ViewGuide

Created Apr 23, 2011 01:00AM PST • Edited Apr 18, 2012 07:49AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Gas at $37 a gallon and economic depression are hardly inconceivable these days, auspicious timing for a movie about American civilization reacting to such a disaster scenario. Atlas Shrugged’s refreshing celebration of economic risk-takers steps into the breach, a political economy lesson in the form of tony soap opera.

   The movie proves plenty satisfying – 1950s characterizations and lack of true moviestars notwithstanding. Sleek, sexy, understated, it packs enough glamour to make the P-Econ go down with ease.

   So what if it’s hardly a run-of-the-mill blockbuster. Legions of undergrads treasure the novel for just that reason.

   Reason. There’s that word.

   Ayn Rand fans know this is a must see. Some in the other 98% of the population might like it also, especially those interested in an alternative to the usual victimization fare that Hollywood favors. Atlas Shrugged’s romantic realism presents a true alternative worldview – from the Right not the Left.

   Radical? Perhaps. Reasonable? Absolutely.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Russell Crowe, Angie and Brad weren’t available, an object lesson in the rarity of true moviestar charisma. Fortunately the movie stars an entirely serviceable set of leads.

   • Taylor Schilling, apparently a somewhat famous TV actress, acquits herself well as savvy and courageous railroad scion Dagny Taggart. Plus she sleeps with her main supplier. Score!
   • Grant Bowler, apparently a somewhat famous TV actor, underwhelms as brilliant and courageous steel titan Hank Reardon.
   • Matthew Marsden employs his slick good looks effectively as corrupt railroad scion James Taggart.

   The bit players are more recognizable – Jon Polito, Michael Lerner and Graham Beckel among them, the first two from any number of Coen Brothers movies, the last from any number of cop shows.

5. Male Stars OK 2.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    It’s a big story, resistant to shortening. One third of one thousand pages in Part I leads to leaps of logic unfathomable to many minds. Pity.

    BTW, why are five medics listed in the credits? There were some explosions, sure, but five medics!!

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

    John Galt and the disappearing millionaires. Awkward.

    In the case of the former, “Who is John Galt?” presents more as non sequitur than organic dialog, while the latter strains credulity given the inexplicably absent security around the magnates.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Good 3.0

    The 1950s origin of the story is hard to hide, notwithstanding that the movie is set in 2016. Several scenes occur in diners, the millionaires and billionaires are always dressed to the nines, and the major industrial issues include rail travel and steel (see Reality below). None of this tanks the film, just dates it a bit.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.9

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    High speed rail is central to President Obama’s Left Wing economic plans yet is also the great economic hope in this Right Wing movie. Which fantasy is stuck in the 1950s?

    Then there’s this -

    America the Exceptional, reason number 732: Ayn Rand, a Soviet Russian immigrant wrote this Great American Novel. Not French Novel, or British or German or Irish or Indian or Chinese. A novel like Atlas Shrugged could only be set in America, yet was written by a non-native daughter. Of course. Being American – alone among nations – has always been more about creed than chromosomes.

    Native born Americans might forget this. Immigrants past and prayerful never do.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.6

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Glib 1.3