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Post by Rob W. Case on May 4, 2011 22:23:04 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)
It was a film project Hollywood refused to produce and distribute. In its initial theatrical release, it was a movie that many pundits in the media ridiculed and marginalized, implying that it is something not to bother with. This movie is the film portrayal of Ayn Rand’s bestselling novel Atlas Shrugged.
The Story:
This film is the first of a three-part story that revolves around three main characters that offer three vital contributions to society. Henry Rearden is an industrialist who owns a major steel company. Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive who believes in Rearden’s product so much, that she decides to use it to build her mainline railroad, and Paul Wyatt, an innovative entrepreneur of the oil industry whose business interests rest on the success of the other two, and provides their life’s “blood” to them.
Amidst their strides to innovate, and unite their resources and know-how to bring their services and progress to the community, they all become saddled with intimidating pressure from political groups, government officials, and big labor groups, who are banded together both in motive and intent in achieving their own ends by exploiting the fact that the community needs them, thus leeching off the skills, ideas, and the abilities that the entrepreneurs have to deliver these things. In other words, these powerful forces are more concerned about getting their own cut of the profits at the expense of the innovators and workers, which produces the services that make the continuing progress of that society possible, especially in an environment where gasoline is over $37 a gallon, costs of everything are extremely high, and the economy is all but totally ruined. Meanwhile, a man wearing a black hat and trench coat goes around approaching many of the most influential contributors to society, and offering them a way out of the society they are subjected to. And as such, producers that truly make the “engine” of the world move begin “missing,” leaving everything behind to crumble and fall without them.
Who is John Galt?
Throughout the story, a question penetrates through the minds of many. "Who is John Galt?" To some, he is a mystery. To others, he is their ticket out. And to those who went missing, he is of significant importance.
I really enjoyed this film. And one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it is because it’s very smart in nature, and makes you think, while at the same time, it chronicles the overall true nature of business and its struggles with government and political groups from an inside perspective. What makes the whole “Atlas Shrugged” phenomenon so significant is that the book was written in 1957, by a woman who lived in a Communist society, and came to America, only to see the very things she left behind in their early stages of development here. And while her book was written back in 1957, the very elements that her story addresses are very alive, relevant, and transparent, even decades after her death.
Out of 4 starts, I would have to give this movie 3.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour and 37 minutes.
To view a trailer for the movie, please click on the "Play" button below:
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 21, 2020 22:18:32 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged Part I is now available for free if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber. It is also available to watch right now for free on YouTube (with ads).
To Play Part 1 of the movie, please click on the "Play" button below.
A description of Atlas Shrugged Part II will soon follow.
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 28, 2020 18:19:11 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged Part II: The Strike (2012)
The second installment of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy takes a darker turn, as political and economic conditions, circumstances, and challenges grow from bad to worse. In the midst of a global depression, the continuing disappearances of many more key people crucial to the functioning of society, including Ellis Wyatt, there is a national shortage of oil, causing gas prices to top $40 a gallon, unemployment to rise to 24%, and railroads have become the only affordable means of transportation available to the public. Nine months prior to everything hitting the fan to an unprecedented level, Dagney Taggart and Henry Rearden found a prototype to an advanced motor located in an abandoned car factory. It turns out that the device has the ability to harvest limitless energy without the use of fossil fuels. While her search for John Galt intensifies, Dagney’s ambition to get this motor working equally vies for her attention. But the key to operate it is missing.
Meanwhile, the government broadens its control over the economy by enacting the “Fair Share Law”, a law that dictates that companies must supply goods equally to all customers, which results in a shortage of raw materials, discourages innovation, and forces businesses to further close throughout the country. That said, Washington bureaucrats, politicians, and lobbyists hold a meeting with existing industrialists, including Dagney and her brother James (who is the acting CEO of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad), who is in the tank with the cronies. In this meeting, they try and dictate what they want their railroad company to do and balance the politics with it to retain electoral support. Dagney wants no part of it, and pins the blame to the economic crisis on their policies, which caused the mess that is now working as the justification to their power grabs. As creators, innovators, and producers continue to vanish, throw up their hands and walk away from their companies, or go so far as to sell their businesses (like Henry Reardon tries to do), or perhaps even be so bold as to destroy their own industry (like Dagney’s friend Francisco D’Anconia sets out to do), it provokes the federal government to act. This results in the largest power grab ever; where the president will declare martial law and enact Directive 10-289, a directive that will make it illegal to quit or abandon their positions of service, surrender all of their intellectual property to the government (copyrights, patents, etc.), forbid any new invention or creation of any kind (so as not to encourage any kind of competition), freeze all commercial output at present levels (no more, no less), impose wage and price controls, as well as direct all other economic decisions to a Unification Board for review.
When Rearden defies this directive, he is blackmailed into giving up his patents in order to protect Dagney’s reputation. Dagney learns about her brother’s collaboration with the forces behind this directive, and decides to leave, though her heart is not into leaving. After a major disaster involving a military train and a Taggart passenger train occurs in a tunnel due to human error, lack of maintenance, technological failure, and the pressure being placed on someone who lacks the training and skills to handle the matter, Dagney is compelled to assess the damages. It is not before long, her engine fails and she has to call out a mechanic. In speaking with the mechanic, she learns that he used to work for the company that created the machine that Dagney found, and that he once knew John Galt.
Who is John Galt?
Dagney learns that John Galt worked for the 20th Century Motor Corporation in Starnesville Wisconsin for years, until the owner of the company passed, and his heirs took over. They talked about how everyone was a big family there, and that everyone was expected to work to the best of their ability, but was going to be paid according to their needs. The reality was, the workers worked harder and the needy got needier. Galt didn’t want any part of it, so he went on strike, and vowed to “stop the engine of the world.” After Dagney’s engineer, hired to figure out and power up the energy device that she found, gives his notice to leave abruptly, Dagney tries pursuing him, which ends up in a high-speed airplane chase that ends in a plane crash.
I really enjoyed this film. It is suspenseful and keeps you captivated. There is so much going on in this movie in regards to drama, politics, and the struggle between controlling political forces and the human will, as well as its driving spirit to fulfill one’s sense of purpose using the skills, talents, and ability to do what they do best, while offering that something to someone who needs it. It is a film that champions individual liberty, while at the same time it serves as both a chronicle and a warning to forces that seek control at the expense of liberty. When this film was initially released in theaters in October of 2012, it was evident that some of the dynamics were already occurring at some capacity in America, and thus the occurrences within this story resonated with the political atmosphere dominant at that time. And yet, it threatens to creep up again, and go beyond today. It is a story that, like the first film, is smart, and even gets philosophical, with a number of points that causes you to think deeply. I love movies like this. This film also features more notable Hollywood stars like Thomas F. Wilson, Michael Gross, and Diedrich Bader.
Memorable Quotes:
“The government takes what they want, and taxes what they leave behind. All I’m doing is feeding the beast that is trying to destroy me.” --Ken Danagger, owner of a Pennsylvania coal mine who helps Henry Rearden illegally create more metal.
“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, blood running down his chest, knees buckling, arms trembling, but still trying to hold up the world with the last of his strength, what would you tell him to do? Just shrug!” -- Francisco D’Anconia
Out of 4 starts, I would have to give this movie 4 stars.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour and 51 minutes.
To view a trailer for the movie, please click on the "Play" button below:
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 28, 2020 18:20:34 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged Part II is now available for free if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber. It is also available to watch right now for free on YouTube (with ads).
To Play Part 2 of the movie, please click on the "Play" button below.
A description of Atlas Shrugged Part III will soon follow.
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 30, 2020 22:58:51 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? (2014)
The third installment of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy continues immediately where the last film left off. In pursuit of the engineer trying to help Dagney Taggart power the engine of the world, Dagney’s plane collides with an invisible force shield that protects a hidden society/civilization, and causes it to crash. Dagney is approached by the man whom she has been fascinated with, intrigued by, and in pursuit of for some time; John Galt. John Galt pursues Dagney from the wreckage and takes her to his home, a gulch located within that secluded community, shielded by an invisible force field that escapes detection from the government. In this community, technological and medical advancements thrive as there is no red tape to hinder their conceptions or their progress. Gold is the primary trading method for which an individual’s goods or services are weighed and valued. And since every key innovator, contributor, entrepreneur, and worker who has disappeared from normal society has ultimately ended up here, the progress in this community is unprecedented, continuously advancing, and always flourishing. Dagney meets with all of the people who ended up missing, and they explain to her why, for their own good, they must reside and/or retire here.
Banker Midas Mulligan, one of the first to disappear in this strike, explains to Dagney why he decided to join John Galt in the ultimate strike. He says, “their philosophy is based on how much you sacrifice to other people, not on what you achieve.” Dagney replies, “That philosophy can’t work.” Mulligan adds, “unless you continue to work and work and work, and work and try to overcome all the obstacles which they have created for you. And no matter how much they take from you, they still count on your work ethic, your integrity, your desire to keep producing.”
A Triumph of the Will: After experiencing the wonders, marvels, and advancements of the society she has seen for a month, she announces that she is going to go back despite everything and continue to fight. There she is sworn to secrecy involving her whereabouts, the existence of the valley itself, and the cause for which it is championing. After she returns to normal society, Dagney finds out that the government is going to nationalize Taggart Transcontinental, with the cooperation of her brother James. Thompson, the Head of state, wants Dagney to sit near him as he prepares to address the people and make his announcement. She declines. Suddenly John Galt intercepts the transmission of the speech that the Head of State is about to deliver, to deliver a message of his own that sheds light on the truth of what is happening, what the people are experiencing, sheds light on the powers that be who are using and exploiting them and what they do for their own gain, and introduces them to the power that they have to take their country back.
To view that speech, please click below (May contain spoilers).
The people’s growing discontent with the government, the self-serving political class that controls it, and the ever-ambitious overreach that they are always aggressively in pursuit of, positions John Galt and his ideas as the solution to the problem. This fuels a burning political movement that rallies for Galt to change things. Head of State Thompson sees a significant threat to this, and baits Dagney to get to Galt. When Thompson gets a hold of Galt, he tries to offer him a deal - a bribe, a ticket set on his own terms, an important position within the government, etc. Galt wants Thompson, his system, and his cronies to get out of the way, but Thompson has no desire to do that and to give up the power structure that serves him and his statist cohorts so well. The next plan on the docket is to implement “Project F”, which consists of implementing tremendous physical pain and torture on Galt in hopes to force him into submission. How can a regular individual overcome an overly powerful government apparatus trying everything it can to get an independent, productive mind to forfeit his independence and submit, or be bought and submit? This film holds the answer.
The thing I like most about this movie is that it sets bold contrasts between the society that is centered on liberty, rewards achievement, and dignifies the individual and the sanctity of his or her ability to choose, and a society where we have limitations set on us by controlling people hellbent on power, control, and setting up the terms, conditions, and direction of society, forcing everything to move in the direction towards the outcome set by the central planners. And yet, they do whatever they want, impose more control, yet cannot produce the components needed to keep society functioning because they lack the individual skills, abilities, training, knowhow, and intellect to implement it all and make the “motor of the world” function properly.
One of the things that I find fascinating about the entire Atlas Shrugged phenomenon is that it is commonly regarded as a work of science fiction. What’s interesting about this is that it carries so many real dynamics and elements within its fictional storyline that it asks you while you’re watching it, is science fiction becoming reality or is reality becoming more like science fiction? The way this series makes you think about things, makes you wonder what reality is becoming. The fact that the book was originally published in 1957 still provides us with a very relevant warning as it continues to raise awareness as to how close we are to fulfilling the drastic elements described in this story, as well as calling us to action to think about what is, how much the dangerous elements are fulfilled, and how we can prevent them from being fulfilled. It is a story that challenges you to stand up and fight against controlling central forces, because you as an individual, a worker, a producer, an entrepreneur, etc. matter.
Out of 4 stars, I give Atlas Shrugged Part 3, 3 stars.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour and 39 minutes.
To view a trailer, please click on the “Play” button below.
The Atlas Shrugged Trilogy is available on multiple streaming services, and Is available to own on Blu-Ray and DVD individually or as a set for a very affordable price.
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 30, 2020 23:48:44 GMT -6
Atlas Shrugged Part III is now available for free if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber. It is also available to watch right now for free on YouTube (with ads).
To Play Part 3 of the movie, please click on the "Play" button below.
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Post by Rob W. Case on Oct 31, 2020 23:00:32 GMT -6
A Special Bonus Feature:
When Atlas Shrugged Part I was initially released on April 15th of 2011 in theaters, Scott DeSapio, the marketing director for the movie called on fans to shoot and submit a video simply stating "I am John Galt." When the movie was slated to be released on DVD and blu-ray, the videos would be featured as a bonus feature on the commercial disk of Atlas Shrugged Part 1. So here is my video of me giving the line "I am John Galt", which was submitted on April 15th, 2011, and appears 07:24 into the bonus feature on the commercial disc. Enjoy!
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