Nearly two decades in the making, the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's best-selling 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, a favorite among Tea Partiers and libertarians, is finally coming to the big screen. Producer John Aglialoro, a board member of the Atlas Society think tank, which promotes Rand's ideas, bought the rights to adapt the book 18 years ago. After funding issues, studio delays, and eight screenwriters, Atlas Shrugged Part I — the first of a planned trilogy — will hit theaters on tax day, April 15. (See a scene from the film, currently in previews, below.) Will Rand's tale about about heroic industrialists in a leeching, ungrateful society work in movie form?
This film was worth the wait: Atlas Shrugged Part I is spot-on in its portrayal of Washington bureaucracy and the media's anti-business bias, says Ira Stoll at Future of Capitalism. The usual critiques of the novel — "the characters are wooden, it's black and white without shades of gray — apply to the film, too, but "so what?" Given the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent push for increased government regulation, "the story is more relevant than ever."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.