Atlas Shrugged – the Movie!

Never thought I would ever be the kind of person who, upon finding an injured animal or human lying in a ditch, crying and begging for help, would jump in and start kicking the pitiful thing.  But that was before I saw “Atlas Shrugged – The Movie:  Part (believe it or not) One of Three”.

It did not receive good reviews and that is understating the obvious.  But I was still thought it would be interesting to see some of the characters “come to life”.  Well, forget that.    Ellis Wyatt looked believable but all the others were simply TOO precious and too cardboardy.  

The movie began with a confusing introduction.  It was attempting to show that the country was in a catastrophic condition, but instead it simply showed the movie was in a catastrophic condition.  It was hurried and when it tried to show the country was, for example out of gasoline, the screen showed a battered sign saying “No Petrol”, then segued to a gasoline pump nozzle lying on the concrete all alone with gasoline pouring out of it.  Huh?

The actors were a little like Frankenstein zombies who had almost come to life.  You could see them reading lines as if focused on a teleprompter or trying to remember which word came next.  

It tuned out that airplanes cost too much to fly, so companies had to build railroads to carry heavy cargo.  Huh?  That’s one place where I pinched myself to see if I was still awake or just having a strange dream.

At one point, after an amazing train run – obviously filmed in Europe where these trains really do run everyday at speeds of up to 200 mph – the “Legislature” passed a law restricting trains to no more than 60 miles per hour.  The “Legislature”?  Colorado’s? Hey – this is interstate commerce.  Did they mean the Congress?  Well, just a detail.

They did film some of it in Colorado – beautiful scenery.  But then why not?  Turns out that  – according to the reliable Ellis Wyatt there was more oil under those mountains than in the Saudi peninsula, and also an “ocean of natural gas”.  Well, whoop-de-do.  Our problems are all over.
  

There were a few technical problems too.  I noticed that the “white balance” was still set on “daylight” when filming was done under artificial light.  First time I saw that I thought, “how clever - makes it look a little spooky”.  But then they did that every time artificial light intruded, – we always went back to that “spooky” effect.  So.  I’m thinking, 1) the camera man doesn’t know about this? 2) they’re in a really big hurry?  3) they are running very short of money? 4) the movie needs to be done quick – changing the White Balance four or five times would take almost a minute?

Must confess that one of the reasons I really went to see this movie was to record how many times a cigarette was lit and smoked.  Ayn Rand was a smoker (had lung cancer surgery and died of heart problems) and cigarette smoking was repeated throughout her book.  I was amazed.  One cigarette was lit – right at the end.  One cigar was also lit in the movie and the guy obviously didn’t know how to do cigars.  But there was a LOT of drinking in the movie.  I tried to count but had to give up because it was so overpowering.  I did mark 42 occurrences when wine or liquor was poured, presented or drunk but that was overlooking the total story.

On my way out I encountered a great man, huge and old, with a great shock of white hair and a white beard, rolling from side to side as he labored up the aisle, and he said to me, referring to a character in the movie who represented a government official who was for Total Equality,  “I wonder if he was also born in Keyna?”

I looked at him and started to say something.  Then I shrugged my shoulders, and we went our separate ways