![]() Taylor Schilling is hopelessly out of her element in the central role and she is ill-supported by the remainder of the cast. The cast is a wash-out with an array of unknowns and barely familiar faces trying to invest some degree of passion or emotion into the proceedings to little success. The film looks suspiciously like a made for TV movie, but made on the cheap. Whereas we are currently looking at a corrupt government weakened by corporate brown-nosers answering to the highest business bidder, Atlas Shrugged seems to present such a thing as a utopia. The film fails to mention anything about such modern conveniences as the internet and mentions nothing about the progress of other industrialized nations. The lunacy the film spouts about regulation and Big Government is pure hilarity considering that regulation has become progressively extinct in the US since the 1980s and it has proved to be to the detriment of the country not to its success. The fact that so much of the story depends on the success of high speed rail transit is ironic considering that conservatives, libertarians and Randians alike are currently trying to throw assorted obstacles into the path of such a plan currently being developed. The story is purportedly set in the near future, but it is utterly laughable because it seems to exist in a hermetic bubble that has no relation to the world we actually live in. Anyone who disagrees with Dagny and Hank are depicted as either weaklings, villains or preferably both. The story is pretty much a bunch of nonsense about uncompromising glacial blond Dagny Taggart teaming with Hank Reardon to build a new high speed rail system in the US against the obstacles placed there by the villainous government regulations. I find it deeply disturbing that anyone finds this lunacy a blue print for society. If I am incorrect about the Rand philosophy, then blame the film as those I went with came away with the same impression. It only took him a moment to convey it, whereas it takes Atlas Shrugged the entire film (plus a projected two more) to convey the exact same message. I believe Michael Douglas encapsulated this in a memorable speech back in 1987s Wall Street. If I understand the gist of the Rand philosophy embodied in Atlas Shrugged, it seems to be that personal self-aggrandizement, selfishness and greed are the most important aspects of society and should be encouraged, while the average working man is so much forgettable dross to be dismissed and trod over. I cannot attest to how faithful this film remains to the source novel, but I can attest to the fact that it is an utterly deadening, mind-numbing and thoroughly unenjoyable viewing experience. I am aware that there are a number of people who cite her novel Atlas Shrugged as a life-changing blue print for living and society and others who dismiss it as complete bilge with incredibly destructive properties. I went into this film as a blank slate - someone completely unfamiliar with Ayn Rand and her philosophy. Hell, it might even make you want to pick up the book and give it a read. ![]() I'm not saying not to see it, just avoid the mistake I made. Now, don't mistake me for one of those people who feel the subject matter of the book is too didactic for mass appeal, I just think this low-budget and amateur version lacks the fire and fury that Rand's novel deserves. The problem is the film is shot like a PBS made-for-TV movie (mainly a series of talking heads) and the stiff dialog is lifelessly delivered by TV actors that lack big screen presence. Don't get me wrong, the film covers a lot of ground, in fact it's front-loaded with heavy doses of exposition. ![]() Almost none of this is covered in this first part of the trilogy. ![]() I have to admit that it's been years since I read the book (required high school reading) and while I struggled to get through it, I did appreciate the concepts of a dystopian United States, the philosophy of Objectivism and the idea that civilization and society simply cannot continue to exist where there is no creativity. ![]()
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