"Atlas Shrugged" film adaptation banking on conservative support

The movie adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged" debuts in theaters nationwide today -- and the reviews have not been good, to put it mildly. But as film critic Roger Ebert noted on Twitter today, his one-star review was countered by four-star ratings of the film from readers -- before most of them have presumably even had a chance to see it.

The film adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged" was years in the making, but it was ultimately produced in just 26 shooting days on a budget of less than $10 million. Though critics are panning it, its creators are banking on the book's decades-long popularity and the current strength of the conservative movement to make the movie a success, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Atlas Shrugged" is a veritable libertarian bible that tells the story of society's leading innovators, who go on "strike" to protest government overreach. It was first published in 1957 but has maintained widespread popularity; more than 500,000 copies of the book were sold in 2009.

The film was produced by entrepreneur John Aglialoro with the assistance of entertainment attorney and executive producer Harmon Kaslow. Aglialoro and Kaslow sought out the support of conservative political organizations like FreedomWorks to promote the film. The pair say they anticipated the negative film reviews.

"We expected that the critics would have a fear of embracing this film," Kaslow told the Journal. "We knew that there was a substantial likelihood that they would not view the film as to whether we got the message right, but would look at it comparing it to what Hollywood would have done. I don't think our audience is persuaded at all by those reviews."

Their target audience certainly doesn't seem to be your typical movie-going crowd. The trailer "premiered" this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. And ealier this week, the Tea Party-linked FreedomWorks helped coordinate the movie's "special Hollywood red carpet premiere" at Union Station in Washington.

The group launched a website with a quiz that asks participants to guess whether a certain quote was delivered by an actual government official or a character from "Atlas Shrugged." The site also features a video of footage from the film spliced with images and remarks from President Obama.

"The Ayn Rand masterpiece is the fight before us today," says a written message in the video. As ominous music builds to a climax at the end of the video, the screen reads, "In theaters April 15, 2011; in your hands November 6, 2012."

Based on the more than one million hits the trailer has received on Youtube -- and the excited response from certain moviegoers -- the movie could be a success.

But according to Ebert, that doesn't necessarily tell you anything about its quality.

"I suspect only someone very familiar with Rand's 1957 novel could understand the film at all, and I doubt they will be happy with it," he wrote in his review. "The dialogue seems to have been ripped throbbing with passion from the pages of Investors' Business Daily."

[simpleconservative]

I have now seen the movie and can report that it is a compelling story that highlights the importance to society of the inventor and entreprenuer. There is no greater debt owed by modern societies than that owed to this class of people. Many of them start with absolutely nothing except a strong desire to succeed. The positive impact they have made in terms of the advancement of mankind is quite phenominal. No government, no King and no dictator has ever been able to equal the positive force of this uniquely American class of human beings! No country in the world can compare to the U.S. in terms of the sheer volume of innovators produced by our country. Regardless of what any statist claims, this is not part of America that we want to let go of. This is not part of America we want to kill. This is the reason we have the easy lives that we live today. Even the poorest among us can give thanks for good reason, without begrudging any success they may gain!

[simpleconservative]

Legacy, no one is making fun of working people, especially me. However without the entreprenuer who risks everything he has on a venture, there would be nowhere for the working man to report. The irony is heavy in terms of how dependent our government is upon those who start a business and collect the taxes, but are villified by the recipients of the money!

[simpleconservative]

The interesting thing to me is that the hero's of the plot are entreprenuers. Hollywood avoids stories like this because they want to give the Democratic party cover for picking the pockets of the productive class which produces everything that government spends. The last time I have seen a movie with even a small amount of empathy for the entreprenuer was Tucker!

[abbe91]

"The interesting thing to me is that the hero's of the plot are entreprenuers."

Just like in "Citizen Kane".

[bradkt1]

Some books just don't translate that well into good movies.

In addition, most "message" or "ideological" films do not do well at the box office. People don't like to get preached to when they go to a movie. Save that for church.

[jimbom121]

Read the book a while ago...decent, but a bit far fetched. Kind of like 1984. Sure the movie will do ok with a certain demographic, but like most movies made from books, I'm sure the book is still better.

[John_Rational]

The movie makers will do what they always do. Make a movie that is MAYBE 1/10th as good as the book. It's nothing to be concerned about.

[GreenGestalt]

Boy, only $10 million for Atlas Shrugged...
They made a graphic novel of "Anthem" but didn't even spring to get it printed in COLOR even at today's economy of scale...


And RandDroids eat it up, desperate to "Consume" anything that caters to their ...whatever... dump philosophy.


Interesting how a "Strike" by labor is considered a crime by people who want a "Strike" by engineers/managers, whatever...


Proves how hollow this Rand stuff is. Years back they were talking about "Going Galt" like when Obama was elected. Didn't see ONE of them doing it, they just kept working their increasingly unrewarding jobs that because they managed to sit through more college and/or kiss up/kick down harder happen to pay more, more afraid than the Peons of getting "Laid off".


What really PO's me about them is that they are infecting the "SeaStead"/"Micronation" movement since I suppose it's "Going Galt" at last and perhaps they want to prove "BioShock" wrong. And these are the people who if they get in that movement will fill it with "Zoning Laws" and all sorts of other garbage that becomes Fascism by the will/complaints of others. In RL they are the ones that harass neighbors by continual complaints to the city, such as getting farmers FINED again and again to harass them away so their yuppie condo can get it's property value raised or ban skateboards/scooters. They only care about their own personal freedom.

[chiefbraveman]

Roger Ebert? If that creep says it's bad, then it must be good.

[bojiden]

Here we go with the armchair preachers -- ignorant people who don't even own a bible and base their knowledge of it from little bits gleaned from liberal websites.

Well, there you have it, dude. Rich people can't go to heaven! Of course, that includes all your liberal heroes in Hollywood and the moron in chief, who also owns a $5M mansion in Chicago. (It's a fact. Look it up.)

Also, the Bible does say we should impart our substance to the poor. Every study done in the last 20 years shows conservatives have a far better record for that than do liberals. What the Bible does NOT say is that 'charity' is defined as a government taking away your property (by force, if necessary), losing much of it in a ridiculously bloated bureaucracy, using much of it to buy constituents, and doling out whatever's left to some folks who actually need it, and a bunch of clever ones who don't.

BTW, "exclusive gated communities"...look up where Jeremiah Wright went to live after President Spend-a-Lot threw him under the bus.

[JWKessler]

Apparently some place in your Bible it must say it's ok for the rich and powerful to take from the poor and the less powerful however. At least that is what your team does so well.

[msimamaji]

Conservatives are supposed to be Christians. They are always talking about how Holy they are. Well, let's look at the Bible.
Jesus told the rich man to "sell all you have and give to the poor." He also said that it is as hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
In addition, his parable of Lazarus and Dives makes it clear what is expected of the rich, and what happens to those rich people who act like Ayn Rand, who incidentally hated Christianity.
Conservatives do not worship God. They are using the name of Christ to promote their own vain, evil, and greedy purposes. They exploit the poor and disenfranchised.
They may run to exclusive gated communities, but like the sinner man in the African American spiritual, they cannot escape the Judgment of God.

[jimbom121]

ginger

Sorry to ruin your stereotyping, but plenty of liberals who believe in god. They just don't try to force it on everyone else.

[Zann-Zel]

How old can you be? You still haven't learned that stereotyping does Not work? I'm a Christian, a Bible owner, and a Proud Liberal thank you very much! We Do Exist! : )