In the Agora: Atlas At Last

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July 16, 2006

Atlas At Last

Speaking of refugee millionaires, Jane Galt joins the growing list of bemused pundits who have noticed the long-running effort to make Atlas Shrugged into a movie, which has gained momentum due to the support of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

One pertinent question is how Hollywood will finesse John Galt's 150-page speech (Julian Sanchez suggests a DVD extra.) Perhaps it's a good thing that Rand is gone, for the IMDb says she would have quibbled mightily over something like that; from the trivia page for The Fountainhead:

Ayn Rand was furious when she heard that Howard Roark's speech at the trial was being trimmed, chiefly because it was considered long, rambling and confusing, especially to Gary Cooper who didn't understand it. She got the studio to make sure that the speech was untouched and in its entirety in the finished product.

For what it's worth, the scene plays well, and the movie is pretty good. I think it's especially amusing that Cooper didn't get it, though, as Hollywood is not especially known as a hotbed of Objectivism. (Does the support of two top stars indicate that Rand's ~~religion~~ philosophy will supplant Kabbalah as the latest fad?)

So what kind of cultural penetration can we expect from an Objectivist blockbuster? For one, I wouldn't assume that the movie would accurately reflect the gist of the novel; many who read Rand, usually in high school, are attracted most by the staunch individualism, and I think most celebrities probably operate at the same level. Further, any Objectivism that did leak through might be of a strain too virulent to be practical, a common complaint. I was having lunch with a couple of Libertarians one day when they lamented that their crowd had too many loonies; what's more, one could make a safe bet, they said, that the loonies came to libertarianism through Rand.

So, how about a biopic of Bastiat?

Posted by Zach Wendling at July 16, 2006 07:57 PM

Comments

This is an actual dialogue from our house, from a couple of years ago.

Scott: "I got a movie for tonight. _Basquiat_."

Jason: "They made a movie about the economist? That's so cool!"

Scott: "No, Basquiat, the artist. The friend of Andy Warhol's.

Jason: "Oh, too bad."

Posted by: Jason Kuznicki at July 17, 2006 03:54 PM | permalink

Have any of you seen an Andy Warhol movie?

I figured I'd give em a try and rented two - Flesh and Trash. I found them to be almost unbearable. Perhaps it was partially because the first movie I watched began with a 10 minute clip of a guy rolling around in bed naked with his package flopping about. Then he got up and did some heroin. I watched them both and decided "I thought Warhol was overrated...and I was right".

Posted by: r4d20 at July 17, 2006 09:46 PM | permalink

I've seen "I Shot Andy Warhol," which was a decent movie, and "Basquiat," which I liked even better. In the latter, David Bowie plays Andy Warhol.

Posted by: Jason Kuznicki at July 18, 2006 09:47 AM | permalink

But as to movies directed by Warhol, I understand they're mostly crap, yes.

Posted by: Jason Kuznicki at July 18, 2006 09:47 AM | permalink

July 16, 2006

Atlas At Last

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