Atlas Shrugged, the movie: trailer is out

[Stormwatch]

As not to bump a thread from 2006, here's a new one. The Atlas Shrugged movie (part 1) will be released in April 15.

As for the trailer, check here. Feels a bit weird to see it modernized, but at the same time, it looks pretty good!

[louisg]

Sweet. I wonder how it'll compare to Battlefield Earth!

[CMoon]

Wow, looks as exciting as paint drying. Should degenerate into Bioshock in part 2.

[Drum]

Ayn Rand is a cunt.

[Heartwork]

First off, fuck Ayn Rand and her awful philosophy. Secondly, this movie looks awful as hell. The line where she threatens to "destroy" some dude actually made me cringe at how contrived and ridiculous it sounded.

[Stormwatch]

I believe that's Dagny's mooching brother Jim.

[Skykid]

This looks like the type of movie that goes straight to DVD in the UK.

[drauch]

OOOOOOOOOOOOO INTEGRITY!!!!!

[Ex-Cyber]

So I guess we'll have one "part" that's 3 hours long and consists entirely of The Speech?

The line where she threatens to "destroy" some dude actually made me cringe at how contrived and ridiculous it sounded.

"Contrived and ridiculous" is sort of a theme for Atlas Shrugged.

[BryanM]

So what exactly is the title a reference to? Is it like, Atlas decides to shrug his shoulders and say "I dunno, maybe humans shouldn't live like baboons do" and then the planet falls down and rolls down Zeu's toilet and then Tiamat starts nibbing away the planet in the Septic Tank of the Gods until it's gone?

Sounds like an interesting fantasy novel. Moar information pliz.

[Specineff]

I always thought the title referred to Atlas, holding the weight of the Heavens/Skies over his shoulders, shrugged after seeing humanity's struggles. In other words, the futility of it all.

[Stormwatch]

More like: what if, the longer Atlas tried hold the world on his shoulders, the heavier it would become, and the more he would suffer for it? Wouldn't he simply... quit?

(Yeah, in the original legend he held the heavens, not the world, but that's been a popular view of the tale since the 16th century.)

[professor ganson]

There really isn't a legitimate subject matter here. Perhaps someone can link this in the WORST THREADS EVER thread?

[Drum]

More like: what if, the longer Atlas tried hold the world on his shoulders, the heavier it would become, and the more he would suffer for it? Wouldn't he simply... quit?

(Yeah, in the original legend he held the heavens, not the world, but that's been a popular view of the tale since the 16th century.)

Atlas was put there as a punishment for being a tremendous douche and supporting a murderous, tyrannical regime (by the next tyrannical regime, natch) with the beneficial side effect that him holding up the sky allowed life to exist on earth. It was a punishment and a duty, not something he did as a service. He later tried to trick people's champion Heracles into permanently carrying the sky himself, but naturally the notoriously thick-skulled Heracles was too smart for him. Later, in one version of the myth, Perseus flew by with Medusa's head and, as a mercy, turned him to stone - which is a better fate than Ayn Rand and her idiot cronies deserve. The Atlas metaphor is hilariously inappropriate for Rand's purposes, and therefore totally appropriate.

(FYI: I am not smart, I used wiki to refresh my memory)

[Thjodbjorn]

I really tried to read the book. I gave up after 250 or so pages. I have a few friends who are into Objectivism, but I just could not find myself caring about any of the characters or their problems.

[drauch]

I just now watched the trailer. It could possibly be the most boring film ever made.

[GaijinPunch]

This looks like the type of movie that goes straight to DVD in the UK.

Isn't that every UK film ever made except for Lock Stock & Snatch?

[BryanM]

One day the Garth Marenghi's Darkplace movie will get made and smash all box office records ever.

Yes, I do believe in the second coming.

[Skykid]

This looks like the type of movie that goes straight to DVD in the UK.

Isn't that every UK film ever made except for Lock Stock & Snatch?

Are you kidding? One more American rom com advert and I'm about ready to punch someone.

[CMoon]

Isn't anyone a Rand fan here? I don't have anyone to troll...

[mortified_penguin]

I'm a fan of her stories but not her philosophy so much. Atlas Shrugged was a neat little tale about trains and people fighting for what they believed in and The Fountainhead hit a nerve at the time. (After four years of producing technical drawings and 3D model for the company, a new manager was brought in and he shit over everything we'd done and I had to fight tooth and nail to keep him from ruining everything.)

Anyway, the movie looks awful.

[GaijinPunch]

Are you kidding? One more American rom com advert and I'm about ready to punch someone.

That's what you get for watching rom coms.

[JoshF]

I believe that's Dagny's mooching brother Jim.

Speaking of mooching, parasitic scumbags:

Critics of Social Security and Medicare frequently invoke the words and ideals of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the fiercest critics of federal insurance programs. But a little-known fact is that Ayn Rand herself collected Social Security. She may also have received Medicare benefits. An interview recently surfaced that was conducted in 1998 by the Ayn Rand Institute with a social worker who says she helped Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor, sign up for Social Security and Medicare in 1974. Federal records obtained through a Freedom of Information act request confirm the Social Security benefits. A similar FOI request was unable to either prove or disprove the Medicare claim. Between December 1974 and her death in March 1982, Rand collected a total of $11,002 in monthly Social Security payments. O’Connor received $2,943 between December 1974 and his death in November 1979.

[beyonder]

Ugh, Ayn Rand. Objectivism sucks the big one, philosophically speaking. Having been a moderator at one of the larger philosophical forums, my experience with the objectivist lot was less than enlightening, to put it mildly. Most are as philosophically ignorant as the movements founder. Bunch of cultists, if you ask me.

Note that Ayn Rand isn't considered a philosopher by most if not all serious philosophers... The entire notion of "objective knowledge" isn't even epistemologically valid.

[RNGmaster]

I heard a great quote recently. "There are two novels that could ruin a bookish 14-year-old's life. They are Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One features black-and white morality, questionable philosophy, unrealistic characters, and is far too long for its own good. The other one has Orcs."

[Specineff]

I wish that Ayn Rand was alive...

1:Just to see her reaction at how the government had to intervene in the course of free enterprise.

2:In order to bail the automakers, lenders, insurance companies and banks and such that ran themselves to the ground by being allowed to remain rein-free.

3:With Taxpayer money.

4:So millions of average joes could keep their jobs.

I mean... two of the things she hated the most (The Government taking measures to keep private enterprises in check and taxes) end up keeping afloat part of the free enterprise that she worshipped so much? That's gotta burn like cayenne pepper on an open wound.

Heck, I'd pay to take her to Washington to see that. By train. On Government-owned Amtrak.

(I don't support government control. But the irony is pwntastically delicious.)

[Stormwatch]

Speaking of mooching, parasitic scumbags

They had paid for those services, with their taxes. So they merely took back a tiny bit of what had been taken from them in the first place.

I mean... two of the things she hated the most (The Government taking measures to keep private enterprises in check and taxes) end up keeping afloat part of the free enterprise that she worshipped so much?

She would hate it, alright: certainly, she would prefer to see companies driven to the brink by their own incompetence simply close their doors. Then again, gotta wonder: how much of private companies' troubles is so often caused by retarded government policies?

[Drum]

Speaking of mooching, parasitic scumbags

They had paid for those services, with their taxes. So they merely took back a tiny bit of what had been taken from them in the first place.

Because she needed it. That's the real joke here, not the 'hypocrisy' zing. It's not even clear that Rand could do anything hypocritical that wasn't simply nonsensical, because that would require her to have actual standards that weren't completely hollow.
Paying taxes but not taking advantage of their benefits would of course be an anathema to Rand, but in this respect she's the same as everybody else - nobody likes paying taxes and nobody likes dying. She was just really shrill about the not paying taxes part.
Further, if she did get Medicaid (and there's no reason she'd accept SS but not Medicaid - let's be realistic here) she almost certainly got the better end of the tax vs payout deal. Also, the dumb bitch got Medicaid for lung cancer because she was a heavy smoker. Personal responsibility!!
Even further, despite her claims that her philosophy is about being exceptional and brilliant, it is basically the same brute 'philosophy' every human - every living organism really - has when not being pressed up against the cold, hard wall of reality: survive and thrive any way you like. The 'moral' component of objectivism is a clumsy, limited survival strategy adopting the superficial components of an ethos through ugly, dishonest rhetoric. It is amazingly fucking dumb.

[Skykid]

Are you kidding? One more American rom com advert and I'm about ready to punch someone.

That's what you get for watching rom coms.

This is what you get for not understanding the word 'advert.'

[Daigohji]

Not having read anything by Ayn Rand, I had three thoughts while watching that trailer:

1. Wow, some company actually published a novel with such cardboard, high school level dialogue?

2. Wow, whoever cut this trailer seems to think this crappy dialogue carries the weight of Shakespeare.

3. Have I slipped into a parallel universe where The Bard is Roger Corman and all standards of what constitutes quality writing are turned on their head?