OMG I am So Sorry!

Posted by Zero 9 years, 6 months ago to Movies
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Mr Aglialoro, you stand a Knight among us.

Driven by the same great desire we all shared - the insatiable longing to SEE the great work - you've sunk so much of yourself into this effort (so many years - so many $$millions) you deserve a monument of your own.

Unfortunately it will probably be ASIII.

Oh My God. Mr A, I am SOOO sorry.


I stand in your own House, sir, and truly, I mean no disrespect. I beg your forgiveness even as I continue.


One of my favorite books is called "To Engineer is Human, the Role of Failure in Successful Design". It points out that more is learned from a single engineering failure that a hundred successful designs.

It seems your destiny Brother, despite your best efforts, to be the architect a just such a noble failure.
But we've learned a great deal from the experience.

Above all we've learned you need a LOT of money. A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY.
Who could have guessed that even a HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS is probably LOW BALL for an EPIC TRILOGY based on a larger than life novel.

And we know now that we can't all just "pitch-in" and raise that kind of money.
That Kick-starter thing was fun and all, and made us feel better about ourselves, but it accomplished nothing toward the goal of funding the project.

And we've learned that grass-roots marketing is no substitute for the power-house Marketing Industry that's grown up around the Giant Studios


We've learned that it's not the actor - it's the character. When funds are low, precious dollars spent on a recognizable face is money wasted.
Find a talented unknown, they're not rare, and trust to Miss Rand's character development.

We've learned you must not ignore the basics of writing, SHOW DON'T TELL. Most especially with this subject matter. The whole point of dramatizing Miss Rand's philosophy was to SHOW by EXAMPLE how human and universal these concepts are. When a conclusion is not obvious, it must be SHOWN to be TRUE else it seems completely arbitrary.

Truncated speeches and voice-overs simply will not do. They just give rise to complaints of pedantic propaganda - AND RIGHTFULLY SO. You've claimed a Truth you have not shown.

And we now know that three movies - six hours! - is not enough. Nothing but a full season series will do, preferably a state-of-the-art, HBO style series.

And we're not going to get something like that just by courting the devoted.
We've learned that too. WE are not enough - we need THEM too.

We've got to make a movie that draws people in - not that they have to be persuaded to see.
We need action, romance, and rage against the machine!


And, one more thing I'll say - the greatest of blasphemies - AR was not a movie maker and her views on the subject should not be the final arbiter today.

When they made "The Fountainhead", way-back-when, they asked Frank Lloyd Wright to provide some designs for the movie. He agreed - but only if he was given full control of casting, music, director, and even script approval! Of course they had to pass on his offer. What the hell did FLW know about screenplays?!

Miss Rand, being from her time and generation, thought "rock-and-roll" was essentially jungle music.
She enjoyed her "tiddlywink" music, but only the Great Composers were important, and modern music was simply a return to the primitive.

Fair enough, but now our movie has to have a soundtrack from the 40's?!


I'm going to stop now. I've already gone on too long.
I know I stand a hollow man.

It's easy to complain, but where is MY movie? What have I done to compare to Mr Aglialoro's achievement?
Not a damn thing. Just another Monday morning quarterback.

And to that extent I am ashamed of this post.


Except that I could not help it.
I tried to just let it go, out of respect for Mr A's heroic efforts.
But I couldn't.

If we don't learn from the noble failure - what then has been accomplished?
I will be apologizing for this movie every time I "recommend" it.
So will you.

The next movie MUST be better - there is too much at stake.
This world IS NOT LOST unless we give up on it!


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  • Posted by sydney 9 years, 6 months ago
    ANYONE WHO PANS THE MOVIE - INCLUDING ME IS WRONG....HERE IS WHY:

    Sure, it's easy to critique the technical aspects of the movie, even the casting of Frisco...however, though I felt the execution was indeed lacking, so what!?

    The movie should be judged as a whole, and being in love with Atlas and all of the characters, and especially the story...I give the movie excellent marks!

    What would we all be saying if a movie was brilliantly cast, an unending budget for advertising and making the movie, but the story and message extolled the virtues of communism and Mr. Thompson's world? Would we be saying the movie was great? I know I wouldn't. For me, the story is everything.

    AS3 casting was, for the most part, terrific! The acting was terrific! The speech should have been longer, if not intact, but I prefer a movie made on a shoestring extolling the life, message, story of the good guys, like AS 1, AS 2, and AS 3...great job, all who were involved! And, from this movie goer, a heartfelt thanks to all who participated and to Mr. A & Mr. K...thank you!!!
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 6 months ago
    I haven't seen it yet, but I'll accept it even if it's not that good. (I suspect it is good; most people liked it.) People will see it who wouldn't read the book at first. Everyone knows movies often aren't as the book, so if they like it at all they may read the book.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
      It's what we have, and I'm grateful for anything. I'll own it of course, we all will.

      It's more than just variance from the book (I thought it stayed quite true to the source), but I'll leave all that alone.

      I never meant to make this is into a tear-down rant.
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  • Posted by SolitudeIsBliss 9 years, 6 months ago
    Kudos Zero. Couldn't agree more. Breaks the heart to see such work trying to represent such a literary masterpiece about Excellence vs. Mediocrity ! Such a noble failed attempt !
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  • Posted by gerstj 9 years, 6 months ago
    A so from the heart critique that should read by all in reflection of what went wrong, at least in terms of drawing in a larger audience than already knew the works of Ayn Rand.
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  • Posted by sydney 9 years, 6 months ago
    sigh...'tis true....unfortunately, the truth is the truth...an epic story of competence, ability, intelligence, and "heart", told with a movie that has appeared to be made with the least talented, least able, least knowledgeable, although with a big heart. this movie was made by Eddie Willers, not Dagny Taggart, let alone John Galt....Eddie had a big heart but didn't know what the hell he stood for (in the book)...
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