Given this review of the movie Atlas Shrugged: Part I by Katelyn Horn, I’m expecting it to be barely watchable, at best. My plans to go see it this weekend are now shelved; it’ll be a rental.
I suspect one reason for deficiencies in the film adaptation lie in the fact that the production was rushed, in order to keep the film rights from expiring. Apparently the producer approached Peikoff for an extension but it was denied. So, the film had to be rushed into production to avoid the rights expiring, leading to an unsurprising impact on quality. Absent copyright, of course, this would not have happened and a good sequel would likely have been made decades ago. As this review on Prometheus Unbound by Matthew Alexander notes:
part of the problems with the movie derive from the fact that the man who owned the rights to the story was nearing the end of his term and so threw the movie together before his rights expired. Intellectual property — that foe of artistic creativity, which had a friend in Ayn Rand, has played a role in diminishing her work as it went to the silver screen. Make of that what you will; I merely point it out and pass on.
It’s very watchable. I’ve seen it twice now. My wife who hasn’t read but 1/2 of a Rand book enjoyed it and said it didn’t appear low budget. But you can’t please everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know what the whiners are complaining about. I had to get up and go to the bathroom once and having done so I was watching others and no one got up during the entire movie. Then they applauded at the conclusion. I think Harmon Kaslow & John Aglialoro did a great job whether others think so or not…
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Here are my thoughts. I liked it a lot. IP or no IP, I don’t think a better adaptation of AS will or could be made.
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H–what rating would you give it out of 4 stars?
Do you think a big budget would have made it significantly better or would it not have made much of a difference?
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Yeah. I think there are plenty of people who will enjoy it. And if you’re able to get caught up in the dialogue and ideas, I can see how you might not notice the many things that screamed low budget to me (like the the table wobbling in what was supposed to be a very nice restaurant or the incredibly stereotypical sound effects and music). I wouldn’t call it barely watchable. It’s fine, just not good.
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I would give it 3 or 3.5 stars for fans of the book. I can understand why someone who wasn’t already into the book would give it less than that.
Of course it would look better and be a better movie in that respect with a bigger budget. But I’d rather have it be cheap and faithful to the book than big-budget but watered down.
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