The Fountainhead is my favorite book. The Fountainhead is my favorite movie. One being better than the other has never been a question that makes any sense in my mind. It’s the equivalent of asking me who I love more, my mother or my father [which is not to say you should love your parents unconditionally and by default].
When it comes to Atlas Shrugged however, the tune I sing changes, because as much as I enjoyed the movie, the book is dramatically better, at least so far as Part 1 is concerned.
The actors, actresses, and their acting: fantastic, with the exception proving the rule. Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart are especially great to see brought to life.
But beyond that, the movie falls short.
What the producers did right?
Got Part 1 factually correct. The movie does not stray from the book to any significant degree (other than as mentioned at the end of this review).
What went wrong?
Lack of detail. 9 times out of 10 detail is lost going from a book to a movie, with a movie like Fight Cub being the exception that proves the rule.
But when it comes to Atlas Shrugged, the movie literally feels hollow. The Fountainhead on the other hand, produced in 1949, has no such feeling. Some of the plot was changed, Ayn Rand wrote the script, etc, but even those factors do not make up for a gap this large.
Seriously, this movie is rushed from beginning to end. Were they on a tight budget? Yes, and maybe that was the determining factor for keeping the movie so short (1 hour 42 minutes). But that hour and 42 minutes felt more like an hour.
Had I not read Part 1 already, I would have had difficulty keeping up with the movie. I had no such problem watching The Fountainhead for the first time, which stands tall and independent of the book.
Atlas Shrugged Part 1, sadly, does not.
Which left a faint, but bad taste in my mouth leaving the movie. The taste was bad because at a time in history when a projection of the ideal and hope for the future is needed so badly, this movie did not do what it could have.
It wasn’t enough. It simply wasn’t enough. And if this country has a snowball’s chance in hell of avoiding a Soviet style collapse, acts like this can’t fly anymore. More was possible of the film adaptation, much more.
And that’s what has to be done. More.
Worth seeing? Absolutely. Seeing twice? I will be, if only to help ensure a sequel where someone steps up to the plate and swings the home run possible to Part 2 of Atlas Shrugged.
Final Note
This perhaps depicts the core of what was wrong with this movie. The rape scene between Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart was, not a rape scene. It looked more like something filmed for Lifetime.
This was the one part of the movie that they depicted wrong by not depicting enough. Even at a PG-13 rating, a lot more could have been done with this scene.
Case and point, the rape scene from The Fountainhead, produced in 1949, was more radical than this scene.
Think about that. When sex on film was 110% off limits (1949), the film makers had more balls than now in 2011 when pornography accounts for over 25% of every search on the internet, sex in movies is the norm, and sex on TV is expected.
It’s really bewildering to see that inverse, especially for so critical a point in the story.
See the rape scene from The Fountainhead here.
— Anthony Dream Johnson
I could tell it was going to be cheaply made ever since I saw the trailer. When they show Rearden’s factory, it looks like cheap graphics. When I first watched the trailor it felt like it was a made for Youtube movie. Even when they show the scene of the train crashing and there is fire behind a house, it looks shoddy.
I’m surprised you liked the acting, there were a few scenes I though were over dramatized in the tailor and I felt they could have gotten better actors. I haven’t yet seen the movie but am going to check it out tomorrow.
In any case “The Fountainhead” is in a league of it’s own. It has really great acting. I feel actors now adays are coasting compared to what they had to do back in the early days of Hollywood. Now movies are all explosions and CGI.
It’s unfortunate to hear such unpromising reviews of Atlas Shrugged part 1. I tend to read alot of books before the films are ever made and often find that by experiencing them in that order you tend to expect too much from the film and are often left with a deflated view consequently.
I am going to pick up a copy of the Graphic Novel V for Vendetta as I have not read it but enjoyed the film hugely. Guess I’ll have to wait and see whether the opposite can be said to be true.