Atlas Shrugged: Part II - The Strike (2012) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
Everything has a breaking point Part two of Ayn Rand's groundbreaking novel comes to the screen in this thrilling and powerful drama. The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, continue to
mysteriously disappear. Dagny Taggart, Vice President in Charge of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental, has discovered what may very well be the answer to a mounting energy crisis - a revolutionary motor that could seemingly power the World. But, the
motor is dead... there is no one left to decipher its secret... and, someone is watching. It's a race against the clock to find the inventor before the motor of the World is stopped for good.
Storyline: The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Unemployment tops 24%. Gas is $42 per gallon. Railroads are the main transportation. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, are mysteriously disappearing.
Dagny Taggart, COO of Taggart Transcontinental, has discovered an answer to the mounting energy crisis - a prototype of a motor that draws energy from static electricity. But, until she finds its creator, it's useless. It's a race against time. And
someone is watching. Written by Producers - Atlas Shrugged
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Casey Broadwater on February 28, 2013 -- In 2011, writing about Atlas Shrugged: Part I—the first in a planned trilogy based on objectivist Ayn Rand's massive 1957 novel—I expressed doubts that
the second two parts would ever get made. Considering the story is about the value of free-market capitalism and well-used wealth, the first film is weirdly chintzy, a low-budget, sub-made-for-TV-quality slog with acting and a script to match the bargain-
basement production values. It failed to turn a box-office profit, but producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro pressed on and somehow secured funding for the second film through a private debt sale. No longer able to afford or lock down the first
movie's actors, they were forced to do a top-to-bottom recast for the sequel, which premiered on October 12th, 2012, just before the November election. This, of course, was no accident. The film's agenda—as Kaslow put it in an interview with conservative
blogger Joe Miller—was to offer "an opportunity for swing voters to see what's going on back in DC and help activate them to vote President Obama out of office." That last part obviously didn't happen, and the film hasn't really succeeded by any other
rubrics either.
The film's brand of agit-prop is based on the argument that some government regulation will inevitably lead to a total federal suspension of corporate rights and civil liberties. There's no in-between in this black-or-white economic fable.
The story concerns tough-as-nails railroad tycoon Dagny Taggart (Samantha Mathis), who's struggling to keep her business operational despite governmental intervention and the cowardice of her brother, James (Patrick Fabian), who cows to the Washington
elite. Meanwhile, Dagny is also trying to solve the mystery of the question that's on everyone's tongues, "Who is John Galt?"
A shadowy figure whose very name has become a synonym for any situation without an obvious solution, Galt has been recruiting the country's best and brightest minds—scientists and artists, engineers and entrepreneurs—to disappear from society without a
trace, leaving their lives' work behind. With this strike, Galt intends to "stop the motor of the world," and prove his ideological point that the success of the nation is predicated on the unhindered freedom of its most productive citizens.
The film gives primacy to the idea that businesses—and the bigwigs who run them—should be free to largely do as they please. At the center of this middle act of the trilogy is a cooperative corporate ménage à trois between Taggart Intercontinental,
Rearden Metal—run by Dagny's hard-working love interest, Henry Rearden (Jason Beghe)—and Ken Danagger's coal company. Danagger (Arye Gross) provides coal to Rearden's smelting plant, Rearden's "miracle metal" is used to make Taggart's tracks, and
Taggart's trains carry Danagger's coal across the country. The three companies are in a perfect symbiotic sync. Until, that is, those pesky old bureaucrats in DC enact the "Fair Share" law, which limits who Rearden and Danagger can sell to, and for how
much. The State Science Institute—"a state institute without the science," as one character puts it—then tries to steal Rearden's metal under eminent domain, claiming it's for the "public good." Somewhere in here, real-life Fox News commentator Sean
Hannity shows up to proclaim Rearden a hero of industry for sticking it to the now- socialist Uncle Sam.
The story's subplots are many, and uninterestingly developed. Dagny discovers an engine, possibly invented by Galt himself, with the potential to revolutionize how energy is harvested. A South American industrialist (Esai Morales) gives a borderline
incomprehensible speech on the importance of capital—"When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men"—and then blows up his own copper mines in an act of protest. A train collision tepidly raises the
philosophical question of individual versus collective moral responsibility. As in Rand's novel, the characters are more stiff symbols than flesh-and-blood individuals—the government lackeys are named "Mr. Small" and "Mr. Mouch," a British spelling of
mooch—and there's little in the film that resembles normal human interaction, partly because of the stilted acting, but mostly due to the clumsy script. Even the illicit romance between Taggart and Rearden is chastened and almost entirely subsumed
by the film's overt political aims.
There's a difference between a film couched within a certain worldview and one that's simply agenda-driven, and Atlas Shrugged Part II certainly falls into the latter category, strategically misrepresenting the "other side" of what should be
rational, balanced arguments about the function of government, the efficacy of a completely free market, and the nature of liberty. These are debates worth having, of course, as the concepts are fluid and always up for reinterpretation. The problem with
Atlas Shrugged is that it's a dirty debater. It sets up straw men and throws out red herrings. It argues by repition. It poisons the well and appeals to fear and makes hasty generalizations. It just doesn't follow the etiquette of discourse.
Like its predecessor, Atlas Shrugged Part II: The Strike will likely only appeal to those already convinced by its anti- regulatory, anti-government argument and willing to overlook its low-budget/creative shortcomings. Even those who agree
with the film's premises and conclusions are likely to recognize that Atlas Shrugged isn't very successful as a movie—that it's poorly made, clunkily scripted, and almost robotic in its storytelling. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is
more than adequate, with strong audio/video quality and a few extras, but unless the first film is sitting proudly on your shelf, you'll probably want to skip this one.
[CSW] -2.4- Below is the plot summary -- because I think you should skip this film.
Plot Summary for Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012)
The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Unemployment tops 24%. Gas is $42 per gallon. Railroads are the main transportation. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, are mysteriously disappearing. Dagny Taggart, COO of Taggart
Transcontinental, has discovered an answer to the mounting energy crisis - a prototype of a motor that draws energy from static electricity. But, until she finds its creator, it's useless. It's a race against time. And someone is watching. Written by
Producers - Atlas Shrugged
It's 2018: the global economy is on the brink of collapse; unemployment has risen to 24%; gas prices have risen to $42 per gallon, which results in rail becoming the nation's primary means of transportation. The consequences of oil entrepreneur Ellis
Wyatt's earlier disappearance is a severe national oil shortage. And the government, led by the State Science Institute's Dr. Robert Stadler, is incapable of duplicating Wyatt's ability to produce oil. Dagny Taggart, Vice President in Charge of Operations
for Taggart Transcontinental, is shouldering the burden of the nation's crisis. In spite of decreasing profits and increasing government regulations, she struggles to keep her family's railroad alive and the economy moving. But her brother and CEO, James
Taggart, stands in her way at every turn, siding with Washington and its cronies. Unbeknownst to society's looters, Dagny uncovers what may very well be the solution to the energy crisis. Deep in the ruins of a once productive factory, Dagny finds a
revolutionary motor that could seemingly power the entire World, let alone the struggling nation. But the motor is dead and no explanation of its design can be found. But Dagny faces an even bigger mystery: why are all the country's greatest minds
vanishing when the world needs them most? Why, when Dagny reaches out to these important creators, industrialists, and entrepreneurs, are they refusing to offer any explanation? And why is Francisco D'Anconia, Dagny's oldest friend, delivering cryptic
messages and purposefully driving his centuries old family business into the ground? The answers to these questions are in a choice. And as Dagny races across the country to find the inventor of the motor -- the one person she believes to be the antidote
to her enemies' tactics -- she will discover that the choice is hers. When the motor of the world is slowing to a halt, what is she supposed to do? Who is John Galt? Written by Producers - Atlas Shrugged
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.
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