As I mentioned earlier in the week on Twitter, I had never been so excited to see a film for which I had such low expectations. But I truly enjoyed the film adaptation of (the first part of) Atlas Shrugged.
I see that one lonely reviewer listed at Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a passing grade, leaving Atlas with a paltry six percent rating overall. Yet I am reminded of the scenes in Atlas in which the State Science Institute pans Rearden Metal for political reasons. While Atlas is not as good a movie as Rearden’s product is a metal, I think the film faces comparable biases. I think that a film of comparable production value, but based on a politically correct novel or pushing a leftist agenda, would have scored in the forty to sixty range at Rotten Tomatoes.
Based on the trailers, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the performances of Taylor Schilling (Dagny Taggart) or Graham Beckel (Ellis Wyatt). But I thought they did a fine job. Generally I was impressed with the acting throughout. I was disappointed with Jsu Garcia as Francisco D’Anconia; he played more of a bar-hopping playboy, whereas the real character is a refined, intensely elegant man. And the character of philosopher Hugh Akston is completely misplayed. But everyone else is quite good, and at moments inspired. Patrick Fischler brilliantly portrays the conflicted Paul Larkin, and Rebecca Wisocky nails the serenely devilish Lillian Rearden.
The film looks beautiful. The outdoor scenery and the interior locations are gorgeous. I loved the sequences of building the rail line. And the train run itself proves inspirational (though it retains something of a digitized look).
No, the film does not come close to the intellectual or psychological depth of the novel. And sometimes the film gets the book totally wrong, as when (according to the film) Dagny casually offers to sleep with Francisco to secure a loan. Wrong, wrong, wrong. But the film remains basically true to the story and gets a great deal right.
I’ve spent quite a lot of time contemplated the Harry Potter universe, and, like Atlas, the last two Potter films leave out wide swaths of the books on which they are based. Both Rowling and Rand spend a lot of time inside the heads of the characters, and that’s extremely difficult to carry across on screen. While obviously the Potter films have much larger budgets, I think they’re roughly as true to their source material as the Atlas film is to Rand’s novel.
Another apt comparison is the 1949 adaptation of Fountainhead. Atlas is a far better adaptation. In the older film, both Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal play their characters (Howard Roark and Dominique Francon) totally wrong. (In fairness, Roark would be very hard to portray well.) By contrast, at least at moments Schilling and Grant Bowler (Hank Rearden) revealed the true spirit of their characters.
Of course, it may be hard to top the 1942 unauthorized Italian production of We the Living.
Honestly, I prepared to endure the movie clinching my teeth and trying to keep myself from getting continually ripped out of the story by bad acting and technical faults. But that didn’t happen at all. Instead, I was impressed by the opening sequences, and slowly I relaxed, forgot my trepidation, and started to enjoyed it.
No, the film is not the novel. But at least the film respects the novel. Overall the film succeeds, which is a feat under any circumstances, and particularly given the film’s extremely low budget (something like ten million dollars). So go see the movie. And then forget the movie as much as possible and return to the book.
***
Joshua Zader commented April 16, 2011 at 6:54 AM
You write, “And there’s no ‘Money Speech,’ or even a quick line!”
Francisco’s speech on money appears in Part 2 of the novel. This movie covers only Part 1 of the novel.
Ari commented April 16, 2011 at 6:59 AM
Good catch! I deleted the line accordingly. I’m not sure why I was misplacing it mentally.
Rob commented April 16, 2011 at 10:49 AM
It will be interesting to see how they handle the Money Speech in Part 2 – if there is a Part 2 – as it may tell us something about their approach to Galt’s Speech in Part 3.
SteveD commented April 16, 2011 at 6:45 PM
I’ve gotta admit that galt’s speech seems insuperable to me. Though I understand AR actually wrote an adaptation of it. Maybe they’ll use that.