to John, and Harmon, and Joan, and Scott and everyone else
I haven't expressed my admiration for the unbelievably wonderful, beautifully done, thoughtfully completed piece of work that AS3 is. There have been no words.
What I, in my innocence, didn't realize until I took a "like" trip to Facebook, was that there would be an enormous outpouring of hatred of John and Harmon and Joan and Scott and everyone else involved in the making of this film. And that flood of hatred, derision, hostility - true abhorrence - is coming from people who label themselves, in some way, Objectivists, Libertarians, and fellow travelers. They pick the film apart with whiny questions and firmly stated objections, until all meaning is lost to them, and then wonder why they aren't uplifted by it.
I admire everyone involved with the movie even more now that I have had the smallest glimpse of your "reward" - again, the use of your own talents against you. If you had not had everything it took to make this movie, you would not now be being ripped apart in public by those who should have been - in fact label themselves - your supporters.
You do have, at least, my grateful thanks and admiration for your achievement.
What I, in my innocence, didn't realize until I took a "like" trip to Facebook, was that there would be an enormous outpouring of hatred of John and Harmon and Joan and Scott and everyone else involved in the making of this film. And that flood of hatred, derision, hostility - true abhorrence - is coming from people who label themselves, in some way, Objectivists, Libertarians, and fellow travelers. They pick the film apart with whiny questions and firmly stated objections, until all meaning is lost to them, and then wonder why they aren't uplifted by it.
I admire everyone involved with the movie even more now that I have had the smallest glimpse of your "reward" - again, the use of your own talents against you. If you had not had everything it took to make this movie, you would not now be being ripped apart in public by those who should have been - in fact label themselves - your supporters.
You do have, at least, my grateful thanks and admiration for your achievement.
Previous comments...
Well said Winterwind.
I took my 30 year old nuclear submarine officer son to see it on opening night in San Diego and we both enjoyed the film. The critics be damned if they cannot recognize the greatness in this enterprise. Thank you John, Harmon, Joan and Scott for this Herculean effort to produce these films.
Cheers
Like a lot of other people, there are some things I would like to have seen (or seen more of). Examples are d’Anconia’s speech at James Taggart’s wedding, Cherryl Taggart’s “awakening”, and Dagny going on Bertram Scudder’s radio program and openly discussing her affair with Rearden (to me, that speech is vitally important; it’s the first of two public broadcasts of something other than propaganda, the opening act to Galt’s headline act).
There are also a lot of things that I thought were done brilliantly. Galt’s 3 hour speech condensed into 3 or 4 minutes, Rearden’s stance at his Unification Board hearing, Hugh Akston’s conversation with Dagny in his vineyard (best scene of the movie, in my opinion), all exceptionally well done.
I can’t (and wouldn’t try to) speak for anyone else, but my thoughts when watching the movies and posting my review were based on the premise that those who wanted to show us Atlas Shrugged as a movie took on the almost impossible task of condensing a 62 hour audio book into 5 hours of movie, while still being able to convey the messages from the book.
From that perspective, I think it was done extremely well.
Each of us read the book and took away our own thoughts and impressions. Some of the ideas and situations in the book are probably viewed similarly among us, while others are probably seen quite differently from person to person.
We were influenced by our own biases & prejudices, histories, experiences, etc.; how we comprehended what we read in the book went a long way in determining what we thought should be in the movies, what we thought shouldn’t be, what scenes should have gotten priority, and which scenes should have downplayed.
If 100 people in The Gulch had to list 5 things from the book we would like to have seen in the movies, 5 things that were there but should have been left out, 5 things we would like to have seen more of, and 5 things we thought were well done, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see 80 or 90 or even 100 different lists.
I think I’m safe saying that just because we all aren’t singing blind praise, it DOES NOT mean we don’t tremendously appreciate what has been done.
Put another way, just because I’d like to have seen more of the d’Anconia speech at James Taggart’s wedding, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like what was in the movie. It simply means I would like to have seen more.
So to John Aglialoro, Harmon Kaslow, and everyone else who helped bring this literary masterpiece to the big screen, thank you. I hope that you don’t see us as ungrateful for what you’ve accomplished simply because we’ve voiced our opinions, both good and bad.
To quote TR, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "