Atlas Shrugged Movie

[Purple]

I might remember wrong but was Bioshock not actually about: Spoiler

Objectivism can work on a state level but Andrew Ryan did not really believed in it and started nationalizing stuff for his own gain sparking a civil war.

I really got the feeling that it all worked but that he was the one rotten thing all along.

[Mayabird]

To be honest, the cinematography does not look that bad. It might even be a decent movie if they do not closely follow the retarded subject matter (but I guess they do). And long speeches are not that bad when done in the right way.

So I think this will be a technically proficient movie which will be doomed by the illogical story.

So, possibly like what I was saying about the trailer? Technically proficient, but forgetting the most important part which is that people are supposed to want to watch it? Though I don't know enough [read: anything] about the theory of making trailers so I wouldn't know if it was technically made up to spec or not.

As for why they chose the current day - because the movie audience they aim for does not care about the fifties.

Old teabaggers? But I'm being redundant.

[Thanas]

So, possibly like what I was saying about the trailer? Technically proficient, but forgetting the most important part which is that people are supposed to want to watch it? Though I don't know enough [read: anything] about the theory of making trailers so I wouldn't know if it was technically made up to spec or not.

Yeah. I was agreeing with you there, but the trailer was really beatifully shot so if I knew nothing about the subject matter, at least I would consider watching it or finding out more about it. But then I like heavy, drawn-out stuff, so I do not want to overly generalize from one example (me).

[open_sketchbook]

I might remember wrong but was Bioshock not actually about: Spoiler

Objectivism can work on a state level but Andrew Ryan did not really believed in it and started nationalizing stuff for his own gain sparking a civil war.

I really got the feeling that it all worked but that he was the one rotten thing all along.

Spoiler

Not really, the society of Rapture was completely instable. The society was already breaking down before everything really went to shit with the splicing. The only way Ryan could prevent Rapture from ceasing to be a functioning society was to violently enforce his vision; in other words, his Objectivist utopia could only either collapse or cease to be Objectivist. It couldn't stay the same.

[takemeout_totheblack]

I just had a terrifying thought.
Luckily for the collective soul of society the edicts of Objectivism were limited by the door-stopper nature of the books and bland writing of Ayn Rand, but now it has been translated into movie form pretty much any retard with a severe case of Unwarranted Self Importance may well become a Randroid! Hell, this movie will probably get rave reviews from Fox News, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; that's something like 50 million idiots exposed within a small amount of time! Randian supported egotism could very well become pandemic!

...Or it could be a laughable flop everybody looks on with (more) contempt. My mind just goes to dark places, you know?

[Purple]

In a world where everyone is a selfish socyopath... at last I shall not be alone. This said I am also a devout communist and find no problems in reconciling these two positions so that might just be me being overly poetic.

[CaptJodan]

<Rant>

Just as I was reading this, a friend of mine IMed me with news of reading up on Rand's latest book, and geeking out over the fact that this movie was coming out. At the moment, we're in a debate about the "benefits" of Randian philosophy.

Holy shit. I don't know how to debate people like this. It seems like a form of a modern day "survival of the fittest" where these people are literally willing to allow others to die or be harmed in exchange for a warped sense of "those in power deserve to be there and do whatever the fuck they want until you take power from them" or some shit. I don't think there's a reasoned argument at all that this person would even accept, and it's maddening.

</rant>

The trailer made very little sense to me, though I'm sure it follows Randian philosophy close enough that by the end of it, I'd have to punch people in the face. Something about the train and steel industries getting together to become more powerful and to avoid government oversight and control or something? It wouldn't look interesting even if it wasn't a warped philosophy.

[Vympel]

Just as I was reading this, a friend of mine IMed me with news of reading up on Rand's latest book,

Do people use the phrase "latest book" in relation to an author who is long dead?

[adam_grif]

I don't think there's a reasoned argument at all that this person would even accept, and it's maddening.

Fundamental differences in basic philosophical ideals leads to irreconcilable differences in worldview. Not everybody shares the same postulates, and you can never demonstrate that your postulates are correct. This becomes more apparent when you venture further from the philosophical and political echochamber that is SDN.

Do people use the phrase "latest book" in relation to an author who is long dead?

Evil of that magnitude cannot be destroyed, only contained.

[Big Orange]

I might remember wrong but was Bioshock not actually about: Spoiler

Objectivism can work on a state level but Andrew Ryan did not really believed in it and started nationalizing stuff for his own gain sparking a civil war.

I really got the feeling that it all worked but that he was the one rotten thing all along.

Spoiler

Not really, the society of Rapture was completely instable. The society was already breaking down before everything really went to shit with the splicing. The only way Ryan could prevent Rapture from ceasing to be a functioning society was to violently enforce his vision; in other words, his Objectivist utopia could only either collapse or cease to be Objectivist. It couldn't stay the same.

Spoiler

Objectivism in Rapture meant that under Andrew Ryan, all the facilities and services were run on the principles of Free Market Capitalism, anybody why tried to get things for free or on welfare were deemed by Andrew Ryan to be "parasites". Soon enough there were a few "haves" and many "have nots" in Rapture, and the "have nots" snubbed by Ryan were instead recruited as Fontaine's footsoldiers in his welfare dormitories (that had soup kitchens and beds, alongside armouries) and in BioShock 2 another opportunist, Lamb, had a base of operations in Pauper's Drop.

And the lack of regulation in science had already driven ethics down to rock-bottom in Rapture before it politically/socially collapsed violently. And lack of regulation on the arts led to deranged antics of Sander Cohen.

I wonder why Armin Shimmerman and a few other reasonably good B/C-list character actors wanted to turn up in this stilted, dangerous dreck that hasn't translated to film too well?

[Stofsk]

It's called a paycheck.

[Sriad]

oh HELLL


this is atlas shrugged part one!!!!

theyre making it a a triloogy.

No, they THINK they're making a trilogy.

[Aaron]

It's called a paycheck.

The guy who played Tuvok (Tim Russ?) plays the principal in iCarly, a show aimed at kids and young teens. Why?

He needs to fucking eat.

[adam_grif]

It's called a paycheck.

People ask me why I'm playing in this picture. The answer is simple: Money, dear boy. I'm like a vintage wine. You have to drink me quickly before I turn sour. I'm almost used up now and I can feel the end coming. That's why I'm taking money now. I've got nothing to leave my family but the money I can make from films. Nothing is beneath me if it pays well. I've earned the right to damn well grab whatever I can in the time I've got left.

Regarding Inchon.

I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.

Regarding Jaws: The Revenge.

[Patrick Degan]

Holy shit. I don't know how to debate people like this. It seems like a form of a modern day "survival of the fittest" where these people are literally willing to allow others to die or be harmed in exchange for a warped sense of "those in power deserve to be there and do whatever the fuck they want until you take power from them" or some shit.

You could say something like "Funny, that's just what those French aristocrats all thought before their dates with Mde. Guillotine", but I doubt it would make an impression.

As for the trailer... Nice looking but incoherent. This film will suck worse than The Fountainhead, which pops up every once in a while on TCM.

"There are some questions that have no answer: How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is John Gault? How lame is this movie?"

[Patrick Degan]

I just had a terrifying thought.
Luckily for the collective soul of society the edicts of Objectivism were limited by the door-stopper nature of the books and bland writing of Ayn Rand, but now it has been translated into movie form pretty much any retard with a severe case of Unwarranted Self Importance may well become a Randroid! Hell, this movie will probably get rave reviews from Fox News, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; that's something like 50 million idiots exposed within a small amount of time! Randian supported egotism could very well become pandemic!

...Or it could be a laughable flop everybody looks on with (more) contempt. My mind just goes to dark places, you know?

The latter, I think. This will be a lot like Battlefield Dearth: preaching to the converted and causing everyone else to wonder how they'll ever get back those three hours of their lives.

[Big Orange]

"There are some questions that have no answer: How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is John Gault? How lame is this movie?"

That snooty looking guy in the glasses who said 'Who is John Galt?' is really annoying and I built up a sudden desire to ram his glass tumbler into his face.

Anyhoo, like this crap, Battlefield Earth looked like complete crap in its trailers as well, but at least Battlefield Earth was preaching a ideology, stupid and sometimes dangerous as it is, that only seems to affect a relatively small number of people who choose to be Scientologists and the movie itself was harmless crap along the lines of Street Fighter or Dungeons and Dragons. The crap that Atlas Shrugged peddled was suppsedly taken with deadly seriousness by powerful globalist bankers such as Alan Greenspan, its ideology seems to be a motivation behind American manufacturing slowly and painfully falling on its sword in the last four decades, and motivating the scaling back of public services. A clear detriment to hundreds of millions of people.

[Patrick Degan]

But AS is also preaching to a relatively small congregation. To any moviegoer coming off the street, if this film comes off as a preachy, incomprehensible mess, they're going to walk out wondering how to get their money back. And the producers are counting on this one being the first part of a trilogy, the second two parts will fail or perhaps not even be finished if part one tanks.

[Pelranius]

It would be ironic if the Objectivist organizations went around grovelling for donations to try to get the rest of the trilogy made.

[Vympel]

I wouldn't be surprised at such hypocrisy, given that Ayn Rand herself was taking both social security and medicare under another name (Ann O'Connor). This story was broken just the other day.

[Pelranius]

She probably felt she was entitled to do so because she paid SS taxes, or at least I think she did (did she tell her followers not to, though?)

[Metahive]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Atlas Shrugged that story of various "Übermenschen" feeling not properly appreciated by society and moving all to a super-secret treehouse while also deliberately spoiling the economy for the rest of humanity before they leave? If I indeed recall that correctly doesn't that mean the novel and the movie essentially preach that childish immaturity is fully applaudable? In that case I'm not even surprised that Rand's works are so appealing to a certain demographic.

As for the trailer, holy crap, that's even more disjointed than your average Michael Bay movie. If I had no prior knowledge of Rand or the titular novel I would have been at a complete loss at what the movie is even about.

[Companion Cube]

I like how they've got Armin Shimmerman (who voiced Andrew Ryan in Bioshock) playing a Randian villain in Atlas Shrugged.

[Rye]

I like how they've got Armin Shimmerman (who voiced Andrew Ryan in Bioshock) playing a Randian villain in Atlas Shrugged.

I thought that. A WORM LOOKS UP AND SEES THE FACE OF GOD!

Anyway, I'm going to go against the flow here and say I'm looking forward to it, the cinematography looks nice and I'm interested in having my liberal preconceptions challenged. Ayn Rand was no George Orwell or Alan Moore, but since I've not read the book yet, I'll be open-minded to the film. I'll be interested in how successful the pitch is and how it's accomplished.

I hope the Bioshock movie comes out with the second one. It's slated for 2013, so maybe.

Now, as for whether I'll enter a voluntary exchange of capital to watch it or ignore society's pressure to conform and just download the damn thing in a spirit of total liberation... who can say?

[jollyreaper]

My favorite bit about this movie: Republicans HATE trains. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. It's socialistic and European and gay as fuck. I mean Amtrak, am I right fellas? Fucking National Public Broadcasting of transportation. Fucking trains. But wait, isn't Atlas Shrugged all about trains? Wait, cognitive dissonance. Trains = teh ghey but our hero is making rails for those trains. Cannot reconcile my conflicting views!

That GIF plus your post there equals you treading on very thin ice. -D