Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Whathefu---huh?


So excuse me if I'm wayyyy behind the times here, but I was just reading some stuff about Ayn Rand's phenomenal Atlas Shrugged when I came across...THE RUMOR. I'd like to think it's a leftover April Fool's joke, but apparently not. No, Hollywood is all set to make Rand's masterpiece into a piece of cinema (assuming cinema is French for "feces") and the two leads are to be played by...Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Excuse me, Hollywood? Shouldn't you be busying yourselves elsewhere with telling us why Castro is actually a saint rather than a monster, or writing George Clooney's next self-absorbed smugfest Oscar speech ("America didn't even know there WERE black people, until we in Hollywood set them straight!")?

But no, you choose instead to take one of the most brilliant novels of the last century and cast it the same way you did with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I read a blurb on the IMDB where the film's plot was referred to in this way: "a powerful railroad executive, Dagny Taggart, struggles to keep her business alive while society is crumbling around her." Huh? That's like referring to Of Mice and Men as "slow guy pets rabbit."

I don't know how to break this to you, oh great Hollywood elite, but Atlas Shrugged is primarily about objectivism and rugged individualism and the notion that FOLKS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KEEP WHAT THEY EARN. Have any of you actually read the book? I'm guessing not, since the idea of self-determination rather than government control is anathema to most of you. You use your award nights to grouse about funding to the National Endowment for the Arts. Do you have any idea where Ayn Rand would've told you to stick your NEA?

I can't say I'm surprised, though. The last time Hollywood attempted anything Rand-related was the atrocious cable sleazefest The Passion of Ayn Rand, in which they turned the life of one of the most important writer/philosophers of our time into something that should've starred Shannon Tweed rather than Helen Mirren. It was a shoddy attempt to cast negative light on Rand's beliefs through some seedy sex drama. Blech.

And now they want to tear down Atlas Shrugged in a similar manner. "A powerful railroad executive, Dagny Taggart, struggles to keep her business alive while society is crumbling around her"? It's not a corporate drama, you mallet-heads. The reason society is crumbling in the novel is because the folks who keep it running (i.e. the folks who actually get off their asses and produce things) have decided they're fed up with being overtaxed and underappreciated. And you pinkboys seem to want to turn it into another John Grisham whine-fest. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Maybe after this flick is made, the director can take a cue from Howard Roark, protagonist of another Rand novel, The Fountainhead, and blow the crap out of every print of the film.

Sheesh.

10 comments:

Snorii said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Snorii said...

I've not read it. Oh well, one of many in my to-read list.

Troy Hickman said...

Post removed by the author? I hate that, as it always leaves me wondering. Did someone say something stupid and then think better of it? Did they accidentally post their ATM pin numbers? This one was posted at the same time as yours, Snorrmaster...did you make a boo-boo?

Anyway, I really think Atlas Shrugged (and The Fountainhead, as well) is really one of the "must read" works for anyone who is interested in sociology, politics, economics, philosophy, ethics, and on and on. It's not an easy read for some folks, but it covers, in a fictional way, a lot of crucial real-world concepts that determine the kind of lives we're all going to live.

Snorii said...

That was me, I'm always bad about posting first and glancing at it later. I used [b][/b] tags for bold, and then noticed that wouldn't work. I guess deleting doesn't really delete as well as some might like leaving a ghost comment to haunt this post forever.

I'm one of the few whose eyes go crossed when I hear about politics, economy, philosophy, etc. Oh sure, it is important, but can't I just be one of those guys that blames the government and mindlessly follows orders from guys in white lab coats?

NuclearToast said...

Since I don't read books, I'm anxiously awaiting this movie so I can see what all my friends have been going on about all these years.

Troy Hickman said...

But Toastie, that would be like hearing about the wonderful Englehart/Rogers Batman comics but not reading them, then saying "well, I'll just see George Clooney in 'Batman and Robin' and that'll be the same thing!"

Nik said...

I always prefered The Fountainhead to Atlas as I felt it simply was a better piece of writing (John Galt's mega-lecture at the end of Atlas never worked for me).

Troy Hickman said...

And when they remake The Fountainhead, it will star Colin Farrell, no doubt.

Stumpy said...

Books?
Those are like comics, but without all the cool pictures and junk right?

IT said...

I'm assuming Brangelina haven't even read the book, or perhaps they haven't even read the script. I can just see them reading for the first time...

"What? 'A is A?' What kind of right-wing fascist bulls**t is this??"