Atlas Reviewed

By Michael Baxter

This Wednesday, the NARO in Norfolk screened “Atlas Shrugged” to an audience of about 400 people. The NARO is the first theater in Hampton Roads to screen the film. For the first two weeks of the movies’ run you had to go to Richmond or Washington, DC to see the adaptation of the first part of Ayn Rand’s novel for the big screen.

The NARO showed a portion of the documentary, “Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words” prior to showing the film. For the uninitiated it was a good introduction to Rand and her philosophies. However, due to copyright restrictions, the documentary can only be shown in parts and not the whole. The second portion of the documentary will be shown prior to the film on Wednesday, May 4 at 7:15 p.m.

Despite the multitude of bad reviews, the movie was good and a faithful adaptation of the book. There are no “Academy Award-winning” performances, but the film is worth watching…more than once.

Like any adaption from the novel, you get more if you’ve read the book first. And, with “Atlas Shrugged” some parts might be difficult to follow without that introduction.

While the book was set in the 1950s, the movie takes place in the near future. The movie proposes that the current issues with oil have escalated to the point where travel by train is the only affordable way to traverse the country.

If you know the story, the film takes you to the point in the book of the disappearance of Ellis Wyatt.

The film speaks on many of the issues we see in politics today such manipulation of rules and regulations to favor one business over another, policies to make everything “fair,” and the general corruption in the system as a whole. These are strong themes in the book.

Those themes are also prevalent in the film. And it is amazing how well the book holds up to the current political climate of today. Yet, if Ayn Rand wrote the book now, the picture she would paint would likely be a whole lot darker.

Rand’s view of God and faith has been cause for many to dismiss her views, but she was right on the money when it came to defining capitalism and the way the economy of this country should operate. She believed that the government’s role is to protect the nation from an outside attack and act as the police for the people at large, not to regulate business and commerce to death, or tax the citizens excessively or at all.

After the film Dr. Peter Shaw, an economics professor from Tidewater Community College’s Norfolk campus, led a Q & A session with the audience regarding the film and the ideas expressed in it.

While the questions presented were often biased, Dr. Shaw presented a fair and reasonable response.

People from many sides of the political and ideological fence got to speak and debate their views, making it a great forum and lively discussion about the ideas and philosophies of Ayn Rand.

The Norfolk Tea Party participated in force. They posted on their Facebook page about the special showing of the film and many of them stayed around for the question and answer session.

If you’re in the Hampton Roads area, the movie will once again screen at the NARO next Wednesday evening and they are going to have similar forum after the film.

If you are outside of the Hampton Roads area you can find your local listings for Atlas Shrugged Part 1 in http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/.

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