Atlas Shrugged: Part II - The Strike Blu-ray despite great video and audio falls short as a Blu-ray release
With the global economy on the brink of collapse, Dagny Taggart discovers what might be the answer to a mounting energy crisis and races against the clock to prevent the motor of the World from being stopped for good.
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.
Henry Rearden
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 ŕ
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, The Strike was shot digitally—albeit with the Arri Alexa, where the first film used the Red One
camera system—and both
movies have a similar made-on-the-cheap aesthetic, with flat, often overly-bright lighting, resulting in a picture that doesn't
even look as good as most
network TV dramas. And that's before we talk about the CGI, which looks like something out of a PS2-era video game
cutscene. Once you get past the
low-budget stylistic shock, however, there are no real technical complaints to raise about the film's 1080p/AVC-
encoded Blu-ray presentation.
The image does at least seem true to source, with no overt compression problems or meddling filtering, a la DNR and edge
enhancement. Some shots
seem conspicuously soft, but much of the time clarity is quite strong, with fine high definition detail easily visible in the areas
where you notice it most—
skin and clothing textures. Color is more than adequately dense, contrast is decent, and there are no unexplained fluctuations
in hue, black levels, or
skin tones. I suspect Atlas Shrugged: Part II looks as good here as it probably ever will.
The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track blasts you out of the gate with the opening jet chase sequence,
with the two planes roaring
between channels, accompanied by a pounding orchestral score. If a little brash in the high-end, the mix is at least potent and
immersive. There are a
few other more action-heavy scenes throughout the film with a similar sense of punch—the smelter leak, the train crash, the
reprise of the jet chase—
but most of the movie is comprised of the actors reciting mouthy, exposition-laden dialogue, which is always clear, balanced at
the top of the mix, and
easy to understand. The track is a little less front-heavy than in the first film, and you'll often hear quiet ambience and
acoustics in the rear channels,
from outdoor sounds to the chatter and up-tempo jazz of a swanky bash. There are no clicks, hisses, or sudden dropouts, and
the mix has a good sense
of clarity throughout. The disc includes optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles.
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.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has officially announced and detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of John Putch's Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012), starring Samantha Mathis, Jason Beghe and Esai Morales. The release will be available for purchase on February ...
Atlas Shrugged: Part II - The Strike Blu-ray, Forum Discussions
