‘Atlas Shrugged’ Trailer Has a Bunch of People Yelling About the Railroad Industry (Video)

Decent b-list actors, decent cinematography, based on a book by a sociopath… meh… I’ll probably see it.

Only a “Guest” to this site would ask suck a dumb question…

Looks like whomever made the movie has been able to extract enough of the plot to make an intriguing thriller, albeit a B-Movie thriller. Not only that, but the director seems to have fleshed out the heroes enough (if you trust the trailer – although John Galt seems to have been made paper-thin by the need to keep him “mysterious”) to make us at least want to root for them.

Whether the producer is able to make it enough of a thriller to have people want to see the other two parts (yes, there’s a trilogy planned) is another issue. I’m sure there’s enough people willing to watch all three movies based of the fact of AYN RAND, but I’m sure much of the first film’s audiences will be people waiting to see if the art’s good enough to follow through to the end. And art it will have to be to keep all but those who never grew beyond Atlas Shrugged watching.

An interesting aside: Ayn Rand had written the screenplay for The Fountainhead movie and was able to get it film without any changes in the script. While it failed as a straight piece, it has survived as a truly funny/bad classic – a judgment which had been given to me by a couple of close friends as well as from reviews not tied to when the movie came out.

Let’s see here…after Angelina Jolie bowed out, they scraped together actors and made the movie on a much lower budget. Now the trailer is attempting to apply the “action thriller” cliches to what amounts to a lot of people standing around and talking. (Never mind the fact that if this is an accurate portrayal of the book, the technology involved is woefully outdated in this era of telecommunications…) I’d say “Atlas Shrugged Part 1″ (PART 1!!) is going to do for Objectivism what “Battlefield Earth” did for Scientology.

( Additional commentary: http://www.modemac.com/wiki/Objectivism )

The New Ohio Governor shouted so much about how rail is dead that the government preemptively took back their money they gave for high-speed rail between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. I’ve read that he’s got his eyes on closing down the Cleveland Subway and Light Rail lines.

The New Wisconsin Governor has gone into a slash-and-burn, not only killing off High Speed Rail (and losing a major Bombadier factory that originally came with the Milwaukee/Madison route) but has also gone into multiple wars against unions. Right now there’s a hundred thousand pro-union folks there…but it looks like they’ll get their “no bargaining allowed” rule passed (Wisconsin went REALLY Red this election).

Michigan has yet to accept the government money…probably because they don’t really have any money. But with the radical right holding all the power (only Detroit, Flint and Saginaw are actively Democrat, and they’re actively collapsing) one only wonders if they’re going on automatic pilot (having actually supported their Amtrak lines for years).

Iowa also hasn’t accepted their rail money yet, probably looking ahead to a Republican sodomization of the Pseudo-Democratic Party in less than two years and the issue of having partly rebuilt their rail to where it just means faster freight for a few years. Can’t blame them, to be honest.

Which leaves Indiana, whose governor (despite efforts to try to create a self-funding transit authority in Northwest Indiana – an action which has been ACTIVELY OPPOSED by the locals who still dream of the death of the South Shore Line), has never supported Rapid Transit Rail and is feeling very vindicated at the moment.

And Florida…he’s acting behind the curve of his fellow governors, having waited until he got into office to act.

Which leaves Illinois, whose presently being threatened with vengeance for trying to be responsible towards their people and employees, who are building their Chicago/St. Louis line mainly because it’s fully within the state. And I fear that in two years it will be left half-finished and used as a bypass for fast-moving freight.

Don’t ask me about the Eastern Seaboard, as I don’t know. Does appear that the Tunnel to Penn Station will happen, though not necessarily as first planned.

And California…when you can build the line between San Francisco and San Jose (presently known as the NIMBY line) you can gloat. The Line from Nowhere to Nowhere is a start…but it won’t be nothing but a white elephant without connections to LA, and/or the bergs up north. Heck, even making the Tehachapi tunnel would be a major success.

So I’ll wait to see if it gets built.

(and just so you know: I hope to see it built)

I think it was my state, Wisconsin. But screw the railroad – Scott Walker is on to bigger and better things, like busting unions.

Well, when I tried to read this book (know your enemy and all that), I couldn’t make it through the first chapter because it was so boring and poorly written. This coming from someone who reads the dictionary and encyclopedias for fun. Glad to see the movie is living down to the standard set by the book by also looking like something I’d be more likely to flip to on the tv when I’m having insomnia and need something to put me to sleep.

I admit though, I want to see this movie fail, and fail spectacularly. Can you think of anything funnier than going to a Randite and saying “The market has spoken! Ayn Rand is out!”