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Friday, October 27, 2006

Atlas Confirmed

IMDB says a movie version of Atlas Shrugged is planned for release in 2008, starring Angelina Jolie.

It just so happens I am currently half-way through the DVD of a movie starring Jolie, Alexander, having just listened to some great lectures from The Teaching Company about Alexander the Great. Oliver Stone's movie is so bad and such a waste of time I won't even watch anymore. What little story it has seriously insults your intelligence. I did like the CGI recreation of a line of Macedonian phalanxes marching towards Darius' hordes, that was neat for a moment. But I'm trying to remember if I've seen an Oliver Stone film that was worth watching. Natural Born Killers certainly wasn't; I remember regretting, at the end, that I hadn't walked out after the first 10 minutes.

Some Objectivists celebrate the fact that even a bad movie adaptation of Atlas will sell more copies of the novel. Somehow I don't imagine Ayn Rand would give a damn about any of that if the movie butchers her story, which is all but guaranteed.

Update: I'd like to clarify what I mean on this topic. I would like more people to read Atlas Shrugged, but I'd rather a movie which substantially misrepresents it not be made. Such a production would be an outrage, and the fact that Objectivists cannot stop it does not make it less unjust. Objectivists who imagine there will be some sort of "net good" if Hollywood creates a misrepresentative movie that advertises the book are slipping into pragmatism.

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1 Comments:

  • At 10:06 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    you are right she would not be happy if her story was butchered but i think the Objectivists realize they can't stop that from happening, they can try to make sure it doesn't but that is it.

    There is some truth in the idea that some people will read the book who otherwise wouldn't have. That is a value.

     

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