Should I stay (home) or should I go, to see Atlas Shrugged? The critics hate it, for valid reasons it would appear: No money, no stars. No frills, no thrills. After all, the book doesn't exactly read like an Ian Fleming,Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn novel. It's a weighty, tedious tome of two dimensional characters.
And yet I seem to find myself re-reading Atlas Shrugged every 10 years or so. There's obviously something about the struggle portrayed, perhaps including what we perceive as similarities to our age that spark the tremendous, continuing success of Ayn Rand's premiere work.
Maybe it's because Atlas Shrugged indeed portrays a struggle, a renewed battle for liberty. We can all name more intellectually satisfying works along these lines, but nowhere in any of them is a plan to bell the cat. Rand's heroes don't just talk. They act, enough to make an actual movie, not a documentary. So maybe I should go.
But I think I won't, at least for now. Despite the faithful's wide approval, I value my imagination's interpretation more. I'll have trouble accepting a 26 year old Dagny Taggart, for example. And I still think a quality audio production is what's truly best here, with a full cast, music, and sound effects. The old "NBC University Theatre" radio series did many classics like Jane Eyre just so. Odds are you've heard at least one of the many audio versions of Sherlock Holmes done this way.
When parts 2 and 3 come out, I'll reconsider.
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