Atlas vs. Avatar
If you ask the average film critic about the new movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” they will tell you it is a horrible movie. If you ask the average conservative or libertarian they will tell you it is a great movie. Objectively, it is a mediocre movie at best. Subjectively, it is one of the best mediocre movies you’ll ever see.
And of course this is based entirely on the subject. If it has become a Hollywood cliché to make movies about greedy capitalists vs. benevolent government, Rand’s famous novel radically restructures this pedestrian narrative. “Atlas” is about greedy government that conspires with greedy capitalists to stop other greedy capitalists from making products which, incidentally, make them benevolent.
Confused? You should be.
By definition, a pure capitalist system consists of an actual free market in which investors are rewarded or punished based on their own level of risk without any promotion or protection from government. We generally do not have this type of true free market in the United States today.
What most Americans now call “capitalism” is actually crony capitalism or “corporatism,” in which big business conspires with big government to enrich an elite few at the expense of the many. The bank bailouts were a perfect example of this, in which bankers were reimbursed by the government after taking irresponsible risks. The risks taken produced the mortgage crisis, which was largely the result of a Federal Reserve that had artificially lowered the interest rate to such an abnormally low level that Americans were encouraged to buy homes they could not afford. For the poor and middle class, there was no bailout. For corporate CEOs, we privatized the profits and socialized the losses.
When attacking the supposed free market’s role in causing the financial crisis in his film “Capitalism: A Love Story,” liberal documentarian Michael Moore was asked by a college student why he called what was actually corporatism, “capitalism.” Moore conceded the point: “We don’t really have a free market. We don’t really have free enterprise.”
Rand would have agreed. Simply put, “Atlas” is about championing the creative talents and power of the individual over the often cumbersome and destructive demands of the collective—governmental, corporatist or otherwise. This is undoubtedly a right-wing sentiment and not surprisingly conservatives have applauded this movie as much as critics have panned it. Admittedly, the acting, cinematography and overall quality of Atlas Shrugged is not the greatest. But it’s also not the worst either. Therefore, if many conservatives’ hyper-enthusiasm for this movie is transparently ideological—is the same not possibly true of its critics’ harsh derision?
Compare Atlas Shrugged’s reception to James Cameron’s critically-acclaimed action fantasy film “Avatar.” Avatar was a big-budget popcorn movie similar to the 1996 aliens vs. earth flick “Independence Day.” Like Independence Day, Avatar received recognition for its groundbreaking special effects. But as a story, Avatar was mediocre at best. It was fun and entertaining, yes, but it was not artistically exceptional and it certainly didn’t deserve to be nominated for the Oscar for “Best Picture” in 2009.
At the Huffington Post, Michael Carmichael summarized why liberal Hollywood really thought Avatar was so fantastic: “In a nutshell, Avatar’s political message is: The American Military-Industrial Complex will utterly destroy the known universe.” Carmichael’s contention was backed up by the many critics who noted Cameron’s Iraq War allusions and Avatar’s not-so-subtle antiwar and anti-Bush themes.
As a conservative opponent of the Iraq War, I actually appreciated Cameron’s political message while admitting that Avatar, objectively, wasn’t that great a film. Many conservatives agreed. Many liberals didn’t.
And now the exact reverse is true concerning Atlas Shrugged. If you’re a film fan looking for a great movie—Atlas Shrugged probably isn’t it. If you’re a conservative looking for a great movie—Atlas Shrugged will likely be it. The mania is for the message, and conservatives should be no more hesitant in their enthusiasm for Ayn Rand’s anti-collectivism than liberals were for Cameron’s anti-Bushism. Indeed, if conservatives ran Hollywood instead of liberals—Atlas Shrugged might even be up for an Oscar.
But interestingly, where Avatar and Atlas actually agree brings up an important point I fear most liberals and conservatives will continue to miss: That the same military-industrial-complex liberals deplored in Avatar represents precisely the sort of corporatism Rand also deplores in Atlas Shrugged. Liberals hate that Rand attacks domestic socialism but would probably have admired her opposition to the Vietnam War. Conservatives applaud Rand’s attacks on domestic socialism but many still remain the strongest champions of foreign socialism—in the form of foreign aid, wars for profit, and overseas policies often based on corporate interests.
Rand, who was by no means a non-interventionist, nevertheless recognized that “Foreign policy is merely a consequence of domestic policy.” What many liberals consider good government is actually a welfare state, the constant failure of which perpetuates the rationale for its own existence. What many conservatives consider proper defense is actually nothing more than a warfare state, that’s not only every bit as unnecessary as the welfare state but the perpetuity of which is based on similar rationale. Wrote Rand: “Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.”
Despite so much conservative rhetoric to the contrary, war without reason does not protect American freedom. It diminishes it. This is something Ayn Rand understood—and it is something any champion of individualism over collectivism should understand too.
As an aside, David Henderson had an interesting take on Avatar as a defense OF property rights…
http://original.antiwar.com/henderson/2010/01/10/in-defense-of-avatar/
This was probably lost on some pro-war ‘conservatives’ who believe the US military operates with the imprimatur of infallibility.
Peace be with you.
[...] The American Conservative columnist Jack Hunter compares the new movie Atlas Shrugged with James Cameron’s Avatar. [...]
To me, Avatar was a very boring and predictable movie. The characters are all exaggerated architypes, the story is cliche, and the special effects aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Overall, overrated to the Nth degree.
Just saw Atlas and you expressed my opinion well. It is my favorite mediocre film because of the message, though I suspect the message was not expressed well enough in the film to enlighten or intrigue those who do not already understand it. I hope it will attract more to read the book and really get the morality of freedom and also what capitalism really means – free exchange based on mutual consent without force, no corporate welfare, price fixing etc.
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Speaking as someone with conservative roots and liberal social tendencies reading a conservative publication, I find this piece to be an excellent demonstration of common ground between true conservatives and true “progressives.” We should be united against a corporatist/crony capitalist government that makes the world safe for “looting” the third world of its labor and resources, while trampling American workers and small business. Conservativism does not equal jingoism and militarism, requiring blind acceptance of foreign wars.
Area where conservatives and liberals should agree is the backing off from so-called “free trade” agreements (a pretext for corporatist exploiting third world labor at the expense of American workers) and the enforcement of antitrust laws to at least slow down the unwarranted concentration of business in a few giants, while small business is run over by box stores and chains. A free country must be made up of many entrepeneurs and privately owned business, not former entrepeneurs reduced to wearing blue smocks at Walmart because they could not compete in terms of price with the giants. Anyone who has travelled by car across America in the last 25 years has seen the steady decline of local businesses, and the prevalence everywhere of mass retailers and franchises (business in a box). No one has to think and create any more. Its all done for them. We are not free people any more, just “consumers.” This is where we get stripped of our individuality and pride of ownership and what lead to the welfare state. We need to maintain a system that rewards hard work and innovation and encourages people to achieve.
As for the two movies, Avatar’s value was not its stock story, but its technology. The story was weak and full of holes (my favorite: the indiginous conveniently had a sacred procedure to turn an avatar into a real indiginous, so the hero could live happily ever after with the girl). I haven’t seen this version of Atlas Shrugged, but I understand it was done hastily on a low budget with unknown actors, and in transforming it to the year 2016, did not address many anachronisms from the early 20th century setting in the book. While one day we may have bullet trains, I suspect it will be a long time before they supplant airplanes for transcontinental travel. And I don’t think paper newspapers are on the way back.
I suspect it would have been more effective to remain true to the text and done it as a period piece rather than push the modern allegory aspect of it too hard. But then, I haven’t seen the movie, so I am basic this on what critics have said.
“Like Independence Day, Avatar received recognition for its groundbreaking special effects.”
Independence Day featured excellent SF work, but it wasn’t groundbreaking. I’ve heard that the techniques used in the film were actually already obsolete at the time.
I really don’t understand all the flak Avatar has taken. I really enjoyed that movie (I’m not a liberal). It wasn’t all that spectacular as far as plot goes, but I thought there were some cool sci-fi/fantasy ideas in it, and it was visually stunning. I don’t think it’s at all fair to put it on the same level as Independence Day.
In five years, no one will remember either “Avatar” or “Atlas Shrugged”, and for good reason –– both are useless artifacts that have no bearing on the real-life concerns of real people, unlike classics like “Casablanca” or even “Animal House”.
If you want to make a film that remains relevant, stick to the basics –– love, rebellion and heroism.
I wonder if any of the Atlas Shrugged fanatics out there realize that in this novel, written in 1957, the main character stakes her fortune and future on the continued success of passenger railroads, and the secondary protagonist stakes his fortune and future on a metal that’s “lighter and stronger than steel” instead of on plastics. Within ten years, both Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden would have been living in a cardboard box under a highway overpass.
I’m just sayin’…
In ten years, we will have realized “Idiocracy.” A simple, low-budget film made a few years ago that’s sort of funny but chilling in its prescience.
If any one beleives Atlas Shrugged is about trains and steel obviously did not “read”the book.It is a warning of how distructive the socialist agenda is to human existence.
Her dispiction of the smashing of the auto industry and its inevitable distruction by unions and their leaders in the socialist party is dead on.
If,as Nergo stated Dagny and hank were to loose their wealth ending up in that cardboard box,I am sure they would have examined the box and developed a method of compressing the cardboard into sheets of ply-wood recreating their wealth.Arter all they are creaters not second handers.
Avatar, a re-make of “Dances with Wolves”…just trade out the Native Americans and US Cavalry for CGI aliens and military-industrialists…yet once again, H’wood ‘re-invents’ itself. Paid my eight bucks (went to the matinee) last week to see Atlas…admittedly, it lacks that almighty Hollywood necessity…”star power”, the acting was fairly stiff, and probably half the other junk people (read: reviewers) use to pan the movie, but one thing remains…the story. It is truly a great story, period, and I feel like I got my eight bucks worth. The only real issue I have with Atlas is that I won’t recommend it to people who I KNOW haven’t read the book. Being a 3-part series, and knowing how much set-up the book goes through, I doubt most people would be able to stick it out…damn ADHD / short-attention spans, anyway…