So old news I am sure. The series has spanned years, was an utter box office failure and surprisingly not only did I enjoy watching this yesterday, but even youngest daughter was fixated by it!
The first episode, introduces you to a government out of control, becoming more authoritarian in order to try and control a massive depression. Of course, the governmental actions only caused the situation to become worse. The owners and innovators of industry begin disappearing. And the owners of a train company are caught in the middle of this push and pull between government and industry. I found myself slowly drawn in to the story, though morality has little to do within the storyline and zippers have a hard problem staying up. Clip five seconds and it would be a much better film. No nudity, just inappropriate situations.
The second episode, brings industry and government to outright opposition, eventually the suspension of the Constitution and any rights. More disappearances, the train company on its lips as it finds it no longer is allowed to make choices for itself - just be stuck with responsibility for the affects of government's imposed involvement. And the question keeps coming up, whom is John Galt? Again no morality but situations are less than in the first episode.
Who is John Galt?, the third episode is just to answer the question and show that if capitalism and failure were to fail due to the rise of a totalitarian state, then the argument of what underlies libertarianism is the only true solution for man and the governmental state ...
Problem is ... libertarianism really does not work well. It certainly is desirable compared to the form of fascism I current under. I have lived under pseudo-democracy, communism, fascism and yes, even under libertarianism. Each has it problems, each has it advantages, the question behind any government philosophy remains one of: will the state allow other's choices impact me or not? It is a balance, other people's choices or governmental choices impacting me. In the middle is the desired state - the government does not impact the reasonable person, nor do other's choices impact me either. But, we live in a broken world where POWER is sought over others and personal RESPONSIBILITY is to shunned. Given how many decades ago this story was written by Ayan Rand, it was very well done. Equally, I do not think that Rand understood the brokenness of fall mankind...
Personally, these three movies are a must own for me because they draw me into a storyline which is not similar to the usual movie genre I enjoy. No James Bond, no romance (lust is not romance, sorry!), mostly just dialogue that builds the story and tension. It could have been awesome if some real money and the same actors were used throughout the movie. However, I always enjoy Diedrich Bader and was delighted to see him appear in episode two.
No comments:
Post a Comment