Just dragged my butt home from Civilization and said hello to the dogs. I’ll have more over the weekend, but here’s my quick take on Atlas Shrugged, Part I<\/i>:<\/p>\n
It’s better than anybody had any reason to expect given its low budget and rushed production. Way better.<\/p>\n
Yeah, the writing is sometimes clunky and speechifying (though less so than in the novel). Nobody’s going to win any acting Oscars. If you hadn’t read the book, the movie would be hard to follow. <\/p>\n
That said, though, Atlas<\/i> does a lot with a little. There’s gorgeous cinematography of trains and the Rearden steel mill. Producers made clever use of archival footage or “found” opportunities (e.g. scenes of the Rio Norte Line being torn up to build the John Galt Line with Rearden Metal rails were obviously made by shooting real railroad crews at work). Places that are supposed to be rich and lush really look it. The filmakers even made a respectable attempt at creating the kind of sepia-toned art-deco industrial age that usually requires a lot more money. Dagny (Taylor Schilling) and Hank (Grant Bowler) are a little flat, but they grow on you. The CGI was darned good, and there’s a fire that looks like the pit of hell. Writers and editors did a decent, if not brilliant, job with this first third of Atlas’s<\/i> very complex story.<\/p>\n
Could you quibble? Sure. Several important scenes seemed thrown away, and I think they telegraphed way<\/i> too much about why all those businessmen were disappearing.<\/p>\n
But above all its flaws and all its virtues, the most important thing is this: The movie held my attention for the whole hour and 42 minutes. I enjoyed it. I cared about the people in it. I think that was true for the rest of the audience, also. Audience members applauded at the close, and a goodly percentage stayed all the way to the end of the credits — a gesture of respect not too many audiences grant to filmmakers.<\/p>\n
More later. But definitely, definitely worth seeing.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
Anybody else? I know I’m not the only one here who saw Atlas<\/i> today or will see it tonight. Please feel free to chime in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just dragged my butt home from Civilization and said hello to the dogs. I’ll have more over the weekend, but here’s my quick take on Atlas Shrugged, Part I: It’s better than anybody had any reason to expect given its low budget and rushed production. Way better. Yeah, the writing is sometimes clunky and speechifying (though less so than in the novel). Nobody’s going to win any acting Oscars. If you hadn’t read the book, the movie would be hard to follow. That said, though, Atlas does a lot with a little. There’s gorgeous cinematography of trains and the Rearden…<\/p>\n