Atlas Shrugged
Last weekend we went to see the new movie Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 with another couple. Most everyone knows that the novel was written in the late 50s by Ayn Rand and there have been efforts for 40 years to get the story onto the big screen. It’s such a long novel that there will be a trilogy of movies. Part 2 will be released on April 15, 2012. So its a long time to wait for the next installment. A friend of mine from work found the entire book in pdf format online and sent me a copy and I am starting to read it.
Of course, if you read a novel after watching the movie made from the novel, its very easy to be critical of the movie. In most cases, the movies do not follow the novel very well. In this case, the movie has followed the book very good so far. Obviously, there is a lot of character development in the novel that is just impossible to get into a less than 2 hour movie.
In case you don’t know, this story written in the 50s describes a country where the government has gone a little crazy. Every law is promoted and passed ‘for the public good’. The real producers become demonized in the press and many of them have very unscrupulous people in Washington watching out for their interests. Can you say lobbyist?
It’s so easy to compare the story to what is currently the trend in our government. I mean the trend away from personal accountability and toward a real ‘nanny state’. The movie has the story happening in 2016 so it may not be much of a stretch to imagine that by that time, we really could be where this story puts America.
For more information, see the official movie website here. Also, go see the movie and ask the question: Who is John Galt?
