Movie reviews, Atlas Shrugged, pt 1, and Tin Tin

[Xavier_Onassis]

I rented "Atlas Shrugged, part 1" by Ayn Rand from Netflix and watched it over the weekend.

The acting is good, the casting was pretty good, the sets and effects were all quite well done. The dialog often sucked. Rand's characters are essentially cardboard cutouts that preach the virtues of selfishness in the novel, and they often do this in the film.

When one character says "My self-interest and your self interest are in harmony", it is rather like some character saying "I have placed my life in the hands of my Lord and King Jesus Christ". It is sure to please believers and just as sure to grate on the ears of non-believers. The government officials and their actions are the goofiest of all.

It was worth watching, but not nearly as entertaining as the film "The Passion of Ay Rand", which was NOT approved by the Ay Rand Institute, but has Helen Mirren in the lead role and quite interesting.

I also got a free pass to preview "Tin Tin", which was sort of a cross between live action and cartoon in 3D and quite effective and entertaining. The plot was pure Tin Tin, if you are familiar with that famous cartoon series drawn and written by Belgian cartoonist Hervé. A lot of visual gags and action and really interesting scenery in Europe, North Africa and on the high seas.

[Plane]

....................The government officials and their actions are the goofiest of all.

   Realistic then?

[Xavier_Onassis]

No, not realistic at all. Just dumb, like those Mission Impossible episodes of the '60's in which the enemy is something called the Central European Socialist Republic.

At one point, they mention that Colorado is the most prosperous state.
Then the government passes a law to make all the poorer surrounding states equal, which would logically require making all states that border on a neighboring state equal.  How could any law make every state in the country equal? Equal in what? Could they pass a law declaring that by law Delaware would have as much oil as Oklahoma?

At another point, the surrounding states pass laws forbidding the John Galt Line from entering any of the five surrounding states. if you look at a map of Colorado it is rather difficult to see exactly where the line was going that it crossed into all the five surrounding states. And there is some national agency called the State Science Something that prohibits the use of Reardon Metal. The government in the film is more like that of some wacko Science Fiction movie than reality.

You can make up convincing lies and unconvincing one. the plot of this film (and Atlas Shrugged itself) is of the unconvincing sort. Ayn Rand did not understand this country.

As I pointed out earlier, she preached the glories of capitalism but never invested in anything but a savings bank passbook. When she got cancer from smoking those special cigarettes with the dollar sign on them, she signed up for Medicare under the name Mrs Frank O'Connor, and the taxpayers paid to cure her.'

Just watch the thing yourself. The director deserves credit for a professional job at making it a high quality production with regard to sound,  visuals, set and wardrobe. the acting is pretty good as well. It was the novel itself, which is hopelessly dated that is the major problem.

This is Part One, so John Galt does not even show his face. It will be interesting to see how they handle John Galt's 'immensely long speech. It would be harder than putting a Bollywood dance number in the middle of Casablanca. But I don't know that Part Two will ever be made. I don't think Part I make a lot of money, and they may have to wait for DVD's to pay for the second part.

 

[Plane]

  The Government passing tax laws that produce a diffrential effect on diffrent states is totally believable.

    The government subsidiseing an industry and handicapping its competition isn't hard to swallow either.

    Did the government in this  movie, do something that our government doesn't?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Pretty much everything that the evil government in this film does is unconstitutional and has never been done or even proposed in this country. Watch the film and you will see what I mean. I'd say rent it. There is a director's track. There is also a section where a huge number of volunteers who are not John Galt tell us that they are all John Galt. I am afraid I did not see all of that.

Of course, the entire concept that the economic well-being of the US could ever depend on one railroad in Colorado is bogus. Not in 1950, and certainly not in 2016, when the director chose to place the action.

I read that at some point Rand was invited to ride in the locomotive of a New York Central train, and at some other time found a  trip through Colorado to be impressive. So that is where she puts the John Galt line and where Galt goes on strike and lives in his Gulch.

Dagny Taggart actually names the John Galt Line without even knowing who the poo John Galt is. The whole idea that everyone would run about saying "Who is John Galt?" in response to WTF in rhetorical quedstion form is pretty unlikely. maybe Russians might do this

One little-known fact is that Rand was bogged down while writing Atlas Shrugged and only managed to finish it with the aid of Benzedrine tablets. She forced poor hubby Frank to sell his beloved estate where all his gardens were and move to NYC where he could not even find a job as a florist. The next owners of their estate found the kitchen to be filled with Chinese take-out debris. They made a lot when they sold out, but it was worth many times what they would have made had they kept it.

Atlas Shrugged is far too long, the characters are one-dimensional cartoon types: all are either angelic Libertarians or Satanic thieves. Steinbeck she was not. Her absolute best work is We the Living.

Like The Lord of the Rings, reading a 1200 page novel is a bit of a challenge, like hiking the entire Appalachian Trail or walking the Camino de Santiago.