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Well, hard to say. Huge fan of the book and never really wanted to see it made into a film, because I thought it was impossible to do it justice. If I was wrong, I don't think this effort proved me so. It's hard to watch and not notice the 90+% of the content that is missing. It's not as though the people behind it didn't have the necessary passion, but the think and extremely dense book couldn't possibly be condensed into a 5-hour movie. (I'm multiplying the 100 minutes of this part one into three parts) Even given unlimited funds and the perfect director, this needed to be a very long miniseries. And I'm not sure even then the dogmatic repetition of the theme wouldn't turn off many viewers. The speech in book three alone would take five hours by itself to do. All that said, a number of friends told me it was "not bad" or "pretty good", and they were fans of the book. Also, the time is updated to five years in the future from now, as opposed perhaps the same five years from when the book was written, probably from the early '50s and published in 1957. My guess for you: If you're a fan of the book, you'll find the movie at least interesting. If you like the theory the book expounds but haven't read it, you'll probably like the movie. If you are in disagreement with Rand's free-market principles and dismissiveness of religion, you'll likely despise this film whether you've read the book or not. Want evidence of this? Check rottentomatoes.com. Overwhelmingly negative reviews from movie critics, most of whom make clear their distaste for Rand's thinking in their reviews, yet very high ratings from the actual moviegoers. Read the book first. It's a long one and tedious, so better to say I recommend reading the first two chapters, about 40 pages. That will tell you whether you wish to continue.Read full review
A very whittled down version of the first half of the original book by Ayn Rand, this movie nevertheless gives a frightening peek into the America which is coming soon--a socialist society where the producers, inventors, job creators and captains of industry are punished, cheated, robbed and betrayed at every turn. Unscrupulous politicians and labor leaders create economic chaos, while unemployment is rampant and factories close down with increasing frequency. Nearing the end of this first installment, industrialists simply start disappearing, without a trace and without a clue as to what happened to them or why. The question becomes: When will these people who make the world work come back, if ever, to start creating jobs and solving problems again? It's best if you go ahead and read the original Atlas Shrugged novel, but it is a very heavy read, so be prepared for a long haul. We have not yet seen part II of the movie, but hope to soon.Read full review
I highly recommend this story to any American who loves his or her country. I think most people that will be interested in the movie series will have read the book. Those people know that there is no way even two 2-hour movies could do the book justice. Those people are in a sort of advanced readers and thinkers of our time. This movies is a reward for their efforts in studying this great piece of American literature. This movie impressed me with the way it was done. Instead of being set in the past to match the book, the movie is set in the future. This makes the story more thought-provoking since the book has political implications if we don't change our mode of operation in this country. The hypocrisy of the socialists liberals is not lost in this story. And, the all-powerful government is ever-present doing all they can to conquer the capitalistic entreprenuerial spirit. The producers do a great job of keeping that in the foreground. The scary thing is (and is already understood by those who have read the book) that many of the events that Ayn Rand depicted in her book have already happened, and so by inference we can expect the rest to follow sometime in the future. The movie is also a decent piece of entertainment for those who don't care about the deeper meanings. There is the attraction between Hank and Dagny, the corporate power struggle between Dagny and her brother, and the underhanded manuevering of the government agencies. All of these make for a great story. Then of course, there is the mystery. What is happening to all the great men that hold up the economy of the world? And "Who is John Galt?" I just finished the first movie and can't wait for the sequel to come out.Read full review
Is difficult to compress a writer of the caliber of Ayn Rand into the time lapse of two movies (I haven't watched Part II). Someone said that to be fair to Atlas Shrugged on the screen, a movie had to be made for each chapter in the book; I agree, perhaps more than one movie for certain chapters. I realize a person has to be quite the cineaste in order to produce a film of the quality of Part I and keep the viewers entertained, I'm certain that viewers who did not read the book found the film acceptable to a four star rating. Many instrumental passages and symbolisms were left out of Part I, perhaps because they had to due to time binds, thus I am giving it a three star rating for good effort; perhaps after I watch Part II I'd be able to better appreciate both films and to evaluate if their message rivals that of the book.Read full review
If you have not seen this video and plan on seeing Part ll, this is highly recommended. If you have seen Atlas Shrugged Part ll and not Part l, I recommend you watch Part l to better understand Part ll. If at least all college students see both (Part I and Part ll) and the (Part lll) when it is released enough people would enlightened and our country can be saved for socialism and communism. If High School and college students were required to read Atlas Shrugged they could see the communism taught in the educational system today is gradually taking away their rights and enslaving the whole country. Of course, they would have to first know the constitution and its true meaning and how it differs from all the other types of government. Of all the movies I have seen in the past 60 years, Atlas Shrugged movies best show the direction the United States is headed. Tens of millions of US citizens are being willfully enslave and don't even recognize it. Just think if the slave master, (the federal government) was not there to tell a large portion of the citizen what to do, how long will it take them to starve to death or be frozen in the winter or die from heat stroke in the summer because they do not have the knowledge to provide for themselves.Read full review
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