Atlas Shrugged - The Movie

Atlas Shrugged came out today.  This is a movie that I wanted to see.  As I mentioned earlier in the year, I looked forward to it after seeing The Fountainhead, which was Gary Cooper's attempt to do Rand's other major novel.  The other movie was flawed in a number of ways.  Its 1950s style made it hard to watch.  The version of Atlas Shrugged does not suffer from those problems.

Rand is a hard novelist to bring to the screen.  Her novels are long and have preachy sections. Much of her dialogue is serial soliloquies. But this version (which is the first of three) overcomes those issues well without attacking the substance of the book.   The first third begins by introducing the characters and the desperate situation the country faces.  Government of the time wants to control everything.   There is another problem with bringing this story to the screen.  Its main characters are involved in building a railroad in the future. (2016)   That seems a bit odd.

Each of the actors seem to have been chosen carefully.     They work together individually and as an ensemble.  

I was impressed  most with how closely the movie hews to the novel.   What I do not know is whether someone who has not read the book will get the same value out of it that readers will have.

The reviews of the movie have been interesting.  For some reason, many of them have been brimming with vitriol.  For example, Rolling Stone suggests a tie to the Tea Party.   Film School Rejects calls it "profoundly bad film making."   The Hartford Courant begins with "If you share my embarrassing adolescent affection for Ayn Rand, you may be wondering how a novel about a railroad can be made into a non-costume drama in 2011."  

We saw the movie at a 7:15 showing and the theater was pretty full and the crowd responsive.   I look forward to parts two and three.