Movie Review: Atlas Shrugged (2011)

Of the people that I have talked to who have also read Ayn Rand's novel, nearly all of them thought it was a great book. Only one of them has agreed with me about it: the characters are one-dimensional (either clearly a good or bad guy), the book is often a bit dry, and it could have been about a third as long. It also didn't help that my mental image of the heroine, Dagny Taggert, was Ayn Rand herself, who was not exactly a looker.

Enter the live action film. The characters feel more realistic (though still unambiguously good or bad), Dagny is played by a fairly attractive blonde, and the length of part one of this intended trilogy is less than 100 minutes long. I actually quite enjoyed it. If one could get an edited version of Rand's book, where someone sifted through the constant pounding of her philosophy, the unnecessary pages (of which there are hundreds), and perhaps a presentation of the characters in a way in which they seem less like caricatures, there might be an enjoyable story underneath. This movie comes close.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it involves a railroad company headed by Dagny and her brother, who seems more inclined to use the business for humanitarian efforts than to turn a profit, and consequently causes it to be in poor financial shape. Dagny does all she can to save her family's business, in opposition to her brother and special interests in the federal government. In doing so she takes risks with unproven technologies and in alienating the establishment. Herein lies part of the basis of Rand's philosophy, that is, rugged individualism. And accordingly the story becomes a type I really enjoy: that of the entrepreneur. They are the the protagonists of this story, but one by one they keep going missing. I shall do my utmost not to spoil anything.

For those who are familiar with this story, I don't think they should be disappointed with this film. As far as I can recall, it is faithful to the book (though it puts itself in the near future instead of 1957), I had no issues with the acting, and the story itself, especially after the abridgment mentioned above, is not that bad. I would therefore conclude that any fault of this movie being mediocre is due to Ayn Rand's story being so, not because of the film's production. Consequently, I think most of the negative reviews have to do with disagreements towards Rand's philosophy (while one could possibly say vice versa regarding most positive reviews). I can easily say that I am not a big fan of her writing, nor am I an Objectivist, but I am possibly a bit biased in that I found this to be such an improvement over the book. In trying to imagine the movie from an objective point of view, I can say that it is not flashy nor spectacular and does not look like a big-budget film. But compared to most of what I saw (or chose not to see) in 2011, Atlas Shrugged was better than average and worth a view.