Review of Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) by Craig E — 21 Nov 2011

The Christian, the conservative, the intellectual, and the goo in the pew, known hereafter as useful idiots (OWS ilk), have something in common. This movie is a divisive as Ayn Rand intended it to be. It is contemporary. It is post-modern. It is unapologetic. It kicks you in your political groin.

There is no need for expensive actors, high tech computer animation, elaborate sets or red carpet invites. Atlas Shrugged, part one, carries itself better than 95% of the no-brain productions Hollywood is producing today, simply through the masterful story based on Rand's magnum-sized novel.

If you want to see popular faces like Pitt, Jolie, Moore, or Cruise, go see the latest pop-culture Hollywood vomit. Your eyes will be treated to expensive eye candy productions which will make a profit for the investors. Atlas Shrugged is none of those. Instead, the movie-goer will be tantalized to an intellectual and politically savvy film with characters poured out of the steel with which John Galt Railway will make its millions. This is the perfect appetizer for Part 2, due to start production in early 2012.

Atlas Shrugged is a dark movie. It is filmed very much like Capolla's The Godfather. The actors do a superb job of carrying this dialogue-heavy story. Yet the mystery, the lace holding together the blouse, just enough to view the cleavage, is the question "Who is John Galt." But, the mystery is not who he is, as much as WHAT he is. Is he a true person? Is he a philosophy? Is he constructing an iconical country where capitalist have a cooperative government instead of a government limiting capitalist? Is he a hitman? Is he the guy at the table of the diner in the opening scene? Is he the guy in the trench coat whose face we never get to see? It is truly a mystery about this Galt fellow.

For an individual who has never waded through Rand's novel, this movie will definitely see more show up for the part 2 than those who came to see part 1. Why? Because I suspect others who have not read the novel, and who do not know what to expect, have networked their friends to say, "Get the DVD. Then, go see part 2. You'll be blown away." I personally am waiting for it to come to theaters because of the suspenseful way the story is unfolding.

I have yet to find a movie which leaves the viewer in suspense at its ending, since Star Wars 1. It leaves the viewer knowing there has to be a sequel because there are too many mysteries left open like gaping wounds. The test will be if the part 2 will stay as true to the philosophies of Rand as part 1 did. It would be sad to see the Hollywood political atmosphere making the sequel into a politically correct piece of bovine excrement which is a blazing affront to the ideas and ideals of Ayn Rand.