‘Atlas Shrugged’ pushing high-speed rail?
Contemporary high-speed rail seems to have gotten the nod as a plan worthy of pursuit from the makers of the long-awaited film version of “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s controversial Objectivist novel in which the railroad industry plays a key role.
Production company The Strike released its first trailer for “Atlas Shrugged, Part I” last week. Due out April 15th, the film was directed by Paul Johansson, actor/director of “One Tree Hill” fame.
Dialogue in the trailer signals that the book’s ideas promoting the value of capitalism, rational self-interest, the intellectually elite, and minimal government interference in society still hold. However, as one might expect, some aspects of the original story appear to have been tweaked for the film version.
Judging from the trailer, the movie seems to be set in present-day America (the book never specified a year, but it alluded to Depression-era conditions while including 1950s technology). Perhaps the most interesting change, however, is what appears to be a subtle difference in the plot.
Rand’s book had protagonist Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive, championing train tracks and a bridge made with “Rearden Metal,” an alloy invented by steel magnate Hank Rearden that’s supposedly so innovative it’s bound to make steel and aluminum obsolete. In planning the construction of a new rail line, Taggart decides to use a diesel locomotive capable of 100 mph for the inaugural trip. But the trailer for the movie seems to have Taggart championing high-speed rail trains of the sort currently in service around the world.
The trailer includes…
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