I plan to re-watch Part 1, then see Part 2. The main actors change, so that could be confusing. Do the movie "parts" line up with the book "parts"? I'd like to be done reading Part 2 before watching part 2, but doubtful at the rate I'm plodding along...

I think the parts from the book, so far, line up well. Cant remember noticing anything that didnt line up. Though lots in each part, were left out, what was kept in each part, did happen in each part, as far as my memory tells me.

I had to get used to the new Dagny, new Rearden, new Eddie Willers, etc. but I did quickly.

Yeah, dont watch it until you have finished Part 2. I will comment on the first part soon, then later discuss the second.

OK, since I have been rereading Atlas Shrugged for the third time now, I noticed that in the film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged Part 2, at the end, they go just a little bit into Part 3 of the book. Like a few pages, if that. Just thought Id tell you.

As far as Atlas Shrugged Part 1 film adaptation, here are my thoughts:

The setting of the film really tries to hit this one home, I think, because it brings the setting more to that of our own times with the year it opens up in is that of 2016. In the film, why the country has to rely on transportation by rail, instead of other means of transportation of material goods as there were other means before when the economy was less regulated by government is shown quickly in the beginning of the film. As the film progresses, it shows what is happening when the prime movers, the industrialists, the inventors, the men of the mind go missing, they disappear from society, just up and leave and what happens further to the economy when there is even more call for governmental intervention into the economy. Political favors, political pull we see in the film is evidently NOT pulling the world through, but pulling it further apart into economic despair.

The way Dagny dresses is attractive, her figure is shown in the way the business suits are tailored or fit to her slenderness, her lipstick matches, goes well with what she wears. She is very attractive. To me. Definitely. Both mind and in body. Boy would I like to see her as a huge celebrity in all those People magazines and other such magazines for this role she played, but I don’t think the cultural barometer could handle all her hotness anyways… heck, what am I saying - they wouldn’t even be able to recognize such hotness if it burned them.

At the end of the film, John Galt (who remains in dark clothing, face not shown) we can hear him speaking to Wyatt, explicitly mentioning morality and Atlantis, which he says is a place where you have the ‘moral right to your own life’, a place where those that want to be heroes live, that has a limited government. So what that place sounds just like, to me, is laissez-faire capitalism, the only system that respects, recognizes upholds protects that moral right. He says it respects each of us as individuals, individual achievement, which means respects individualism in that society they call Atlantis. Even though he does not mention the ideal political-economic social system, that of laissez-faire capitalism, by name, it focuses on it’s essential purpose and function in practice.

Nice contrasts between characters ethics and such - Lilian’s party, in which Hank really didn’t have anything to celebrate, compared to how much joy, fun, spiritedness all the partiers displayed at the celebration the first train run on Rearden Metal… the contrast between Readen and Lilian in bed and their relationship, to that of Readen’s and Dagny in bed and their relationship. That came across on the screen fairly well, I think.

There are deviations from the book, and the like, but in all, I really don’t care much about that aspect (as others I read have), I only am looking at the positives of the movie, which there is plenty so it’s easy for me at least to overlook certain things and enjoy the movie in and of it itself.


I think an thematic essence, characterization, the philosophical essences (ethical, political-economical) were abstracted just about as well as they could have been, taking into consideration the budget, choice of crew (actors/actresses), the timing (as in the movie rights to Rand‘s Atlas Shrugged were soon to expire), etc.

Part 2 is now available for purchase. I'll be getting it through the videos on my kindle fire hd.