Atlas Shrugged: Part 1
Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling), a powerful railroad executive, tries to keep her business afloat while society crumbles around her.
Release Date: April 15, 2011
Runtime: 1 hr 42 min
Genre: Drama
Director: Paul Johansson
Producer: Harmon Kaslow, John Aglialoro
Cast: Jon Polito, Michael Lerner, Michael O'Keefe, Geoff Pierson, Christina Pickles, Paul Johansson, Grant Bowler, Patrick Fischler, Jsu Garcia, Matthew Marsden, Edi Gathegi, Taylor Schilling
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Worth Your Time?
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Reviews
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Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of Atlas Shrugged, the book. So much so that I believe it should be read by every student in high schools world-wide.
When I saw that Atlas Shrugged was being made into a movie, I knew that I'd go see it regardless of how good or bad it turned out to be. I want my money supporting films that promote positive political ideals like individualism, hard-work, competition, and capitalism. Unfortunately for the movie ... it turned out to be "I sat through it despite it being poorly done".
The acting is fine. The production values are good. The story on which the movie is based is great. The movie, however, suffers from bad screenwriting. It's quickly apparent that the writers decided to try to cram everything they could from the first 3rd of this gigantically long book into an hour and forty minutes. The result is a muddled message, a lack of any emotional connection with the characters, and a general sense that you're just watching the "outline" of the real story. Several clear opportunities to push the message of the movie (capitalism = good, socialism = bad) are badly missed and the whole "Who is John Galt?" line is over-played. In the end, I left feeling unfulfilled and wondering how anyone who hadn't read the book could begin to understand what was going on in the movie.
All of that said, I continue to rate this movie as Worth Your Time because we need to support truth and encourage more movies of this type to be made (hopefully a good one next time?). If the screenwriters for Atlas Shrugged had focused on the message first and then picked from the book those pieces that helped build the message into the story, then this movie would have been an A blockbuster. Instead, despite decent acting and high production value, the script just doesn't connect and leaves me wanting.April 16th, 2011 Details -
Finally, something worth watching.
April 15th, 2011 Details -
Only liberals and right brained people would hate this movie
May 19th, 2011 Details -
Important thoughts to ponder for our society today. Western US Scenery amazing.
April 19th, 2011 Details -
Who is John Galt? Good story about how the government can ruin a country.
April 17th, 2011 Details -
I found the anti-collectivist theme to be particularly timely.
April 21st, 2011 Details -
Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is a landmark piece of fictional literature in laissez-faire classical liberalism ideology--i.e. economic conservativism. The most poigniant aspect of the book comes from John Galt's synopsis of Rand's own philosophy of objectivism.
Sadly, like most intellectual books, the film adaptation leaves a lot to be desired. The major hurdle of the movie is its inability to generate willing suspended disbelief in the audience. When the book was published in 1957, railroads were a relevant means of personal transcontinental transportation. In the decades since its publication airlines have largely filled that role and have managed to survive numerous financial crises caused brought upon it by haphazard deregulation--a convenient fact this movie chooses to ignore; the movie onlyApril 28th, 2011 Details -
I agree with all the positive observations from previous comments, but I can’t disagree more with the rest. I did not find myself merely “sitting through†this movie, I was captivated by every moment. Perhaps I’m too easy to please, but I found not only the production values to be amazingly good, but the acting and the screenplay as well. I found the message to be quite clear. I’ve seen movies where they tried to pack too much in, and I got that head-reeling disconnected feeling as they shot from scene to scene. I did not have that experience with this movie. I think they selected just the right parts, and put them together quite well. I think it was brilliant the quite plausible plot device they used right up front to take a mid-20th century era story and place it in the near future. I’ve seen some criticism about “wooden†acting. My theory is that some people are so used to over-emotional shlock in movies, that they can’t understand characters who are objective and not mindlessly driven by their emotions. I found the portrayal of the main characters to be almost exactly like I always imagined them to be from the book. Not only does this movie have an excellent message, I found it to be very well done in every way, and I left feeling very fulfilled. This movie was more than worth my time to see. I’m going to see it again, and I am bringing friends and family with me.
April 30th, 2011 Details -
I'm conservative and I like Ayn Rand, but I hated this movie. It was poorly acted, poorly directed, poorly shot, and the pacing was ridiculously awkward. It did not do justice to the novel and it grossly simplified the issues involved and makes Rand seem unsophisticated and like another mindless Glen Beck drone. I will say that it's cool that someone in Hollywood tried to make it.
July 16th, 2012 Details -
This movie is entertaining and will keep you interested. If you've read the book, it doesn't follow it extremely well, however, it's still an interesting film.
There is some swearing and some sexual scenes that view infidelity and adultery as being ok. So if you are taking a young teen be prepared for that.
The characters weren't developed as they could have been considering the length of the book vs length of movie. The overall message is important and I surely hope that people get it from the film.July 27th, 2012 Details -
I read and loved the book years ago, but this movie was downright awful. The acting was mediocre at best, the filming boring and flat. Do yourself a favor and just read the book.
July 16th, 2012 Details -
Even worse then the book.
November 16th, 2012 Details