tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post2628948013178065558..comments2023-07-05T09:41:55.011-07:00Comments on Robbservations: Atlas Shrugged, the Movie, ReduxRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15326559345621533658noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-63909902989580087632011-04-26T22:52:44.480-07:002011-04-26T22:52:44.480-07:00Ayn Rand wanted to make AS into a mini-series and ...Ayn Rand wanted to make AS into a mini-series and for good reason ... time to tell the story ... Even if this goes to part 2 and 3 ... it still looks like the Cliff Notes of AS. That said, I will go see it again just to support the production and may have more money for a better actor for Dagny Taggart.2think55https://www.blogger.com/profile/03362211640606529021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-64730311905065565702011-04-21T14:08:15.424-07:002011-04-21T14:08:15.424-07:00Anonymous: You wrote "My beef with Aglialoro ...Anonymous: You wrote "My beef with Aglialoro is that, as an Objectivist, he should have been aware of a great Objectivist author like Ed Cline who is proven in the commercial marketplace and whose work is already optioned by Hollywood." <br /><br />First of all, who ever said Aglialoro was an Objectivist? You may as well say (and please take this in the spirit it is offered) that Hillary Clinton is an Objectivist, because in her college days she read Atlas Shrugged. (But, that was just a "passing phase".) Kelleyites are not Objectivists. Also, none of my novels has ever been optioned by Hollywood. If any had been, I'd have used the money to buy a half interest in The Strike Productions and fired Aglialoro and his company of intellectual and esthetic dwarves. Thanks for the compliment, anyway. Ed ClineEdward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-30218230535143429802011-04-21T11:56:20.530-07:002011-04-21T11:56:20.530-07:00I agree with this assessment totally. My beef with...I agree with this assessment totally. My beef with Aglialoro is that, as an Objectivist, he should have been aware of a great Objectivist author like Ed Cline who is proven in the commercial marketplace and whose work is already optioned by Hollywood. Ed Cline should have been approached to write the screenplay for the movie. Also, literary experts like Andrew Bernstein should have been hired as consultants. Why was this not done? Oh, let me guess; because both of these men are ARI supporters. So Aglialoro put that crap above making a good movie. That is what I find despicable. <br /><br />We are in a fight to the death war against (primarily) the Progressives and we definitely need to challenge altruism in the culture. But Aglialoro wimped out and made the novel purely political. This will not do us much good in the long run. Altruism needs to be challenged publicly. Until that is done, there will be no saving the culture. An 'Atlas Shrugged' movie could have been a wonderful opportunity to inject into the culture pro-egoism philosophy. A writer like Ed Cline could have done this while making an exciting screenplay. <br /><br />An opportunity has been wasted. <br /><br />DougAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-74099655205966531762011-04-21T06:56:15.931-07:002011-04-21T06:56:15.931-07:00Agree with most of what you write but the conclusi...Agree with most of what you write but the conclusion. What's the point of publicly condemning the movie when the public views the evaluation of the movie as an evaluation of the book? Those that have read the book don't need to see the movie and will recognize its flaws if they do. Those that haven't read the book won't know how far off the mark the movie is until they read the book. <br /><br />The fraction of people that go to see the movie as a substitute for reading the book and who might dismiss the books ideas based on the poor qualities of the movie is small and seriously misunderstands filmmaking.<br /><br />Why don't you discuss the general failure of movies to live up to the books they're from? This is a widely recognized fact, almost cliche. Everyone knows that 'the movie never lives up to the book'. So is it worthy of note that another movie doesn't live up to the book. The only movies worthy of note in that regard are the ones that do live up to the book.<br /><br />Lastly, praising the movie or failing to condemn it will have no impact on Objectivism. The attention the movie is getting, and the controversy, is not about the movie, its about the book. In the decades ahead as we are winning, people won't look back and think 'Objectivism is so silly, remember how they liked that crappy movie?'. No. They'll look back and think 'Oh boy, that movie really was a stinker, but at least it got me to read the book and I'm so grateful for that.'Shane Atwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12268148003641995554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-7536549341777341782011-04-20T23:49:41.137-07:002011-04-20T23:49:41.137-07:00Excellent, excellent. I dont understand why politi...Excellent, excellent. I dont understand why politics supersedes aesthetics. That too in a movie!!Its like saying Obama is good because he wears nice suits! <br /><br />I dont like it one bit, I tell you, this liberterianizing of Objectivists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-25649192626168775852011-04-20T16:34:22.335-07:002011-04-20T16:34:22.335-07:00Robb: Amen (in a non-religious sense) to every wor...Robb: Amen (in a non-religious sense) to every word you wrote here. Took the words right out of my pen, so to speak. You're right: defending the movie by "liking" or not minding its complete shredding of the novel does more damage to Objectivism than any bile spat on it by a Whittaker Chambers, William F. Buckley, or, more recently, Joy Pullmann of American Enterprise Institute. It's tantamount to, say, Vermeer, painter of luminous figures and compositions, being liked by a cretin who also likes Picasso, or that subway artist with his stick figures. Or maybe I'm slandering the stick figure artist, who at least had the healthy epistemology of a Cro-Magnon cave painter. Instead, the cretin also likes the chimp who didn't completely type out a single play by Shakespeare by chance, but got confused in the first six lines of Henry V, and the rest was random gibberish (post-deconstructionist critics and literary academics would have a field day and long careers interpreting the gibberish).<br /><br />Good work here, Robb, and my hat is off to you. <br /><br />EdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3997277018771097849.post-49254014371468146532011-04-20T11:50:38.755-07:002011-04-20T11:50:38.755-07:00I have to post "Anonymous's" comment...I have to post "Anonymous's" comment because I had to delete my original post to get fix an html problem -- Robb<br /><br />Anonymous said:<br /><br />"Exactly right. Why don't more people realize it can be okay to like crap? I like a lot of artistic crap. I'm not proud of it, but I know it's crap. I am, however, at least happy to say that I didn't like this movie. Eventually when you come to realize how much crap you like, you start to avoid liking more. It's a useful habit to get into. "Robbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15326559345621533658noreply@blogger.com