by Gilbert B Norman
The movie Atlas Shrugged Part I opens tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W07bFa4TzM
While there are so many different interpretations that can be applied to the Ayn Rand novel depending upon where on the politico/socio spectrum your beliefs lie, I will simply note that the central character in the novel is a female railroad executive. From the trailer, it appears that railroads, even passenger carrying railroads, will have a role.
Here is a review that will be in The Wall Street Journal tomorrow; it certainly appears to be, at best, "mixed::
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/ ... -so-did-i/
Brief passage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W07bFa4TzM
While there are so many different interpretations that can be applied to the Ayn Rand novel depending upon where on the politico/socio spectrum your beliefs lie, I will simply note that the central character in the novel is a female railroad executive. From the trailer, it appears that railroads, even passenger carrying railroads, will have a role.
Here is a review that will be in The Wall Street Journal tomorrow; it certainly appears to be, at best, "mixed::
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/ ... -so-did-i/
Brief passage:
- Meanwhile, members of that tribe of “Atlas Shrugged” fans will be wondering why director Paul Johansson doesn’t knock it off with the incantations, sacraments and recitations of liturgy and cut to the human sacrifice.
Upright railroad-heiress heroine Dagny Taggart and upright steel-magnate hero Hank Rearden are played with a great deal of uprightness (and one brief interlude of horizontality) by Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler. They indicate that everything they say is important by not using contractions. John Galt, the shadowy genius who’s convincing the people who carry the world on their shoulders to go out on strike, is played, as far as I can tell, by a raincoat.
The rest of the movie’s acting is borrowed from “Dallas,” although the absence of Larry Hagman’s skill at subtly underplaying villainous roles is to be regretted. Staging and action owe a debt to “Dynasty”—except, on “Dynasty,” there usually was action.
.....An update is needed, and not just because train buffs, New Deal economics and the miracle of the Bessemer converter are inexplicable to people under 50, not to mention boring......