First of all let me again say I loved the movie and all the effort that went into its production. Since my client appreciation event Saturday several clients have called in and offered some of their critical thoughts keeping in mind that everyone I talked with liked the movie. I thought it might be interesting to share feedback from the “average Joe” with my fellow gulchers. It may be safe to assume that there were some attending the film who did not like the movie and did not contact me trying to be polite since I was their host. The main issue almost all had was that the movie ended just as things were getting interesting. Several were critical of too many camera shots of the beautiful countryside in the gulch and this time might have been used to include more of the issues from the book. File footage and stills were used giving it a low budget feel. For those stating it was low budget I reminded them that it was important the trilogy be completed and costs are an issue for any independently made film. As a result compromises needed to be made but hopefully it prompts more people to read the book.

Two people specificaly stated that they loved the soundtrack as it enhanced the movie's “feel”. Several wondered why the lights went out at the end of the movie and what caused it. It would have been nice to have had time to include Project X as its message is both psychological and philosophical and important to the ending. Several commented that including Hannity, Beck and Paul sent a tea party/ libertarian biased to the audience that may have turned some off. My opinion was that the AS message is one so important that we need to broaden our appeal to groups other than ours and the comment may have merit. We are already sold. It’s others that need to hear the message more than we do. A couple of my liberal clients mentioned that they "tuned off" at Hannity's criticism of Thompson as it inferred that Thompson was a democrat rather than simply a politician. Using actors in the scenes playing similar roles could have eliminated this bias. Casting Joaquim de Almeida as Francisco skewed too old and made it difficult for the audience to imagine Dagney and him together in their youth. It did not seem credible that Dagney would be attracted to him as a lover. The other two Francisco’s fit into the role much better. Sadly Hank Reardon was almost nonexistent in the finale.

I think we all know that this is a very difficult story to put on film and we appreciate all the dedication it took to tell the story. In order to tell this story in a way holding true to the book it might be worthwhile considering a multi part animated version of the story which could be produced at a fraction of the cost, using the same voices throughout the series for continuity and represent the book without having to make difficult compromises. This may also broaden the appeal to young people. Possibly this method might be considered an alternative our wishful Netflix series.

Did anyone else had similar opinions or was it just my group? I would have loved to see the comments coming out of the test audiences and learn what, if any, adjustments were made to the film released to the public. Will the DVD have a director’s cut with additional footage not seen on screen? When will the DVD be available?

I have not heard of anyone else renting out a theatre to show this film as a part of their business but if anyone else did I would love to hear about any feedback.