esrosedotblog

SHRUGGING IT OFF

I was stunned to hear that there was a movie made of Ayn Rand's polemic Atlas Shrugged. And not only one movie but two.

It seems that my shock will be short lived as the film is tanking.

Audiences Shrugged

I guess I missed it because it got such poor reviews. I just scanned by it.

Atlas Shrugged, Poor Reviews, National

Atlas Shrugged opened in national release to poor reviews. • Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "There is a love scene, which is shown not merely from the waist up but from the ears up. The man keeps his shirt on. This may be disappointing for libertarians, who I believe enjoy rumpy-pumpy as much as anyone." • And Bill Goodykoontz wrote in the Arizona Republic, "The acting is so poor and the story so badly told that the viewer's feelings about Rand's novel - an epic ode to free-market fundamentalism - are almost immaterial..."

Rand was getting a comeback out of the interest of the baggers and other assorted libertarian crackpots.

She has been discredited and all but forgotten several times but keeps returning. Now again. The living dead.

I read a couple of her books. This one was deadly. The Fountainhead was not a bad film, Gary Cooper. But they hacked it up in a Hollywood attempt to softpedal the rants in the book which was a slow read. Plodding.

I knew an actual Randian in Boston. He was a stone sober, level headed guy with quirks. This was one of them. One learned not to scratch the quirks.

I am amused at the homoerotic beefcake cover of the current edition. I suppose that is Atlas but he is also a nice deco hunk. A double down homo look.

It just kills me how the righties can come up with stuff like this and not even realize the message they are sending. Is this the result of repressed desires or just dumb marketing? Or, is some gay designer having it off on these people. It isn't too subtle if that is so.

Which ever it is, the joke deserves to be savored.

Labels: films, republican whack jobs, tea party