Laughably awful film renditions of a laughably awful Ayn Rand book; awful as economic and political philosophy, and even more awful as science fiction. Nothing like a magic, perfect, infinite power source to justify your asinine premises and self satisfied, smug arrogance. One great thing about seeing it in film form is that it really helps to flesh out the oversimplification and write-by-numbers quality of the book in ways that may not be as obvious when reading it, and might even be viewed as literary device. On film, though, every corny statement and plot development is laid out in technicolor, right down to the hilariously smarmy romantic fantasy Rand wrote for her proxy character Dagny and the studly John Galt, from carrying her from the wreckage of her crashed plane -and illusions- against a postcard-perfect landscape of snow capped mountains and sequoia trees where you almost expect an eagle to perch on his shoulder or the Brawny guy to walk by in the background, to their first gauze-filtered, slow-piano'd kiss.
There are some really good conspiracy stories out there, from both the right and left wing, but this is not one of them. The fact that there are people that still hold up this book as meaningful or important would also be laughable if it weren't one of the better indicators of the sad level of humanities education in this country.
There are some really good conspiracy stories out there, from both the right and left wing, but this is not one of them. The fact that there are people that still hold up this book as meaningful or important would also be laughable if it weren't one of the better indicators of the sad level of humanities education in this country.