Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
02-12-11, 11:22 PM
#26
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
No, in my opinion it doesn't look that bad. Not something I'd go to see but that's more for the content, not the quality. So based on that my opinion is the hate is more geared towards the political nature of the source material. I would not be surprised if most of the more extreme reaction came from people with more left leaning ideologies.
02-12-11, 11:56 PM
#27
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I am a liberal, and that had absolutely nothing to do with why I said it looked bad and will likely bomb. Eric D. had it right.
02-13-11, 12:23 AM
#28
DVD Talk Legend
02-13-11, 12:58 AM
#29
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
Actually, It is nice that we are entitled to our own opinions. I was merely expressing my own feelings on the film.
I meant no harm with my comments.
I meant no harm with my comments.
02-13-11, 02:05 AM
#30
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
No, in my opinion it doesn't look that bad. Not something I'd go to see but that's more for the content, not the quality. So based on that my opinion is the hate is more geared towards the political nature of the source material. I would not be surprised if most of the more extreme reaction came from people with more left leaning ideologies.
02-13-11, 11:54 AM
#33
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
Feels like a TV miniseries...and it bored me as well.
02-13-11, 12:24 PM
#34
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I didn't think it was bad, actually. 
It's gonna bomb ridiculously (too talky for most Americans, regardless of ideology) but I'll check it out.
It's gonna bomb ridiculously (too talky for most Americans, regardless of ideology) but I'll check it out.
02-13-11, 02:09 PM
#35
Moderator
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I'm not sure that college freshmen who have just discovered Libertarianism for the first time is a wide enough audience to sustain three films, but who knows?
02-13-11, 02:24 PM
#36
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Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I was trying to think of what the amateur level on display reminded me of, and I finally remembered: the trailer for The Legend of Simon Conjurer.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gTSl4YJBwIA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But, after watching that trailer, I was surprised by the huge gap in quality of cinematography and production design between that and the trailer for Atlas Shrugged. If Atlas Shrugged can't even manage to look as professional and commercial as The Legend of Simon Conjurer, I doubt any audience - even Rand fans and followers - will care much.
Even if you're a Rand devotee (and I'm fine with that, really), wouldn't you rather have a film that looked like the filmmakers knew what they were doing? This looks like an Asylum knockoff.
Last edited by DonnachaOne; 02-13-11 at 02:33 PM.
02-13-11, 02:35 PM
#37
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Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I was wondering if that was Voight or not...yep...it was....Wow..that...that looked bad.
02-14-11, 01:59 AM
#38
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G9Cz16IxfPE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
02-14-11, 06:48 PM
#41
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
I think the trailer looks no worse than the average Hollywood trailer. As for Rand's ideology, it's repulsive.
02-14-11, 08:31 PM
#42
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Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
Who knows? Maybe Objectivism is the next big Hollywood franchise!
Me, I prefer the movie about Ayn Rand that featured Helen Mirren as Ayn Rand ... getting railed.
Yes, I am attracted to 44-year-old Helen Mirren! So??
Me, I prefer the movie about Ayn Rand that featured Helen Mirren as Ayn Rand ... getting railed.
Yes, I am attracted to 44-year-old Helen Mirren! So??
02-14-11, 08:42 PM
#44
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Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
Sheesh. Consider me an Ayn Rand fan who thinks this looks pretty bad. The actors appear to do a pretty valiant job in something that looks like a cross between a Skinemax flick, the Left Behind series, and a straight-to-video thriller.
The thing is poorly conceived and looks cheaply executed. For one thing, the book is really an artifact of its time and if you're going to bring the plot into the present day, maybe the importance of the choo-choo train to the functioning of the country isn't anywhere near what it was in the 30's-40's when the book is set. Might be a good idea to either actually make it a period piece or put Dagny Taggart in charge of something a little more vital to the modern world to make the stakes equivalent. Watching politicians live, die, and threaten to revoke the constitution over a couple of railroad lines is gonna look pretty stupid in 2011.
I'm kind a sad that the project didn't happen when Angelina Jolie was involved. Apparently they had a pretty decent script written for her to play Dagny in a single movie that by all accounts was a pretty artfully done adaptation. Instead, it looks like the holders of Rand's movie rights (is it still Piekoff??) are just leaping in with a cheap production company to make a quick cash grab off the tea-partiers.
How on earth the ultra-evangelical right-wing tea party has latched onto Ayn Rand who was a pro-abortion, pro drug legalization, atheist is beyond me.
The thing is poorly conceived and looks cheaply executed. For one thing, the book is really an artifact of its time and if you're going to bring the plot into the present day, maybe the importance of the choo-choo train to the functioning of the country isn't anywhere near what it was in the 30's-40's when the book is set. Might be a good idea to either actually make it a period piece or put Dagny Taggart in charge of something a little more vital to the modern world to make the stakes equivalent. Watching politicians live, die, and threaten to revoke the constitution over a couple of railroad lines is gonna look pretty stupid in 2011.
I'm kind a sad that the project didn't happen when Angelina Jolie was involved. Apparently they had a pretty decent script written for her to play Dagny in a single movie that by all accounts was a pretty artfully done adaptation. Instead, it looks like the holders of Rand's movie rights (is it still Piekoff??) are just leaping in with a cheap production company to make a quick cash grab off the tea-partiers.
How on earth the ultra-evangelical right-wing tea party has latched onto Ayn Rand who was a pro-abortion, pro drug legalization, atheist is beyond me.
02-14-11, 08:57 PM
#45
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02-14-11, 09:00 PM
#46
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02-14-11, 09:23 PM
#47
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Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
Sheesh. Consider me an Ayn Rand fan who thinks this looks pretty bad. The actors appear to do a pretty valiant job in something that looks like a cross between a Skinemax flick, the Left Behind series, and a straight-to-video thriller.
The thing is poorly conceived and looks cheaply executed. For one thing, the book is really an artifact of its time and if you're going to bring the plot into the present day, maybe the importance of the choo-choo train to the functioning of the country isn't anywhere near what it was in the 30's-40's when the book is set. Might be a good idea to either actually make it a period piece or put Dagny Taggart in charge of something a little more vital to the modern world to make the stakes equivalent. Watching politicians live, die, and threaten to revoke the constitution over a couple of railroad lines is gonna look pretty stupid in 2011.
I'm kind a sad that the project didn't happen when Angelina Jolie was involved. Apparently they had a pretty decent script written for her to play Dagny in a single movie that by all accounts was a pretty artfully done adaptation. Instead, it looks like the holders of Rand's movie rights (is it still Piekoff??) are just leaping in with a cheap production company to make a quick cash grab off the tea-partiers.
How on earth the ultra-evangelical right-wing tea party has latched onto Ayn Rand who was a pro-abortion, pro drug legalization, atheist is beyond me.
The thing is poorly conceived and looks cheaply executed. For one thing, the book is really an artifact of its time and if you're going to bring the plot into the present day, maybe the importance of the choo-choo train to the functioning of the country isn't anywhere near what it was in the 30's-40's when the book is set. Might be a good idea to either actually make it a period piece or put Dagny Taggart in charge of something a little more vital to the modern world to make the stakes equivalent. Watching politicians live, die, and threaten to revoke the constitution over a couple of railroad lines is gonna look pretty stupid in 2011.
I'm kind a sad that the project didn't happen when Angelina Jolie was involved. Apparently they had a pretty decent script written for her to play Dagny in a single movie that by all accounts was a pretty artfully done adaptation. Instead, it looks like the holders of Rand's movie rights (is it still Piekoff??) are just leaping in with a cheap production company to make a quick cash grab off the tea-partiers.
How on earth the ultra-evangelical right-wing tea party has latched onto Ayn Rand who was a pro-abortion, pro drug legalization, atheist is beyond me.
Good point about this not being a period piece, though. It is going to seem really strange when much of the movie hinges on this massive railroad empire, and it's set in the current era. If they could only scrape up fifteen million dollars to make this, though, the budget probably wouldn't allow for anything else.
I think an interesting film could have been made if this were hyper-stylized, a sort of art-deco fantasia set in an imaginary 1950s, with all kinds of funky buildings and trains and machines. But that would probably require a budget of at least twenty times what they had to work with.
02-14-11, 09:45 PM
#48
Moderator
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
02-14-11, 09:47 PM
#49
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Part One of Planned Trilogy [4-15-11]
But we shouldn't hijack the thread and turn this into a political discussion. Sorry for my part, but that Donahue video got my blood boiling.