Jul 12, 2007

Big hurdles for the "Atlas Shrugged" movie

by Some Yahoo at 10:10 AM
Filed under: ,

Whew! I just finished listening to the "Atlas Shrugged" book-on-CD's. It's long and the characters are mysterious, but it fills me once again (I have read the book before) with a sense of unbridled optimism, dread, and personal disappointment.

Oh well.

So I have been following the efforts to convert this mind-numbing excursion in objectivism into a feature film with a glint in my eye.

Unfortunately, I just don't think there is a formula that can possibly work for everyone here. First, the evil (antagonist) in the story is a kind of universal malaise, not a person or army to be fought.

Second, there is a pivotal speech - around 70 pages - that is 3 hours long. I have the feeling that existing Atlas fans, and hardcore objectivists will settle for nothing short of including every word of it verbatim. There's just no way that this can be made to work for a movie.

Third, there is an embedded love story splintered in pieces throughout the story that filmmakers will be drawn to, but that consists of long-term unrequited lovers of the same woman - all but one of whom walk away placidly at the end of the story. It's just not a credible love story for men who have pined over the heroine for 20, 10, or 5 years to just hang their heads, put their hands in their pockets, and cheerfully step aside. I swear it kinda works in the book, but onscreen it's gonna make them look heartless, and her look like a giant slut.

Personally I hope this effort to bring Atlas to screen works, and we are treated to a 2008 release of epic proportions. I love what rereading this book does to my attitudes about life, work, and politics. I just hope that some of the themes of the story make it to the silver screen.

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1 comments:

  1. I agree that there are major challenges to translating this novel into a movie, even if you only focus on the novel's length. I think that you make a good point about Galt's speech, but from my own experience in discussing this with other Objectivists I think anyone who thinks about the issue for more than a few moments can see that the entire speech simply can not be included in the film.

    What is important is that the essential passages are left intact. Certainly, this would be best done by a writer with a great understanding of Objectivism who could pick the correct essential elements - and who also understands the movie-going audience.

    It can be lengthy enough to make the point, certainly 10 minutes if cut with great footage to concretize the ideas would be a pretty incredible montage if the right music were incorporated as well.

    As to Dagny's relationships, I think they are crucial and that cutting any one of them might alter significantly the meaning of the story. If they age her properly it should be clear that she is not a slut - especially considering she is sleeping with a total of 3 men in her entire lifetime -- far fewer than most women could claim.
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