Cinema

Atlas Shrugged

POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Thursday, May 19, 2011 23:22
VIEWED: 8275
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PIRATENEWS

Sunday, March 20, 2011 10:35 PM

Reason.tv presents exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage of the movie adaption of part I of Ayn Rand's epic and hugely influential novel, Atlas Shrugged, which tells the story of a United States crumbling under the weight of government intervention and the "men of the mind" who fight against their collectivist exploiters.

This sneak peek offers a glimpse into the post-production process as well as portions of a never-before-viewed scene from the movie.

***SPOILER ALERT*** This video contains portions of a scene and actors discussing the actions of their characters.

This pivotal scene features James Taggart (played by Matthew Marsden, Black Hawk Down, Transformers), the weak-willed, conniving brother of the film's heroine, Dagny Taggart, as he conspires with the likes of corrupt lobbyist Wesley Mouch (Michael Lerner, A Serious Man, Barton Fink), shady businessmen Orren Boyle (Jon Polito, Miller's Crossing), and Paul Larkin (Patrick Fishler, Lost, Southland), to bring down the successful steel magnate Hank Rearden. They view Rearden's supposed threat of monopoly over the steel and railroad industries as on obstacle in the path to success for wealthy playboy Francisco D'Aconia, with whom they're investing their money, though James Taggart is suspicious (perhaps rightly so) of D'Aconia's trustworthiness and business acumen.

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 hits theaters April 15 (April Fools Day).

Produced by Hawk Jensen and Ted Balaker. Camera by Alex Manning and Jensen, who also edited.

Special thanks to Harmon Kaslow, Mike Marvin, and John Orland.

Approximately 2.5 minutes.

To see our exclusive behind interview with the producer and screenwriter of Atlas Shrugged Part 1 go to:

To see all our Ayn Rand videos go to:
youtube.com/user/ReasonTV#grid/user/5DD8AB31C88BE88D.

To see the original Atlas Shrugged Trailer go to:
http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/

Go to http://reason.tv for HD, iPod, and audio download versions of this and all our videos and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

WHOZIT

Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:15 PM

Rand is a hero to the right and "Atlas Shrugged" besides being pure right-wing porn is her greatest work. This book was writen in 1957, hard to belive it took 54 years to make it to the big screen. My guess is it'll be trashed by every left-wing critic and pundit, I bet Rodger Ebert and Ed Shultz have already written their negative reviews, even though I'll bet they haven't seen it yet.

PIRATENEWS

Monday, March 21, 2011 4:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:

Rand is a hero to the right and "Atlas Shrugged" besides being pure right-wing porn is her greatest work. This book was writen in 1957, hard to belive it took 54 years to make it to the big screen. My guess is it'll be trashed by every left-wing critic and pundit, I bet Rodger Ebert and Ed Shultz have already written their negative reviews, even though I'll bet they haven't seen it yet.

My understanding is Rand is a fascist psycho selling anarchy for the New World Order. Many would-be fascists fell into the trap of backing the shadow world govt of the Kosher Nostra banksters that now own the planet and all govts via their private "govt" bank countefeiting and income tax scams. Some knew about the Ponzi scheme, but I don't know if Rand was one of theme, or just another Useful Idiot.

So is Atlas propaganda placement, or a useful warning to awaken the idiots? Didn't her psychotic hero end up promoting false-flag terrorism and eugenics to wipe out the human race, like that's a good thing?

Or has this script been tweaked to eliminate that idea from the minds of the sheeple?

The NWO loves to tell the sheeple exactly how they are going to be sheared next, like X-Files Lone Gunmen simulated the Real World Operation Northwoods, of CIA hijacking an airliner by remote control to crash it into the World Trade Center in a false flag attack to start a war...6 months before 9/11/2001.

This technique is like "constructive notice" of litigation like bankruptcies and foreclosures you see every day in the newspaper. An adhesion contract with the masses -- if you don't object, the contract becomes accepted for enforcement...even when it kills you.

AURAPTOR

Sunday, May 15, 2011 9:48 PM

Well, I finally saw it. It was decent. Not great, by any stretch, but watchable.

The +'s are, it was absolutely on message. Even if those totally unfamiliar w/ what that message was, I think it did a good job in at least that part.

Possibly too good ? And by that, I mean there was little in the way of entertainment. It came off as sort of 'dry'. And I know this isn't your typical sort of movie, that it's SUPPOSE to be all real worldly and such... but a little clever script tinkering, here or there, wouldn't have hurt, imo.

It was a low budget film, I get that. There are no significant FX. No giant title waves swallowing NYC, no F5 tornadoes taking down sky scrapers... so 'The Day After Tomorrow' wins that category, at least.

Low budget, but a lot of recognizable faces. Is 'character actor' demeaning ? I don't know, but lots of folks I'd seen pop up, here or there, as supporting cast, what ever. So there was decent talent, at least.

Armin Shimerman is an Whedon alum ( Principal Snyder from Buffy ) as is Patrick Fischler ( Angel ). I enjoyed seeing both again. There may have been others...

Anyway, apart from the so-so movie experience , it was amazing at how well the story depicted the Statist mindset, and how mis / disinformation gets spread via a compliant media. Absolutely mirroring what goes on in the real world today.

If the movie is a C, then the message is a solid A.

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

DREAMTROVE

Monday, May 16, 2011 12:09 AM

Thanks for the reviews. Maybe I'll take a look. I have a limited tolerance for Rand who I think is a destructive force overall, but had a few good ideas. An on message story will perhaps give me a quick straightforward delivery of those ideas.

I agree with her on the rejection of collectivism, but I think her followers tend to reject cooperation to such an extent that no collaboration towards anything, even the formation of a functional corporation, is possible.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

KWICKO

Monday, May 16, 2011 12:12 AM

Don't hold your breath waiting for Parts II & III - the producer says he's "on strike" and not doing anymore movies - also known as taking his ball and going home.

AURAPTOR

Monday, May 16, 2011 12:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Don't hold your breath waiting for Parts II & III - the producer says he's "on strike" and not doing anymore movies - also known as taking his ball and going home.

“Atlas Shrugged” producer: Okay, we’ll make parts two and three

The man who says he spent $10 million of his own money to bring Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 to the big screen vowed Wednesday to go through with his plans to make the next two installments, even though critics hate the movie and business at movie theaters has fallen off a cliff…

“It was a nihilistic craze,” Aglialoro said. “Not in the history of Hollywood has 16 reviewers said the same low things about a movie.
“They’re lemmings,” he said. “What’s their fear of Ayn Rand? They hate this woman. They hate individualism.

“I’m going to get a picture of Ebert and Travers and the rest of them so I can wake up in the morning and they’ll be right there. They’re revitalizing me with their outrageousness.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/atlas-shrugged-producer-promises
-two-182714

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

AURAPTOR

Monday, May 16, 2011 12:43 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Thanks for the reviews. Maybe I'll take a look. I have a limited tolerance for Rand who I think is a destructive force overall, but had a few good ideas. An on message story will perhaps give me a quick straightforward delivery of those ideas.

I agree with her on the rejection of collectivism, but I think her followers tend to reject cooperation to such an extent that no collaboration towards anything, even the formation of a functional corporation, is possible.

There's a part in the movie which is particularly prophetic, as it mirrors damn near EXACTLY what's going on in the real world, right now.

If you've followed the latest news on Boeing opening up another production plant in South Carolina, and the National Labor Relations Board taking steps to block Boeing, AFTER the plant has already been built ... you'll say " how the fuck did they know this would happen when they made this movie ??? "

Or better still, how did Rand know this would happen, over 50 YEARS ago ??

That'll bake your noodle.

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

KWICKO

Monday, May 16, 2011 3:25 AM

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/atlas_shrugged_producer_s
hrugs.html

Quote:
"Critics, you won," John Aglialoro told the L.A. Times. "I'm having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2." The businessman invested $20 million of his own fortune to make the critically derided feature, but, "Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?" Aglialoro asked. "I'll make my money back and I'll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do two? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/04/atlas-shrugged-producer
-critics-you-won-hes-going-on-strike.html

Quote:
Aglialoro attributed the box office drop-off to "Atlas Shrugged's" poor reviews. Only one major critic -- Kyle Smith of the New York Post -- gave "Atlas" a mixed-to-positive review, calling the film "more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item." The movie has a dismal 7% fresh rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes thanks to critics like the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips, who said "Atlas" is "crushingly ordinary in every way." Roger Ebert called the film "the most anticlimactic non-event since Geraldo Rivera broke into Al Capone’s vault," while Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said the movie "sits there flapping on screen like a bludgeoned seal."

"The New York Times gave us the most hateful review of all," said Aglialoro, who also has a writing credit on the movie. "They didn’t cover it."

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/05/02/atlas-shrugged-pr
oducer-comes-crawling-back-to-hollywood

Quote:
It was just a terrible weekend to be a conservative: The Atlas Shrugged movie pulled in a meager $468,573 at the box office. This means the film has made $3,947,827 in its three weeks in wide release. Again, it cost an estimated 20 million dollars to make and market. Quick, somebody figure out how many DVDs they'd have to sell in order to turn a profit!

The Wall Street Journal interviewed the film's producer, John Aglialoro about his hopes that Hollywood will now want to partner in making the second part of a projected trilogy whose first film is a remarkable failure:

As for making second and third installments of “Atlas Shrugged,” Aglialoro said he wouldn’t proceed until he had a more extensive marketing plan in place.

Ideally, he would also like to partner with Hollywood for the next go-around. “It’s my hope that some of the major studios will believe that this is not just a movie and it’s over. I’m open to making a deal with a major studio. I don’t want to fight them. I want to join them,” he said.

He said he’d be open to doing another $10 million independent production. “But wouldn’t it be nice to do a $50 million movie? And now the studios have a laboratory in part 1.”

This is the same guy who said he was considering going on strike and not make any more Atlas Shrugged movies because the critics hurt his feelings. Good lord, this is so much fun to watch. I mean, I knew the movie would flop, but who knew the action of flopping would take so long or be so enjoyable?

What was it Ayn Rand said about throwing your own money away trying to get people to like you?

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

DREAMTROVE

Monday, May 16, 2011 10:16 AM

Oh now this is just funny. I'm sorry, you both should be able to see just the ironic humor of the situation: An Ayn Rand'er refusing to cooperate with others in a collaborative manner to make Ayn Rand films.

ETA:

Quote:
And he defended his film Wednesday by accusing professional film reviewers of political bias. How else, he asks, to explain their distaste for a film that is liked by the audience? At Rottentomatoes.com, 7,400 people gave it an average 85% score.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlas_shrugged_part_i/
13%:81%? He has a point.

Applying that idea, about schmidt, bridge to terabithia, Analyze This. Okay, he's hitting 100% here. I'm going to guess critics liked Sideways more than the audience did as well... WTF? 97%. This film was unwatchably bad.

Now apply that in the other direction "Films that lean right" and see if the audience likes it more than the critics. The island, serenity, Priest I haven't seen, but I can guess, yep. Okay. He definitely has a point. I'll have to see the movie.

I'm curious as to people's thoughts on Good Will Hunting.

I'm sad to see the concept of "critics" return, the old media is invading the new media. I suggest we kill it swiftly and painfully.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.