Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Video: First Reactions to the Atlas Shrugged Movie

Hollywoodland attended a Washington D.C. screening of Atlas Shrugged Part 1. Following the screening they talked to producer Harmon Kaslow and several people who attended the event. Here's what they had to say:

9 comments:

  1. "The Strike": Cui bono?

    Q: Who is John Galt?
    A: A extremely intelligent stalker who wanted to put the power companies out of business. At the end of Part III he refers to this as clearing the road and tells Dagny that it's time to return to the world, even though the lights just went out and the world is in chaos. This is odd because he's living very well in Galt's gulch and because it's implausible that the moochers and looters have learned their lesson completely and transformed their hearts such that they are no longer a serious threat to Galt. But the world is in chaos, so it's time to pounce on an opportunity.

    Q: Why did John Galt want to put the power companies out of business?
    A: He needs their distribution networks to make a fortune with his power generator. At the time he conceived his plan, the power companies had an enourmous amount of capital tied up in power generation equipment, so they had little incentive to increase costs dramatically, as they would if they bought Galt's generators, or power from him, on terms Galt would accept.

    Q: Couldn't Galt negotiate favorable deals with the power companies by showing how much they'd save on fuel costs?
    A: Perhaps, but skyrocketing fuel prices would increase his leverage over them. Thus, productive coal miners (Danagger) and oil drillers (Wyatt) need to be put out of business. Likewise, it must become difficult to transport coal and oil, which means reducing competition among railroads or putting some of them out of business. If Galt fails to turn out the lights, yet manages to drive up the cost of fuel, not to mention makes the fuel supply unreliable, he will have greatly increased his leverage over the power companies. And if they go bankrupt, he can scoop up their distribution networks cheaply from creditors.
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    Q: Could this interpretation be not only sharply divisive among rightwingers but also explosive on the left?
    A: You bet it could. In fact, “Atlas Shrugged” is a gateway to anarchism, which Randians and theocratic rightwingers fear and loathe. So a three-way conflict, already underway, could intensify. Also, leftists already feel beseiged and have a victimology to support their reactionary hysterics in Madison, London, and elsewhere. If they believe that government will cease to be a tool for looting and for redistribution to their favorite charities, they will abandon the pretense of being peaceful. Maybe the leftists will arm theirselves to ward off the organized crony commerce state and its supporters. Furthe , they're already thugs, and they know it.

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  2. I'm very excited about this. While the Fountainhead movie wasn't very good at all, this seems to be a rather exciting movie.

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  3. I've been listening to book on cd, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this.

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  4. Maybe this will wake people up to just exactly how ugly, ruthless & evil Fascist-Corporate Capitalism really is but I doubt it. Two hundred (plus) years of indoctrination is tough to reverse but the coming complete collapse will change things for the better. Eventually.

    I can hardly think of another book that has ruined so many decent people and, in effect, turned them into unsociable, a**holes but, then again, so has Capitalism. Thanks Ayn.

    "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini

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  5. Ayn Rand wrote the book and finally the light of day is starting to shine upon what she saw happening decades ago! Her forethought, passion for freedom and ability to follow through with a book was amazing! Unfortunately, it's way too late to save the USA, it is absolutely doomed! Barack Hussein oBama has been busy putting the last nails in our coffin.

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  6. Anonymous, you typical socialist lib! You just don't get it. You earn your keep, it should not be provided to those who make no effort to do so. This book (and movie) show us how the government is killing innovation and making us subserviant slaves. You may welcome the pharoah but many of us don't!

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  7. ayn rand (alicia rosenbaum, actually) never did a useful days work in her privileged little life. She was a weird, crazy messed up person who wrote bodice ripping soap opera romance novels to pump up the egos of right wingers who have never grown past their adolescence. Sort of Danielle Steele for wrong wingers and libertaricons.

    It is said of atlas shrugged and Lord of the Rings, that there are two fantasy novels commonly encountered by acne ridden socially regressed adolescents that impede their gaining maturity and allowing them to evade adult social relationships. One novel involves broadly drawn caricatures of super fantasy heroes engaged in epic battle with cartoonish forces of pure evil. The other involves Orcs.

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  8. Actually, Anonymous had it right, at first: "... wake people up to just exactly how ugly, ruthless & evil Fascist-Corporate Capitalism really is...". It is VERY evil, which is exactly what "Atlas Shrugged" gets across (to those who've read it). ~Free-market~ capitalism, on the other hand, works much better than any fascist or socialist system.

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  9. "It is said of atlas shrugged and Lord of the Rings, that there are two fantasy novels commonly encountered by acne ridden socially regressed adolescents that impede their gaining maturity and allowing them to evade adult social relationships. One novel involves broadly drawn caricatures of super fantasy heroes engaged in epic battle with cartoonish forces of pure evil. The other involves Orcs."

    BWAHAHAHAHA!

    I'm not sure where, but I've seen this word-for-word before. How low is that? Copying somebody else rant and passing it off as your own? What a loser.

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