Galt's Gulch
15

In defense of ASIII

Posted by kwillia5 10 years, 2 months ago to Movies
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" I swear by my life and my love of it...."
I saw ASIII last week in NYC. No theaters are showing it in upstate NY (Rochester) and I was in NYC on Nursing Association meeting business for our State association.
There were many generally critical negative comments commenting about the simplicity or triviality of the production (my assessment of the comments). There were minimal complements.
I think it is FANTASTICALLY APPROPRIATE for what I believe to be the target audience. Producers didn't have unlimited resources.
That audience has not spent years studying Rand and Peikoff. et.al.
ASIII presents the essential messages of Objectivism to an audience essentially uninformed of these ideas. They production comes across in a beautiful and effective and even believable (for the most part) portrayal of our values. The actors are excellent in their roles.
It is very difficult to communicate our values to those only believing today's big government ideas and ideas focused on collectivism that are generally held in our altruistic (is it supposed to be religious?) society today.
Recall the password to the power station in the Gulch.
Congratulations.. Can't wait for the DVD.

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  • Posted by sfdi1947 10 years, 2 months ago
    Most of us have similar assessments, but the next to last line is the most important. It is the truism, those who control the oligarchy are completely terrified of the message.
    Why you ask, would a simple film, made from a seventy year old novel, so completely terrify these supposedly confidant, powerful men and women?
    That is because the error of their ways and assumptions is made clear, and because it represents a mitigation of their control, and of their power.
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    • Posted by Esda 10 years, 2 months ago
      You have confused "terrified" and "ignored." If there was any terror about the impact of trilogy, it dissipated after the second week of part one's release, when it was clear the series was going to die on the vine monetarily.
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      • Posted by sfdi1947 10 years, 2 months ago
        No sir I have not, they are still terrified and they will pray until the political sunset in Hawaii on November 4th that Americans have ignored the message of these movies. A movie does not have to be an economic success by Hollywood's standard to be a success, indeed, most indie's are not successful. And every time I hear Linda Ronstadt sultry voice croon "one tin soldier rides away . . . " I think.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 2 months ago
    Trying to put the content of "Atlas" into movies is an impossible task. Considering the attempt was not only a worthy one, but succeeded on many levels is a triumph in itself. To those who never read the book, or are only marginally familiar with Rand, it could be an enigmatic piece, especially because the producers didn't try to jazz it up with car chases, explosions, graphic CGI effects, and R rated sex scenes. Possibly, like the time when the book was published, its audience will grow until it becomes a continuingly best seller in the DVD market.
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    • Posted by JimmyTheMooch 10 years, 2 months ago
      Thank you for this encouraging post. Unfortunately, we can't read thoughtful reviews like yours in the mainstream press. One of the best parts of the film was the fact that there were no car chases. Even better, there were no explosions and CGI effects. Like when the Taggart bridge collapsed and the energy machine exploded, we weren't exposed to those cheap tricks that cinematographers use. If you read the mainstream reviews you would get the idea that there WAS an R rated sex scene in the movie when the truth is that scene was PG-13. Audiences are tired of all those lowbrow special effects and Hollywood knows it. The public is going to buy more and more DVDs with philosophy in them, less and less of the mindless entertainment those takers have been churning out for a century, and this movie will become the best seller we all know it should be. We should demand that Hollywood produce the kind of movies that the people want to see.
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      • Posted by Esda 10 years, 2 months ago
        Yet the movie that will make the most money in 2014 had a talking CGI raccoon. That is to say, look at the numbers and the trend is clear: the blockbuster is here to stay. There is room for the deeply thoughtful movie (Benedict Cumberbatch playing Alan Turing in an upcoming movie for example) but Hollywood operates the way it does because the way it does works.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 2 months ago
        The sequences used to jazz up a film are for the 'teen audience or those with a 'teen mentality. Most adults prefer movies that tell a story, and the story can actually be uplifting. I like to use Expendables 3 as a perfect example of a plotless film. Oh yes, it moved from point A to point B, but I defy you to find anyone who could tell you why. Lots of fighting, and explosions and everyone bore a week's growth of beard (except the women).You can tell I was watching it with my grandson, and even he wound up liking the effects but wondering why we bothered.
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  • Posted by gtebbe 10 years, 2 months ago
    kwillia5, my views are the same. But just to stir things up a bit, audiences consisting of myself and like-minded individuals alreay know what the message is. More so for those who have read the book. Unfortunately, people who really need this infomation aren't listening, and won't.

    An incident I had forced that thought home to me. I brought up the AS movies in conversation, however one educated, bright, and otherwise intelligent person answered with, "Atlas Shrugged? Ayn Rand was a hypocrite because she accepted social security benefits." The old strawman logical fallacy in real life; you don't have anything to say about the position, so attack the person. I don't even think she realized she had fallen into that trap.

    Considering how little all of those involved with the project had to work with, I think they all deserve 'purple hearts' for their incredible results.


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  • Posted by jameyosteen 10 years, 2 months ago
    Yes...I was trying to place why the movie was different. The story is the main part of the movie. Not the special effects or the violence. Loved the moment when Dagny finally saw that fighting for the system was a lost cause.
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    • Posted by ConductorJeff 10 years, 2 months ago
      The part right before Thompson's speech where Dagny had a flashback of asking Galt if she was a prisoner in his house? That was a very powerful part of the movie.

      I saw the movie again last Sunday. I don't know if it was the delicious popcorn or my happy mood, but it was like seeing a different movie (compared to my opening night viewing experience). I loved it! Ignore the gripes I had before. I'm over my pouting. This is an excellent movie and deserves a second (or third..) viewing.
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  • Posted by 12-StringFrank 10 years, 2 months ago
    I saw it last week and I will say that even though some of it was good, this film looked like something from the Hallmark Channel. The villains were like out of a dumb comic book. There's a ridiculous torture scene. Good music, however. Some nice spec sci-fi FX. But it's a 1 1/2 star film. Too bad. The fu*king dumbest scene is when Dagny gives orders to the train workmen to find a way of getting the trains running, then immediately dashes off to a private location to have sex with John Galt. Friggin' STUPID !! I don't care if it's "in the book". That's makes Rand look like an inept writer. I wanted to throw a tomato at the movie screen. Another thing --- that "bad guys" are so lame. They just drink wine and smoke cigars and they're portrayed as some sort of evil cadre. And one more --- don't expect to see any $ sign at the end of the film.
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    • Posted by j_IR1776wg 10 years, 2 months ago
      You mean like Obama saying he heard about the IRS scandal on the news? That dumb? Or next-in-line president Clinton testifying on Benghazi "what difference at this point does it make?" That comic book dumb?
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  • Posted by term2 10 years, 2 months ago
    I say that the bar on movie production is quite high now, and I could see the spending on this movie just wasnt high enough to make it memorable. Way too much talking about how capitalism is good, as opposed to showing people how its good (like they did better in the first installment). Also, their depiction of galts gulch was a little unrealistic, with all the items brought from the rest of the country- apparently without being detected. Things like cars, furniture, refrigerators, etc. If one could actually get things like that in there , the government would have surely found them and seen to it that galts gulch was destroyed. Just unrealistic. Its too late to educate people I think. The crash of the USA will be required to do that.
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  • Posted by mccannon01 10 years, 2 months ago
    kwillia5, I,too, was disappointed that ASIII was not available in the Rochester area. The closest opening was in Albany. ASI and ASII were here, though. I will also have to wait for the DVD.
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  • Posted by edweaver 10 years, 2 months ago
    I have not seen it yet. Soon.

    I realize that the goal may have been to change minds while entertaining but do any of us believe we are going to change the mind of people who cannot or will not THINK for themselves. If the people who study the subject felt it was entertaining and stuck to the Rand message then I will consider it a job well done.
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    • Posted by kwillia5 10 years, 2 months ago
      Think of the power of the subconscious. It took me 10 years to figure out where my values came from. (Catholic military family with Democrat mother. The full spectrum of Theology and Philosophy of Religion in college and, Catholic boys boarding High School). On Xmas break 65-66 in a Catholic college I read 2 books to improve my reading speed for detail for an English Novels course. It worked. I happened to be looking at my shelves in 76 and picked up the odd book with my novels. I opened it, read a few sentences. Mystery solved, that was Atlas. My subconscious absorbed and processed the value system. That trusting of my subconscious has been one of my most powerful mental secret weapons of intellectual life.
      Feed data into subconscious the let it solve the problems and output understanding.
      I hope that seeing ASIII may be that kind of first exposure to these ideas to work on the subconscious of some of the viewers. Without this their subconscious has no chance to absorb.
      This is why I think this presentation is genius.
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      • Posted by edweaver 10 years, 2 months ago
        I won't disagree. I will just point out that was back in 76 prior to most of the indoctrination that has been going on in the public school system since then. I hope you are right and there is hope.
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    • Posted by xthinker88 10 years, 2 months ago
      Isn't the audience in a sense, the real world equivalent of the random groups of people shown listening to John Galt's speech in the movie. People for whom the message resonated without their own ability to figure it out for themselves. It seems to me there are quite a few characters like that in the book. Including Rearden and Dagny.
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