My card carrying capitalist son Michael and I went to see Atlas Shrugged last night. I went in with fairly low expectations and came out feeling like I’d gotten my money’s worth and then some.
I’d waffled for the last 2 days on whether I’d make the 100 mile trip to Las Vegas or not. First I was going and probably alone. Then I wasn’t going. Yes, I’d go. Then, nah, I’d wait for the DVD. And finally, I decided to go and take my son with me. His weekend (his days off) are Thursday and Friday, so I’d hoped that he had no plans tonight after work and he had none. I knew that he’d like this movie even though he’d never read the book and really didn’t have a clear idea what it was going to be about. On our way to the movie, I gave Michael a quick synopsis.
The reviews that I’d read by the so-called professionals who review movies, panned it. The dialog was contrived, they said, although it was pretty much verbatim Ayn Rand. They criticized the low budget effects and scenes. Yadda yadda yadda: elite critiques from the nose in the air “professionals.”
Honestly, I rarely go by what these guys call good or bad. They don’t live in the same world that I do so they have no basis to make judgements for me.
Early yesterday I wandered over to BigHollywood and read the reader comments to John Nolte’s blog about the movie. (Had I not done so I wouldn’t have known that Andrew Breitbart was an extra in the Reardon’s anniversary party scene. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, watch for him – he’s there standing with 3 other men by a small stairway with a lamp post on it.) But the readers are the critics that I’m going to trust. Hands down, they liked the movie. And when I read 3 different posters comment that the audience applauded at the end, I’d read enough and the plan was set that I was going to see this movie after all. Really, how many movies have you seen lately that the audience applauded when it was over?
We went to the 9:30pm show because Michael doesn’t get off work until 8:30. The theater was half to 2/3 full and to my happy amazement, they were all young people.
As far as the movie goes, I’ve seen lots worse out of the mega Hollywood studios (I walked out of Independence Day- it so sucked.) And for a low budget movie, it was damned well done. And they were pretty faithful to the book. I didn’t find the dialog goofy (again, I walked out of Independence Day) but then I’ve read and listened to the book so I knew what to expect. The movie never dragged. The director and producers laid down the foundation for the next 2 episodes very well and ended with a great cliffhanger. When the DVD is released, I’ll be buying it.
I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.
And this audience too, applauded at the end.
Diary of a Mad Conservative 
April 18th, 2011 at 1:09 PM
There was only one theater (out of MANY) in the city I live in that showed Atlas Shrugged. I went at 7:30, a time when teens are not at the movies, yet, so I guess that’s why I only saw adults there. One guy said he read the book 3x. Wow. But I was very pleased with the film. And now I am reading the book and it is SO interesting to see where the producers started and picked lines out from conversations. But everything was very to the book, as a have realized thus far. That’s a good thing. It keeps the message in the film.
Some Sun-Sentinel critics, a friend told me, said they could believe the actor they chose for Dagny Taggart. What? Truly, does it it matter that she is not “drop-dead gorgeous” in the film? Pay attention to the message!!
People read the critics and back away for watching great movies like this. It’s ridiculous.
April 17th, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Hey Roxy, the critics panned it because it wasn’t ‘liberally modified’. 🙂
April 17th, 2011 at 10:50 AM
lol absolutely! They couldn’t modify it and make it liberal enough, let alone liberal, at all.
Originally this movie was only planned to open in 11 theaters. After word of mouth and online petitioning took hold, it was up to over 300 theaters by Friday night. I really thought it would show for one night only in Las Vegas but I see today that it’s into its 3rd day at all 4 theaters. And I read online that as of Saturday morning, it was in 3rd place in movie ranking.
Maybe Hollywood will get the message that Americans are tired of anti-American movies and really don’t view all business men and women as villians….
NAH!
April 17th, 2011 at 9:11 AM
Doll, if I didn’t have to drive 100 miles to see it – I’d go again and see it today.
Having slept on it, I like it even better than I did when I wrote my blog. 😉
April 17th, 2011 at 5:28 AM
THANK YOU! I’ve been waiting for someone to tell me how the movie is being received. I’m hopeful that this movie is going to have a very positive affect for our cause. The applause at the end and the fact that you said there were a lot of young people is music to my ears. Thanks for driving 100 miles to see it and give us in the out side world a review.