User reviews Review. Top review. I have to admit that it's been years since I read the book required high school reading and while I struggled to get through it, I did appreciate the concepts of a dystopian United States, the philosophy of Objectivism and the idea that civilization and society simply cannot continue to exist where there is no creativity. Almost none of this is covered in this first part of the trilogy.
Don't get me wrong, the film covers a lot of ground, in fact it's front-loaded with heavy doses of exposition. The problem is the film is shot like a PBS made-for-TV movie mainly a series of talking heads and the stiff dialog is lifelessly delivered by TV actors that lack big screen presence.
Now, don't mistake me for one of those people who feel the subject matter of the book is too didactic for mass appeal, I just think this low-budget and amateur version lacks the fire and fury that Rand's novel deserves.
I'm not saying not to see it, just avoid the mistake I made. Go in with no expectations. Hell, it might even make you want to pick up the book and give it a read. RhyanScorpioRhys May 1, FAQ 1. Details Edit. Release date April 15, United States. United States. Official site. English German. Atlas Shrugged: Part One. The Strike Productions. Box office Edit. Technical specs Edit. Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes. Dolby Digital.
Related news. The result, in Rand's fictional universe, is a collapse of American prosperity. Great minds are shackled by government policies, and their innovations are either rejected or expropriated by the state.
Thinkers lack the freedom necessary to create new products, to start their own companies, to compete openly, and to earn wealth. Under the increasing yoke of tyranny, the most independent minds in American society choose to defend their liberty in the most effective manner possible: They withdraw from society.
Atlas Shrugged is a novel about a strike. Ayn Rand sets out to show the fate that befalls the world when the thinkers and creators go on strike.
The author raises an intriguing question: What would happen if the scientists, medical researchers, inventors, industrialists, writers, artists, and so on withheld their minds and their achievements from the world? In this novel, Rand argues that all human progress and prosperity depend on rational thinking.
For example, human beings have cured such diseases as malaria, polio, dysentery, cholera, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Man has learned to fly, erect cities and skyscrapers, grow an abundant food supply, and create computers. Humans have been to the moon and back and have invented the telephone, radio, television, and a thousand other life-promoting technologies.
All of these achievements result from the human application of a rational mind to practical questions of survival. If the intellectuals responsible for such advances abandon the world, regression to the primitive conditions of the Dark Ages would result. But what would motivate intellectuals to such an extreme act as going on strike? We are used to hearing about strikes that protest conditions considered oppressive or intolerable by workers.
The thinkers go on strike in Atlas Shrugged to protest the oppression of their intellect and creativity. The thinkers in Atlas Shrugged strike on behalf of individual rights and political freedom. They strike against an enforced moral code of self-sacrifice — the creed that human life must be devoted to serving the needs of others. Above all, the thinkers strike to prove that reason is the only means by which man can understand reality and make proper decisions; emotions should not guide human behavior.
In short, the creative minds are on strike in support of a person's right to think and live independently. In the novel, the withdrawal of the great thinkers causes the collapse of the American economy and the end of dictatorship. The strike proves the role that the rational mind plays in the attainment of progress and prosperity. The emphasis on reason is the hallmark of Ayn Rand's fiction. All of her novels, in one form or another, glorify the life-giving power of the human mind.
For example, in The Fountainhead , Ayn Rand emphasizes the independent nature of the mind's functioning — that rational individuals neither conform to society nor obey authority, but trust their own judgment.
In her early novelette Anthem , Ayn Rand shows that under a collectivist dictatorship, the mind is stifled and society regresses to a condition of primitive ignorance. Anthem focuses on the mind's need for political freedom. The focus of Atlas Shrugged is the role that the human mind plays in human existence. Atlas Shrugged shows that rational thinking is mankind's survival instrument, just as the ability to fly is the survival tool for birds.
In all of her major novels, Ayn Rand presents heroes and heroines who are brilliant thinkers opposed to either society's pressure to conform or a dictatorial government's commands to obey. The common denominator in all of her books is the life-and-death importance, for both the individual and society, of remaining true to the mind.
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand presents, for the first time and in a dramatized form, her original philosophy of Objectivism. She exemplifies this philosophy in the lives of the heroes and in the action of the story. Objectivism holds that reason — not faith or emotionalism — is man's sole means of gaining knowledge. Her theory states that an individual has a right to his or her own life and to the pursuit of his or her own happiness, which is counter to the view that man should sacrifice himself to God or society.
Objectivism is individualistic, holding that the purpose of government is to protect the sovereign rights of an individual. This philosophy opposes the collectivist notion that society as a whole is superior to the individual, who must subordinate himself to its requirements.
Because of Ayn Rand's uncompromising defense of the mind, of the individual, and of capitalism, Atlas Shrugged created great controversy on its publication in Denounced by critics and intellectuals, the book nevertheless reached a wide audience. The book has sold millions of copies and influenced the lives of countless readers.
As she fights to save her railroad, Dagny struggles to understand why incompetence, which she believes to be powerless, seems to be stopping her at every turn and winning every battle.
And to answer that question, she must grapple with another one: Why does the man she loves say that she is responsible for the victories of her enemies?
His greatest achievement, a new alloy he calls Rearden Metal, has the potential to revolutionize the economy. But Rearden soon finds his metal under attack from the government, the media and so-called scientific experts. Rearden loves his work, but he does not regard it as a moral achievement and is unconcerned with defending it and himself from intellectual attack. But as Rearden begins to understand the importance of championing his work, he starts to see a connection to why he is unhappy at home, where he is surrounded by a family who mocks and scorns him, caught in a loveless marriage, and plagued by a sense of guilt over his sexual desire, which he regards as a low, animalistic urge.
But what will happen as other players make their own backroom deals, threatening the very existence of Taggart Transcontinental? And what does his response reveal about his soul? Unlike the heroes of the novel, he is not a creative giant, but he is unfailingly conscientious and deeply devoted to Taggart Transcontinental. Through Eddie we see that those of greater productive ability do not exploit those with less ability, but benefit them by giving them the capacity to be even more productive.
Eddie also reveals the way in which the best of the men of average intelligence require the creation of a rational society: whereas the heroes can create such a society, Eddie may very well perish without them. For Rand reason is needed not just by a theoretical scientist in his lab, but by all of us at all times.
They choose their goals and values by a process of thought, never putting their desires above the facts. As a result, they are in constant conflict with reality and achieve nothing.
Atlas Shrugged challenges many conventional notions about good and evil: that sex is a low, animal desire; that money is the root of evil; that man is sinful by nature. One of the most prominent is the notion that selfishness is evil and self-sacrifice is good. The heroes of Atlas Shrugged are condemned for their selfishness, while the villains tout their selflessness and the moral duty to sacrifice.
In their dealings with others, they seek to gain by trade, with the result being a profound benevolence toward other such self-interested characters.
Thus in Atlas a code of rational self-interest emerges as a Morality of Life and the conventional code of selflessness and self-sacrifice emerges as a Morality of Death. Atlas Shrugged is a favorite book among businessmen, and for good reason. Many of the heroic characters are businessmen who deeply love and excel at their work. Dagny and Hank in particular are shown as devoted to their careers — a devotion that requires a solemn commitment to virtue: to thought, integrity, courage, responsibility, tenacity.
The basic difference is that they betray the actual nature of business: for them business is not a realm in which to use their minds to create values.
Instead, it is a means to appropriate values produced by others. For the first time in history, in the pages of Atlas , those who pursue business rationally receive profound moral recognition, while those who enter the realm to expropriate values receive condemnation. Reason and freedom are corollaries, Ayn Rand holds, as are faith and force.
Atlas Shrugged showcases both relationships. The heroes are unwavering thinkers. Whether it is a destructive business scheme proclaimed as moral, the potential collapse of the economy, or a personal life filled with pain, the heroes seek to face the facts and understand.
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