Anyone have plans to see Atlas Shrugged

[Reinmaker]

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/atlas-shrugged-movie-trailer

[WashingtonBay]

We'll probably see it when it hits cable... It has to be a very special event indeed to get me to sit in a theater any more. :)

[Tiz]

I haven't even seen Secretariat yet, so no Atlas Shrugged for me.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I had hoped to play hookie tomorrow and take the afternoon to get down to the SouthCenter theater and see a matinee. But my dance card has since been filled up. I can't get away during the day.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I haven't even seen Secretariat yet, so no Atlas Shrugged for me.

I just got Secretariat on Blu-ray. Watched it last weekend.

It's better than I expected. It's a really well done movie.

[natisha]

I'd like to see it but I can never stay awake through any movie so it would have to be on a video/DVR so I can rewind.

[Reinmaker]

Ragnar, give us a review once you see it. I rarely make it to the theaters, probably been twice in over a year, but might try to find the time for this one if it is worth it.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

OK... I took in a noon matinee of Atlas Shrugged today! Wow... where to start... I'm not really sure.

They really do "get it". The casting is excellent. They stay very faithful to the essence of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it went by entirely too quick. I'm anxious to see the rest. I think I'm going to have to see it again before it leaves the theater.

Being just the first third (or so) of the book, it's mainly so far about getting to know the characters, and just hints at the storyline to come. Now... I'm not sure how it will play for people that haven't read the book. Since I'm already so familiar with the story, it's hard for me to tell if somebody without the background in the book could enjoy it... or whether it would seem choppy.

For those keeping score at home... the movie takes us from the beginning, the first few "disappearances", the introduction of Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden, Francisco D'Anconia, Wesley Mouch and the rest, the building of Dagny's "John Galt Line" (perhaps a little out of sequence) but then ends at Wyatt's Torch.

The book (and the movie) is pretty much completely dialog. There ~so much~ great dialog that has to be left out of the movie, they have to move some important ideas along with sometimes just little bits of dialog-- where in the book it may have been many, many pages. It looked like they got all the important ideas going, but for somebody without all the background... I don't know if they'd get it all. Somebody in that space will have to comment on that and I'd be interesting to hear what they think.

Ideally... when it comes out on DVD they'll do a "Peter Jackson" treatment and release an "extended" cut with at least another half hour of content... and do that for each of the movies.

I'm going to let it settle a little more and think on it. I may have some more comments later.

People should go see it.

OH... P.S.: I forgot to add that there was a pretty good crowd at my showing. Most times when I've been to an early matinee, theaters are pretty much empty. But there were probably 60 or 70 people there. Maybe a third of the seats in the theater. I didn't expect that many.

[WashingtonBay]

Well, I haven't read it... so I'll let you know when we see it.... but I don't think that will be in the theater!

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

OK... it's been a few days and I've had a chance to digest things a bit.

I think... the movie is an exquisite illustration to accompany the book. In the same way that many novels once had brilliant illustrations to accompany the text... the movie serves as a great set of illustrations of the key parts of the story.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

BTW... for the last couple of weeks I've been reading "The Fountainhead". I'm finally down to the last chapter... and probably tomorrow I'll finish it. Wow... just... wow.

[gabhainn]

BTW... for the last couple of weeks I've been reading "The Fountainhead"..
I havent read it 20 + years, atlas shrugged either need to dust em off....Kevin

[HeavensEast]

BTW... for the last couple of weeks I've been reading "The Fountainhead". I'm finally down to the last chapter... and probably tomorrow I'll finish it. Wow... just... wow.
I read The Fountainhead (and no, not for school! :p) and it was very interesting! I read it when I was maybe 13, so I think I would understand it a hell of a lot more now though. ;)

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I finished The Fountainhead today... whew! What a book. All 1200 pages of it... but it still went by too fast. I didn't want it to end. Who woulda' thunk that in the end, it's basically a love story? Well, that, and a crushing indictment of socialism. Every love story should have such a good theme.

It's an odd story, though. So many thoroughly unlikeable characters. I kept hoping that that she'd kill some of them off. Beyond Howard Roark and Dominique... you just end up despising everybody else.

So now I'm back into Atlas Shrugged. I must say that it's a little different for me now, since I'm replacing the imagery I had with the imagery I got from the movie. It's also different now in the second reading, since I know who all the characters are and what the early parts mean for them. In the first reading, I could barely keep track of who was being introduced and what their role was... what they were all about... it was hard to keep track of everybody. But now that I know who everybody is, it seems to flow a lot better.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Hey! Update! Some weeks ago I ordered one of the replica "Reardon Metal" bracelets from the movie site. Well... it finally came in! They were all sorts of backordered. They wildly underestimated the demand for these things. As it happens... it was too short (even though I got the longest one they offered). Seems they made them more for ladies' wrists, moreso than middle-aged fat guy wrists. I had to take it to a jeweler yesterday and have them add some white gold links to make it fit. The jeweler did a magnificent job and I just picked it up.

Here it is on Dagny's wrist in the movie:

10212

...and here's mine:

10213

Should make for a fun conversation piece.