Trying to watch "Atlas Shrugged" here... LOL'ing

[ReverendDeuce]

I really, really want to write a long diatribe about how hilarious this movie is. If it wasn't for the fact that I know about the drug-addled Ayn Rand and her crackpot philosophy, I might have viewed this film as a cautionary polemic about the dangers of unchecked greed...

I know it's fun to write this off as a joke based solely on the source material, and the fact that the production values are horrendously low, it's worth watching more as a piece of comedic self-fulfilling performance art... This is like watching what could be called a Dada-istic Matthew Barney film with a plot.

I believe that us progressives owe it to ourselves to watch this film and urge others to as well... I can easily see this film becoming the Rocky Horror of the 21st century. This is a cult film about a cult of ideology that just begs to have people dressed up as railroad tycoons repeating lines of dialogue at the screen. "Don't mess with my metal!"

This turning out to be a classic for me!

[mod mom]

1. I never knew she was a "meth" head.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. You're made of stronger stuff than me

I'd sworn off trying to delve the RW mindset after trying to watch the specious An American Carol. If Atlas Shrugged holds potential as an object of ridicule as you say, however, I may give it a go...once it becomes available free of charge at the public library, that is.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. I'd rather cut off my eyelids and sit through the new Adam Sandler movie.

[bullwinkle428]

4. Anyone catch NPR's "serious" piece on Ayn Rand this morning?

They were really doing their best to promote the idea that her theories, which were for many years (justifiably) discarded as completely crackpot in nature, are now embraced by so many in positions of political prominence (Paul Ryan, Greenspan, Boner).

"Ayn Rand is best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The ideas behind them — her philosophy — have sunk so deeply into our political thought, most people don't even recognize them as her ideas anymore.

But Rand does have important admirers, like House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Recently, House Speaker John Boehner channeled Rand when he said, "Job creators in America basically are on strike.""

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142245517/on-capitol-hill-rands-atlas-cant-be-shrugged-off

[mod mom]

5. pathetic piece. here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2302907&mesg_id=2302907