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Pannic2014-07-05 20:04:21

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No Bioshock Jokes, part 3

Okay. Just one more half-hour of this terrible movie and I'm done.

You know, there's actually a pretty good shot in the movie where we have a train going, and then it dissolves to James Taggart playing with a toy train set while slouching in a couch. It's a good visual way of representing how he just doesn't have it in him to run a train company.

It's shots like that where the movie changes from being hilariously inept to being kinda tragic, 'cause it's like someone stumbled onto what movies are.

So anyway, as mentioned at the end of the last update, Rearden reveals to Dagny that he's come across a mysterious engine prototype amidst the stuff with that company in Wisconsin he mentioned earlier. Very good, screenwriters! I can see that at one point someone attended a Screenwriting 101 lecture!

And then Rearden gets a phone call. Turns out that the government passed the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill." Rearden is furious. He says "I'll sign away my other companies, but they are not getting my metal!"

Wait, what other companies? You've never established this before. The only thing you've indicated is that this guy is a steel magnate. That's all. You haven't indicated he had other companies. Might want to attend some more of those Screenwriting 101 lectures...

Dagny is concerned about Wyatt's bridge, which we saw them building earlier. Rearden says that he'll get it done 'cause he gave his word. Oh. So I guess, that, what, he was running the construction company?

Wait, why would he need to run multiple companies? Couldn't he consolidate them into, like, one unified "Rearden Industries" thing? Sounds like a pretty easy way out of this mess. Just merge your assets. Merge your assets you fuck!

Then we go back to Rearden's mansion where glasses-wearing douchebag is all "This is just a technicality - we'll always consider the ore line as yours" and Rearden's all "No, I either own the property or I don't."

Okay, yeah. Rearden is Carnegie. He owns everything from the ore to the construction, and he's got it all in a nice little vertically integrated system. Well, minus that whole "Savage Wealth" thing.

Anyway, glasses-wearing douchebag (who could conceivably be an interesting character 'cause he's got this whole "conflicted loyalties" thing going on) reassures him about how he'll totally have all the ore he needs, and Rearden's all "whatever." I get the feeling that this guy isn't actually gonna be able to come through on it 'cause the film is pretty obviously painting him as kind of, well... a douchebag. Every time he's on screen I just want him to shut up.

And then... text onscreen. It reads "Rearden Ore Corporation." Wait, a corporation? Well, I guess it isn't a C Corporation, then... why is this text necessary? You're just making me confused, because you know what? This story actually has an anti-corporate bent. I mean, like I mentioned in the last update, your standard C Corporation is a collectively-owned entity. Taggart Intercontinental appears to be a corporation, with the board of directors et al not being framed very positively and Dagny being the only competent one in the bunch. Then you got Francisco D'Anconia having a larf with investor money so he can prank James Taggart and the Mexican government, and from the looks of it he doesn't think very much of his stockholders. Of course, the screenplay doesn't dwell on these elements for very long, because it's made by and for the Wall Street crowd. Other things have obviously been softened. For example, we didn't get Francisco D'Anconia's big speech about why we should go back to the gold standard. I mean, does the Wall Street crowd want things to be shaken up that much? Nah. They just want to present the idea that the masses need them and they're the ones who know what they're doing and they shouldn't be regulated by the government.

There's also a shot of Rearden's wife and mother smiling at him. They sure are looking smug for... no real reason.

Then Rearden Coal Company. I guess we're getting a montage.

Rearden Foundary Inc. Wait, another corporation?

Rearden Manufacturing Intl. Okay. Not sure how the US government is supposed to take control of, well, an International company.

I'm so confused. All this time I thought that Rearden was just, like, the sole proprietor of a steel company. But now he owns several companies because I don't know. I mean, I don't know all of my business stuff, but couldn't he just consolidate his assets? Or liquidate them? And furthermore, what kind of businesses are these? They don't appear to be C Corporations, but thing alike "Inc." and whatnot indicates that it might at least be a partnership or something. We don't see any other partners. Nothing makes sense.

Also, seriously, this composer's talents are wasted.

So the story goes back to Dagny, who's getting ready to finalize plans for the first train to run on the John Galt Line. Someone from the Union of Locomotive Engineers comes in; you know, it's kinda silly how you can pretty much unfailingly predict who's gonna be a good guy or a bad guy in this. If they're from a government body or a union, they're a bad guy. If they're the head of a company, they're one of the good guys.

I'm going to make a prediction: Union douchebag is gonna tell her she needs to stop or something, and Dagny's gonna refuse.

"You're busy, I'll be brief. We're not going to allow you to run that train on the John Galt Line."

"Get out of here. You do not come into my office and tell me what you will or will not allow me to do."

Boo-ya!

Yeah. Because the committee decided that allowing their men to be on that train on the untested metal would "violate their human rights."

"Are you serious, Mister Brady?"
It's funny if you take that as Taylor Schilling balking out how terrible this script is. Oh yeah, and that "Get out of here" line delivery was the closest she's come to being that sort of credible stern no-nonsense character she needs to be. Just a couple more years, Schilling; then you'll get a critically-acclaimed role in a much better Netflix thing.

"You want me to provide the jobs... and you want to make it impossible for me to have any jobs to provide."
So she makes an ultimatum that if the train works, she's never gonna hire anyone from their union again.

So there's more terrible dialogue that doesn't sound much like how actual people talk:

"I'm never used the word 'forbid,' I'm only stating that you cannot force anyone to take that run."

"I would never force a man to do anything."

Yeah, if you don't want to work in shitty, unsafe conditions, you can always just quit and find a new job! Easy-peasy!

Anyway, she says she'll get volunteers.

Then another restaurant. News thing. Dagny's addressing reporters, saying the train will go 250 miles per hour.

"Miss Taggart, who is John Galt?"

  • big dramatic pause as we have reaction shots*

"We are."

That was probably supposed to be more dramatic than it actually was.

Then the train goes. You know, there are 29 minutes left. I'd think that this would be best served as the climax for the whole film, if we have to cut the larger story into parts. Make the whole movie focus completely on the railroad problems, with building it and fighting the bureaucrats the whole way, climaxing with the tense maiden voyage. That'd actually work. So far, however, there isn't much in the way of tension here that I'm seeing...

I feel bad for this composer. Someone give him a job, please.

There's an awkward dissolve cut to some trees before going back to the train to confirm they're going at 250. That kinda breaks the pacing...

Neat bridge. Not gonna lie, this is almost seeming like an actual movie. It's actually pretty watchable when we just have these visuals and this music and nobody's saying any terrible dialogue.

So they make it. Wyatt's happy, the government douchebags are cranky and hoping they can turn this around.

Happy dinner montage.

The dialogue comes back when they start talking about oil. Wyatt's found an untapped reservoir of oil in a place that'd been considered "dry" to conventional drilling.

Rearden and Dagny talk. And then we get a sex scene. Pretty tame, given that the author wrote a scene in The Fountainhead to indulge her rape fetish. I'm just saying, I think Ayn Rand romance scenes call for something a little more intense than this fucking piano.

So anyway, with twenty minutes left in the film, I wonder what else there is if the train launch wasn't the film's climax.

We cut to Wyatt, who's alone downstairs. There's a rap on the door. He answers, and there's fedora-man. Scene ends, aaaaand will this music please shut the fuck up? It's trying way too fucking hard. Just shut up. You're allowed to have moments of silence in your film. You don't need to fill every second with the fucking orchestra.

Anyway, next morning, Wyatt is gone. Rearden and Dagny decide they'll take a getaway up to Wisconsin to see that engine. On the way, Rearden explained that the company failed because of their wage policy. They paid people according to their needs, not their contributions. So they bemoan "all these stupid altruistic urges" that are so pervasive in the world today.

You know, there's a fast food restaurant here in Southern California. It's called In-N-Out Burger. They pay their employees pretty well: starting wage is $10.50. That's well above the current federally-manadated minimum wage, and certainly a lot more than your average fast food chain. And you know something? People fucking love In-N-Out Burger. They've managed to craft a public image of a simple, ethical store. They have Bible verses on their food cartons, for crying out loud. That's brand loyalty, aka people who will continue buying your stuff.

Actually, that's not particularly relevant. I just felt like mentioning it. And it's not like this "altruism" that Ayn Rand thinks is causing society to crumble is anything new. Those great industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller weren't just titans of the businessworld, but they gave shittons of money to charity, Carnegie because he felt it was his responsibility as a rich person, and Rockefeller because he was really religious. And that continues today with people like Bill Gates. Guy thinks he got his money by a series of lucky circumstances, so he gives back to malaria research. To be fair, you can see how he's right if you read Outliers.

Point is, big businesses doing nice things doesn't tend to bring them down. Good PR is invaluable because it means people won't boycott you. The Ronald McDonald House isn't exactly causing the money to hemorrhage cash, now, is it?

So they walk into this huge empty warehouse and look around. Rearden calls her attention to a secret passageway, because tons of industrial buildings have those. There, they find all kinds of stuff. Big sophisticated drawings, which they marvel at.

And there's the engine. Well, part of it. It's a small thing. Dagny explains that it's a small particle accelerator. Bluh. Tons of technobabble. TL;DW it "uses atmospheric vacuum to create static electricity."

Your thing works by generating static electricity? I dunno about this electrical engineering stuff, but doesn't that sound a little inefficient or something? I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, they decide to try to track down its inventor. It ain't easy. Soon they're taken to someone else in Washington who's all about "social progress and universal prosperity."

Do the Republicans just not exist in this universe? These politician dudes are all the exact same fucking strawman. Anyway, he chooses to be helpful and gives them another name. More going down a list.

Okay. This is a problem. Thirty minutes to the end of the film and we start on a completely different story.

So they search some more, Rearden has to go back to his company...

Then Dagny gets a call from Eddie saying that the Union is demanding that all the trains on the John Galt Line be reduced from 100 to 60 miles an hour. Umm, it was 250 miles per hour in this movie, screenwriters. You might want to double-check. Did anyone proofread this script? Anyone?

More shit about politicians meddling in their business.

So Dagny meets dude who owns a diner who's connected to the engine. She asks him about the engineer who built said engine. He, of course, is vague and doesn't answer. He just says that it's a biiiiig secret and not to worry - the inventor will find her.

So she stops for food. News has a government douchebag defending some stupid thing. But then there's breaking news that there's a huge fire in Wyatt's backyard! She drives off, fedora-man watches. So as she drives off, government douchebag explains new policies about moratoriums on railroads, special rules for steel manufacturers, blah blah blah, companies can't move states, and a special federal tax on Colorado to "equalize the national economy." So why is James working with this guy? Earlier when Eddie was on the phone with Dagny he was all "oh, we're fucked." Why is he going along with it? James doesn't make sense.

So Dagny arrives at the Wyatt place to find... that Wyatt isn't home. Well, no shit.

Then we have a flashback to Wyatt's meeting with fedora man, who explains that he's John Galt and that he wants him to join the strike. Because we obviously couldn't figure that out ourselves. Also, shouldn't this scene be more about Dagny's reaction? I mean, you're diluting the impact of this scene by choosing to explain what we already know.

So John Galt explains to Wyatt about Atlantis as we see Dagny witness the huge oil fire.

Seriously, the voiceover was completely unnecessary.

So we get a nice shot of Dagny facing the fire as the camera zooms out, and written on a sign is "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours." Pardon my skepticism when you claim that Ellis Wyatt found his oil reserves on fire.

Text crawls across the screen like with the other douchebags who vanished, and we get what I can only presume is an answering machine.

"This is Ellis Wyatt. I'm gone. Don't try to find me. You won't. I am on strike."

So that was Atlas Shrugged: Part I. It's about as bad as you could imagine. In all honesty, it had a few moments here and there that were kind of nice, but on the whole it is at best mediocre and at worst a complete mess. The pacing is plodding with the script bogged down in the first third by talks of business transactions. Things happen offscreen without doing anything to help us understand what's going on or why we should care. The cast is uneven, consisting of people who either don't give a shit or who struggle to work with the limited material they have. There is little that's memorable about the characters, with the antagonists all being almost completely identical.

We're given character actions that don't make sense. In fact, large swaths of the plot don't make sense, and I struggle to really think of what the central story of part I is. It's not the strike, because that's never the focus. I'd say it's building the railroad, but that stops with thirty minutes before the thing. Most of the government douchebag stuff is offscreen. Either way, most of the script is concerned with delivering exposition, with precious little devoted to actually building characters or an emotional connection with the audience. The only parts that really work are when people aren't talking about their business stuff or about business-destroying bills or whatever.

Sad thing is I can see things in it that could make a good movie. Some of the performances are good. Some of the shots are good. Some of the lines are good. But mostly it's just baffling and nonsensical. And maybe those good points are only because I got some kind of weird Stockholm Syndrome.

So this movie didn't do well. It flopped critically and commercially, but the creators did manage to get together enough money for part II. With a new director. And a new cast. No, seriously, they changed pretty much the entire cast for Part II. I guess Taylor Schilling chose to follower her rational self-interest and get an actual career.

Comments

ILSS Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 5th 2014 at 8:30:14 PM
It's like a clarification of my comment on the first post in this series.

"If it weren't for government meddling, we'd be paying our workers in pennies, and safety would never stand in the way of profits!"

"That's not really a selling point."
IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 5th 2014 at 9:48:32 PM
And then Rearden gets a phone call. Turns out that the government passed the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill." Rearden is furious. He says "I'll sign away my other companies, but they are not getting my metal!"
  • Wait. What? Not the part about them not being established. But 1) if the law doesn't take immediate effect and isn't backdated to the day of its passage, you can just merge them and 2) if the law was written that way, even only late in the process, why didn't he take this step already? Is Rearden supposed to be an incompetent owner?

Wait, why would he need to run multiple companies? Couldn't he consolidate them into, like, one unified "Rearden Industries" thing? Sounds like a pretty easy way out of this mess. Just merge your assets. Merge your assets you fuck!
  • Oh hey, it's happening here, too. But yes, it's an obvious step to take.

I mean, like I mentioned in the last update, your standard C Corporation is a collectively-owned entity.
  • It can be, but doesn't need to be. They don't tend to be because for tax purposes a C corporation is inefficient if it's closely held.

And furthermore, what kind of businesses are these? They don't appear to be C Corporations, but thing alike "Inc." and whatnot indicates that it might at least be a partnership or something.
  • I'm not 100% on this, but I think that at least some C corporations don't need "corporation" or "incorporated" in the name if they existed before the relevant law was passed. And strictly speaking, you don't need partners for a partnership, just like you can have a C corporation wholly owned by a single individual. I still don't know why an apparent industrial magnate is incapable of handling basic financial management.

"You're busy, I'll be brief. We're not going to allow you to run that train on the John Galt Line."
  • How would they even stop her? Strictly speaking, wasn't she starting a new company for the line? Why would she even care if they stopped the functioning of her brother's company? And given hers is new, there's not even a real barrier to stop her from finding a few scabs (well, not really, if it's a new company that was never on a union contract, but same idea).

Then another restaurant. News thing. Dagny's addressing reporters, saying the train will go 250 miles per hour.
  • You mean . . . significantly slower than already existing trains in Japan and France (at least)? MY GOD! Also, yet again, a failure resulting from giving the movie a date.

The dialogue comes back when they start talking about oil. Wyatt's found an untapped reservoir of oil in a place that'd been considered "dry" to conventional drilling.
  • The American horizontal fracking boom has been going on for a decade. It's the only reason that oil production is above its 2005 level. This isn't really impressive in the real world in 2014. And that's ignoring any problems with the technology.

Scene ends, aaaaand will this music please shut the fuck up? It's trying way too fucking hard. Just shut up. You're allowed to have moments of silence in your film. You don't need to fill every second with the fucking orchestra.
  • Given that it's been close to the film's only strong point, this is both disappointing and understandable: the temptation to overuse your one strong point can be strong.

Rearden and Dagny decide they'll take a getaway up to Wisconsin to see that engine. On the way, Rearden explained that the company failed because of their wage policy. They paid people according to their needs, not their contributions.
  • So, another example of pointing out the flaws in a straw man?

The only issue I have with the In-N-Out Burger example is the use of the irrelevant federal minimum wage ($7.25), rather than California's ($9.00).

Those great industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller weren't just titans of the businessworld, but they gave shittons of money to charity, Carnegie because he felt it was his responsibility as a rich person, and Rockefeller because he was really religious. And that continues today with people like Bill Gates. Guy thinks he got his money by a series of lucky circumstances, so he gives back to malaria research.
  • In fairness, there's also an arguably darker side sometimes, as with Gates's work in education, which depending on your views is likely to be counterproductive and anti-labor.

Your thing works by generating static electricity? I dunno about this electrical engineering stuff, but doesn't that sound a little inefficient or something?
  • Yeah, not likely to be the best choice. Static tends to be better for high voltage, low power stuff (see Tesla coil, Wimshurst machine).

Then Dagny gets a call from Eddie saying that the Union is demanding that all the trains on the John Galt Line be reduced from 100 to 60 miles an hour. Umm, it was 250 miles per hour in this movie, screenwriters. You might want to double-check. Did anyone proofread this script? Anyone?
  • I can think of reasons for this, but they run into the problem that it doesn't make sense to build locomotives capable of 250 if you were planning on maxing out at 100.

So we get a nice shot of Dagny facing the fire as the camera zooms out, and written on a sign is "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours." Pardon my skepticism when you claim that Ellis Wyatt found his oil reserves on fire.
  • And we're supposed to support this destructive, petty action, right?

Sounds like an avoidable train wreck, on the whole. But the question is, could it have both worked as a movie meant to appeal to real people rather than sociopaths and the incredibly greedy who want a philosophical cover while also pushing the themes and (a-)morals that were the driving force? I have to assume that it's possible, but evidently this wasn't the movie that accomplished it.
Pannic Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 5th 2014 at 10:22:18 PM
Oh yeah. Loads of environmental destruction. In all fairness, if you ignore that and you suppress your mental connections to Kuwait, it's at least good as a big "fuck you." I mean, sure, it collapses under thought, but at least it's memorable.

Actually, now that I think about it, how the fuck is Wyatt going to carry on his oil business in "Atlantis"? Is Galt going to give him land to drill on? Like, he's abandoning tangible assets he has in exchange for... what, exactly? I'm so confused.
ILSS Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 5th 2014 at 10:50:49 PM
But the question is, could it have both worked as a movie meant to appeal to real people rather than sociopaths and the incredibly greedy
You could try, but greedy sociopaths are kind of the target audience.
IcyShake Since: Dec, 1969
Jul 6th 2014 at 9:08:00 PM
  • Actually, now that I think about it, how the fuck is Wyatt going to carry on his oil business in "Atlantis"? Is Galt going to give him land to drill on? Like, he's abandoning tangible assets he has in exchange for... what, exactly? I'm so confused.

The bigger issue I have is just how they'll manage generally. If it's not completely self-sufficient—which would suggest they'd need more than just rich guys and servants—they'll need to import a ton. How will they do that? How can it hold up in the long term if they are essentially abandoning their means of income? Even if they are leaving their companies intact to live as rentiers, isn't going off alone all at once just making expropriation easier? Is there a logical connection between their actions and the outcome they are trying to achieve, and if so, is it coherent? If they are self-sufficient, doesn't that mean that they're all taking a big hit in income? You can't amass billion-dollar fortunes in a closed economy with a population of a few thousand; there just isn't the demand base or the labor. And for all their self-importance, I'm pretty sure these magnates just aren't as productive as they think they are, and are even less so if they lose their capital and the labor operating it.
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