#henry rearden

[selins-drawings]

Hello!!! I passed all of my exams :) wooohooooo

I got 91/100 for Russian, 5/5 for maths, 94/100 for social studies and 98/100 for English

I guess, I know my second language better than my native language lmao what can I say

Been reading “Atlas shrugged” and had to sketch these two cuz I love ‘em. Esp Hank, he’s such a cutie, honestly, he deserves more than anybody can give him

Enjoy :з

[wwemcumuscleslover]

He looks good on this black suit...

OMG!!! HE IS SOO GOOD LOOKING....

Bless those Italian genes!!!

[sregan]

On 'Megalopolis'

I have seen 'Megalopolis: A Fable'. My assessment in one word is that it's 'striking'. It's a striking film - which is not necessarily to say that it is a 'good' film. It may be an 'important' film, insofar as it's likely the last film by the creator of 'The Godfather', 'The Conversation' and 'Apocalypse Now', and self-funded.

It's also a very strange film. In almost every scene there's something bizarre - not necessarily in the sense of worldbuilding but in terms of the directorial choices made.

For some reason 'Megalopolis' was not marketed as a work of alternate history, which I think could have brought in more attention, but a 'fable', with a heavy-handed opening monologue about the similarities between the modern USA and Rome. It's ostensibly set in the 21st century in 'New Rome', a modern city with Roman affectations - though it's also mentioned at times that it's still in the United States of America and that Elvis existed in this reality.

The best analogy I can make is that it feels like one of those adaptations to film of a Shakespearean play but set in the modern day, where much of the dialogue has been updated but the main speeches have been left in the original language (indeed, sections of dialogue from Hamlet and The Tempest appear unmodified); but without the source play.

'Megalopolis' is - though few critics seem to be crediting this - a loose adaptation of the life of Lucius Sergius Catilina, somewhat annealed with Julius Caesar (furnishing protagonist Cesar Catalina as played by Adam Driver). The real Catalina is a rival of Cicero (here Mayor Cicero as played by Giancarlo Esposito), prosecuted for an affair with a vestal virgin by Publius Clodius Pulcher - here Clodius Pulcher as played by Shia Labeouf - and accused of killing his wife in order to marry Aurelia Orestilla, the daughter of the consol (who has been merged with Cicero to create Julia Cicero, the Mayor's daughter, as played by Nathalie Emmanuel). All this happens in the film.

The real historical Catalina, of course, was the mastermind behind the Catalinarian Conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow Cicero and Hybrida and seize power. In the first of many changes, Coppola changes this to make Clodius the leader of the plot and Cesar Catalina innocent. While the historical Crassus uncovered the plot and told the Senate, Jon Voight's Hamilton Crassus is betrayed by his unfaithful trophy wife (clearly a reference to Tertulla) and Clodius in a 'Dallas' spoof sideplot, but eventually gets the upper hand and backs Catalina with his wealth.

At this point we should address the elephant in the room. In 'Megalopolis: A Fable', Cesar Catalina is an architect who wishes to build a new shining city, the titular Megapolis, using a revolutionary new metal he has developed, Megalon. This makes startling sense when you realise Coppola has long dreamed of adapting Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead'. Cesar is clearly intended to be a mix of Howard Roark and Henry Rearden from Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged', a visionary steelmaker who has developed 'Rearden Metal'.

However, Megalon may have a dark secret - Mayor Cicero says it's rumoured he used his dead wife's body to manufacture the metal. While the introduction of this rumour is cack-handed (Cicero just whispers it to Cesar at an event), it's at least an intriguing take based on a real historical rumour. This in combination with the source material - a scheming politician who launches a coup - might make you wonder if Coppola is playing Sympathy for the Devil here and will reveal Cesar as a villain protagonist (as far as I can tell, he doesn't intend this).

Cesar also has the ability to stop time. Very literally; he can talk to Time (capital T) and tell it to do things. The first scene of the film - which may be Cesar attempting suicide or testing this power for the same time - sees Driver's character on the roof of the Chrysler Building, teetering on the edge. As he begins to tip forward, he intones 'Time: stop!' and finds his body hovering in mid-air, allowing him to cautiously wuxia-float his way back onto the building (remember this).

This may all sound rather Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but never fear - this power, which seems like it should be the metaphorical crux of the entire film (timestop as a metaphor for stagnation in a dying empire?), is largely irrelevant other than leading Julia to investigate him and then join his agency.

Oh yes, that's another thing that radically alters the dynamic from a hypothetical Francis Ford Coppola's Fountainhead; Cesar isn't a private architect but the head of a government agency, the Design Authority. We aren't told how he came into this role but he begins the film with his own staff, security, and lavish office, which makes him feel like much less of an underdog.

Cesar's Design Authority is pulling down slum buildings to replace them with his utopian Megalon developments - the plot can't quite decide whether he's doing this inside the law, but the result seems to be people forced onto the street - a clear nod, you might think, towards gentrification, although later plot points make this murkier.

Julia sees Cesar using his time stop ability during a demolition, seemingly to judge whether the collapse is safe (though what he would be able to do if it wasn't is unclear). Frustratingly we never see what this looks like to 'normal' people; Julia is the only person other than him to be able to manipulate time and we only ever see it from one of their perspectives. More on this later.

Esposito's Mayor Cicero is initially introduced as a hollow populist, who wants to use the demolished plots of land for crowd-pleasing moneymakers such as a casino. He shows off a slick model of the proposed pleasure palace, which seems to get the approval of the gathered journalists. Cesar, meanwhile, gives a philosophical speech urging grander ambitions ("Don't let the present get in the way of forever!") and offers to go through his design documents. I'm uncertain whether we are supposed to understand this to be what it looks like - that Cesar does not have people skills and finds it hard to communicate his genius - because Driver is given all sorts of quippy Tony Stark-like lines and business as he arrives to the meeting and otherwise reads as charming and personable.

This scene includes one of the most sophomoric film-school student lines in the film. When Cicero menacingly brings up Cesar's wife's death, he says: "Well, as you were the prosecutor in that case, you know I was found not guilty."

At this point Cesar is involved with Plaza's journalist femme fatale (name, I kid you not, 'Wow Platinum') but - I'm unsure whether we actually see them break up on screen - she falls for billionaire Crassus and Cesar becomes involved with Julia who, after mentioning she saw him stop time, receives work with his agency (much to her father's chagrin).

Before it's fully established that she has fallen for him, she follows him and sees him buy flowers and visit what I think is supposed to be his wife's home; we see him place them by her bedside and stroke her hair - she seems to be comatose rather than dead, but when Julia sees the same scene Cesar is alone, seemingly hallucinating. Julia somehow knows Cesar is hallucinating his wife and whispers "He still loves her!". This is one of many elements of 'Megalopolis' that make me think that despite being a self-funded auteur project, the narrative was muddled in the edit and a more coherent through-line must have existed at some point. If this scene came after Julia and Cesar were an item, it might have some emotional weight.

The chapters of the films are introduced with narration by Lawrence Fishburne, serving as Cesar's faithful chauffeur (an element that, perhaps, lets on that Coppola has been pitching this film for fifty years). The 'Bread and Circuses' chapter sees a lavish wedding for Crassus and Wow (sic.), with a Ben Hur-style chariot race and Pro Wrestling-themed gladiators. The effeminate villain Clodius appears, crossdressing after the style of the historical Caligula.

In a scene clearly intended to take aim at religious right virginity pledges, a 'vestal virgin' pop star is used to raise money by encouraging the wealthy to financially 'support' her pledge of virginity. However, as the bidding reaches 100 billion, Clodius bribes the AV technician to display on the jumbotron (!) a sex tape of the 'virgin' and Cesar, resulting in a scandal.

In a sequence clearly inspired by Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', an intoxicated Cesar - presumably having seen the jumbotron but it's not entirely clear - hallucinates his arms moving in the shape of a clock. I initially thought this whole sequence (intercut with a gymnastic display which appears to go wrong) was intended to represent the aghast Cesar's powers going out of control and causing mayhem, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead his limo is stopped by police and he is arrested for corrupting a minor and statutory rape - a genuinely bold choice of peril for a protagonist and one I don't think would fly in any major studio production post-Harvey Weinstein!

Julia is oddly certain he must be innocent - again, the two are not clearly an item at this point; he's her boss - and investigates, finding that VanderWaal's vestal virgin's birth certificate was fabricated and she was in fact born out of the country six years earlier, meaning she was 23 at the time of the tape, not 17. Interestingly, in the newspaper montage showing Cesar being cleared, a voiceover also mentions the footage was found to be edited and fradulent, begging the question of why the birth certificate was even important - I can only think this VO was added after principal photography and originally the character did sleep with a girl he believed to be underage.

Again, an odd scene order - after being cleared, Julia finds a distraught Cesar on top of an under-construction building (what this is is unclear as none of his Megalon buildings use girders like this but it's a repeated location - put a pin in that). He has lost his confidence in his ability to command time and she coaxes him into regaining his mojo; he is able to stop time again with the formula 'For the sake of Julia, Time, please stop'. Again, this feels like it should have more narrative weight than it does; he 'loses' his powers for all of one scene and it doesn't impact his career or plans. It also feels like it should have come before the formal resolution of his legal woes. The hero losing his supernatural powers at the start of the second act and needing either to regain his confidence to use them or learning he must not rely on them is a well-worn superhero trope and it almost feels like Coppola felt compelled to include it since he had a super-powered protagonist but didn't understand or care to put it to any more significant use.

I forget where the scene takes place where he meets Wow again; she attempts to seduce him and offers him Crassus's bank, which she says she will steal away from him. He rebuffs her and in one of the worst pieces of professionally produced cinema I have ever seen, we fade to and from a closeup of the car's wheel driving over the coat he gives her. It wasn't even necessary to cut in - the coat is clearly visible and the audience expects the action from the way she throws it down - and the cut is executed horribly; it genuinely feels like a mistake, like a misplaced clip in Final Cut Pro.

Shortly thereafter, Cesar is approached by a young boy who asks him to sign an autograph. Utterly bafflingly, Nathalie Emmanuel is given the line of dialogue 'Cesar would never say no to a child'. This is a couple of scenes after he is accused of statutory rape; if it was meant to be delivered with wry humour, no-one told Emmanuel. In any case, the child shoots him in the face, having been revealed as an agent of Clodius.

We then get an abstract montage of what may be Cesar's dying hallucinations, with the repeated refrain (I think I remember this correctly:) "I will not give death dominion over my thoughts". It would not be unreasonable for one of the following to happen:

a.) Somehow Cesar is able to not just stop time but reverse it. We see a flower shrinking back into a bud and I was fully expecting to see the clip of his blood flowing on the street reversing. He has regained his powers and now has new incredible mastery. Or:

b.) The damage to his brain means Cesar cannot use his powers. Julia must step in and make the leap of faith - Cesar is injured now but was not so in the past. 'Time: Heal all wounds!').

Neither of these happen.

Instead, we see snippets of what seems to be a mostly cut scene where Julia and the scientist character replace the missing portions of Cesar's skull and brain with Megalon. This seems to be a triumphant return and we see him awake, bandaged but cogent.

In the next scenes, a slurring and seemingly brain-damaged, still bandaged Cesar who repeatedly shouts "No, no, no!" for some reason forces his way into Crassus's mansion to find out why the billionaire's bank has frozen his accounts. This is revealed to be a scheme of Wow at the behest of Clodius. She once again attempts to seduce Cesar (even after he reveals his horrific transparent gold skull-face) but is forced to stop when Crassus arrives.

After this, Wow turns her seductive attentions to Lebeouf's Clodius and persuades him to get Voight's character to sign over control of the bank in a rather shoddy bathhouse scene that I think is intended to show Crassus having a heart attack and aides rushing to his rescue, but which I initially believed showed him being stabbed by Clodius's accomplices. When Wow seduces Clodius she cuts his hair (something Crassus told Clodius to do) in silhouette which should clue you in she's playing the role of Delilah.

At this point we should mention that Clodius has his own sub-plot where he has been repeatedly seen trying to build cred among the mob protesting Cesar's project. The mob is, I would guess, the ultimate antagonist of the film, and Coppola is strikingly loose with his real-world targets here. The mob resembles Black Lives Matter and anti-gentrification protesters and Clodius says they are 'immigrants' whose vote can be bought; they carry SPQR flags that resemble the hammer and sickle; their slogans suggest far-left sympathies; but Clodius gives a literal stump speech on a tree stump which has been cut into the shape of a swastika (real subtle there) and his minion now has a forehead tattoo of the Black Sun, a real-world fascist symbol (I think he also said something along the lines of 'We will make New Rome great again', though I may be misremembering). You might be tempted to think that, given his historical intrigue with Rand's Objectivism, Coppola views the masses as generically 'collectivist', subsuming fascism and communism. If so, Cataline is a bizarre choice for a hero, as in the real world it was he who whipped up a mob to attack the Roman Senate, and Caesar who led the 'populists', while Cicero favoured the optimates (aristocracy). We'll talk more later about Cesar Catalina's philosophy, such as it is, in 'Megalopolis'.

As New Rome collapses in riots, Crassus, who is revealed to be less senile than previously suggested, confronts his wife and nephew in an absolutely hilarious scene where he lifts his suggestively tented blanket to reveal a tiny bow and arrow, which he uses to kill first Wow in a comedic spout of blood and then repeatedly plink a fleeing Clodius in the backside with arrows; each time it cuts back to Crassus he has another arrow (barely) drawn with no indication where they are coming from, like a YouTube Poop. I think, generously, this was meant to be slapstick comedy, even if the context is very dark (aging billionaire murders his cheating wife).

Mayor Cicero semi-reconciles with his daughter (who has since had Cesar's child) on the train as they are evacuated for their safety.

In the climax - I feel sure it's the climax - of the movie, the mob gathers at the gates of Megalopolis, but an apparently fully healed Cesar appears, projected on the golden leaves of his utopian city, and addresses them. The speech is every bit as dense, philosophical, and frankly unrousing as his opening debate, but this time it wins the crowd around and suddenly they are no longer the collectivist menace but the upstanding majority who are now delighted to live in his city as the gates open.

Crassus declares he is throwing his entire wealth (and 'the patents to Megalon', which I guess he somehow acquired when the bank froze Cesar's funds) behind the project, so all's well that ends well? The mob turn on Clodius when they find out 'he owns the bank' (except that no, we've just established he doesn't) and shockingly string him and his henchman up, Mussolini-style; while the camera cuts away quickly it's pretty clear they have stoned him to death.

As New Year dawns, Cesar persuades Julia to try stopping time herself for the first time. She does so, but surprisingly *everyone* freezes except the baby, who has clearly also inherited the power. The End. Someone in the row behind me chuckled.

To be clear, this lends the plot a degree of cogency you simply don't get in the theatre. It's clear to me much of the movie ended up on the cutting room floor - there are fully acted, costumed scenes with different dialogue that appear in the facets of the Megalon crystal as Cesar works but are not in the movie. I think the order of scenes may have been dramatically changed and possibly the ending altered, which is why Driver's character appears fully healed without explanation but only as a projection in the final speech.

The central conceit, time stop, is not used except indirectly as something one character sees to make her intrigued in Cesar, and later as evidence that he has his confidence back after a single scene where he can't use it. Losing it doesn't set back his plans and we barely get a sense of how he uses it in his work normally. An architect who literally has all the time in the world is an intriguing concept and one could easily imagine eyecatching scenes where buildings seem to erect themselves in a blink of an eye, or where from the perspective of a normal human he flashes around a room, drawing up plans and blueprints at seemingly superhuman speed. Indeed, I was fully expecting at least one scene where Driver appears where he shouldn't be, revealing he has been listening in on a conversation or confronting someone in a secure location, because he can stop time to get into any location or do anything.

But we don't see this - we don't even, unless I missed it, get a line like 'Cesar always finishes his projects ahead of schedule - what's his secret?'. Time stop also doesn't work consistently; the first time we see it, Cesar's own body is part of the timestop; he can seemingly think in normal time but his body is suspended on the brink of falling. But later, it's clear that people who use timestop move normally and are affected by gravity (when Julia drops her purse on the girder it slows and stops when it gets a certain distance from her).

The secondary conceit, Megalon, is barely defined. It's a miracle metal that allows things like flowing moving walkways and roofs that fold in like flower petals when it rains. It also bonds with living cells and is eventually replaced with healthy tissue. It sometimes reflects his wife's face, and in the medical montage I think they put some of the wife's hair into the implant, which suggests to me Megalon *is* partially a ghoulish necromantic substance that harnesses his wife's unquiet spirit - but incredibly this isn't addressed in the final narrative other than a dreamlike sequence where he hears his wife telling him 'Go to her', apparently permission for him to move on. Again, it feels like a late-era MCU production cut to hell by studio interference - except there's no studio.

There's also an ambiguous line where Mayor Cicero seems to admit *he*, not Cesar, killed her - I think the intent of this line is he is willing to publicly admit he tampered with evidence to convict Cesar if Cesar breaks up with his daughter. Cesar later tells Julia his wife killed herself because of his obsessive focus on work and we have no reason to doubt him.

It's all such a weird missed opportunity - clearly you're meant to initially wonder if Cesar did kill his wife. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it newspaper headline that says the death was a 'Hitchcockian mystery' - which suggests a locked-room murder. Now, who can enter a room, kill someone, and leave to have an alibi elsewhere, all in the blink of an eye? Surely, surely this was intended to be explored at some point; less Chekhov's gun being visible over the fireplace and more being shoved up your nostril in the first act.

The tertiary conceit - New Rome itself - is intriguing as a stylistic choice. It's overtly a fable so it would seem churlish to ask how this Roman city-state exists in a world where both the USA (of which it's seemingly a part) and USSR existed. The limits of the budget are visible in the lack of stylisation in some areas (extras' costumes, cars, offices) but I didn't find it too offensive. I did notice that the architecture we see associated with Cesar early in the film is clearly Art Deco, but the Megalon structures later in the film are postmodern sweeping leaf-life structures, as though Coppola changed his mind about what the future looks like some time in the fifty years since first conceiving the movie.

The central conflict of the film is thornier. You might assume that Cicero represents populist, 'need'-based politics ("People need help now," the mayor says, objecting to Cesar's grand vision of a better city), while Cesar is a Randian rugged individualist, except that's not quite what we're shown in the final cut.

The Mayor's character isn't consistent - by the midway point he's become a law and order figure while the sleazy collectivist mantle has been passed to Clodius and the anti-gentrification rioters. And Cesar being a government official mixes the message on 'lone genius architect' - where we do get an insight into the philosophy of Cesar Catalina, it's also not especially Randian. The character talks repeatedly about the need for 'debate' - that even starting to talk about what we should do, or agreeing that we should talk, is already utopia. He responds to the Mayor by suggesting that 'people's futures' are as important as their present. I also think at one point he says civilisation was a mistake, which is a startling remark from a protagonist but which seems to be something Coppola has floated in real life (seemingly believing there was a utopian matriarchy before history). So at best I think you can argue he takes a broadly long-term-self-interest rationalist view and is being contrasted with the short-term populist Mayor and the short-term instant-gratification rioters.

He also briefly (as in, a single line) advocates for debt nullification, which was a position of the real Cataline, but which doesn't really seem to gel with anything else in the movie - we never get the sense that Cesar hates Crassus lending money and aren't shown the effects of usury on the people.

The cast of actors - including John Voight, and DB Sweeney who starred in the ill-fated Atlas Shrugged adaptation - makes me think it was sold as a rightish-wing endeavour, but I can't imagine the apparent both-sidesism on display will satiate red-blooded culture war types.

Certain aspects of the film also felt quite dated - the use of sapphism to shock and titilate (and the curious line where Cesar, challenged by a gossip columnist to confirm he prefers women, insists 'Everyone prefers women. Even women prefer women'); contrasted with the effete, crossdressing villain Clodius.

What's most striking (I said it was the salient word) about 'Megalopolis' is how much potential each element has relative to how it's actually used on-screen. Some of this is the tight budget constraints necessitated by Coppola burning through his own money to fund the film - the SFX were generally decent though I noticed at least one truly shoddy effect where characters walk into an idyllic field which is clearly a separate plate, and their bodies are sliding left-to-right as though walking on ice.

How might I re-imagine 'Megalopolis'? Keeping most of the beats and trying to refine the message rather than changing it:

- Cesar as a private architect, not a government agency. Put Crassus in the role of a Gail Wynand; a wealthy man and potential patron.

- Cesar has built a reputation as the man who always has time - he finishes every project ahead of schedule and under budget; his demolitions always proceed flawlessly and his staff have no idea how he does it.

- The Mayor champions sweetheart deals with contractors for cheap, trashy buildings that will fall down in thirty years (this might have been in the script at some point as Cesar calls him a 'slum lord') while Cesar wants to use Megalon to create an Art Deco utopian development.

- Julia sees Cesar stop time and he offers her a job. He demonstrates how when his staff see him flash around at super-speed he is really doing all the laborious work of drawing up plans in real time, totally alone as he previously had no-one who could do what he did.

- The press casts doubt on Megalon, with the unions pushing for proven materials like concrete and steel. A ghastly rumour emerges that Megalon contains human DNA. Cesar gives a speech, asking what would happen if the first architects using steel had faced the same resistance. What about fire?

- Julia proves her worth by securing a contract for Cesar to redevelop a large slum after a devastating fire, elbowing out her father's friends who want to use the same cheap cladding that caused the fire in the first place (anticipates and deflects viewer criticism about safety).

- Romance develops with Julia and Cesar. Scenes where they go out into the city and stop time together. Julia is pregnant.

- Clodius undermines Cesar by throwing red tape in his way. Cesar appears in his home and confronts him, showing a sinister edge, but ultimately leaves. Clodius uses this to deduce Cesar's time powers.

- Crassus's wedding is a huge event with (as in the film), chariot races and gladiatorial games. Cesar, Mayor Cicero, Julia and Clodius all attend.

- Instead of the vestal virgin scandal, Cesar is publicly accused of killing his first wife and the shock causes him to lose his control over time, causing chaos throughout the city. Unable to continue his work he locks himself away in his office.

- Time is frozen throughout the city; Cesar is subconsciously holding everything together so it doesn't change or decay (timestop as metaphor for stagnation!). Time only passes for objects if someone is holding them and if you drop them they freeze in place. If someone dies they freeze in place. We see how the city is surviving in this odd apocalypse.

- Julia investigates with a more murder-mystery focus - it's a locked-room murder and Cesar has an ironclad alibi, but a time manipulator could easily make it happen.

- She keeps digging however and a financial motive emerges for Clodius. She confronts Crassus who admits he covered up for his nephew; everything that looked supernatural about the death was possible with enough money. Facing disgrace he throws himself from the top of his skyscraper and his body freezes on the point of impact.

- Julia finds Cesar who tells her he did use his wife's body to create Megalon but insists that he found her dead. Why? Because love holds everything together (we're leaning into the cheese; amazingly I don't think they try to explain this in the real movie). Having expiated himself, Time once again hears his entreaties and begins flowing normally ("You can move on").

- Julia and Cesar brave the streets to reach the Mayor to clear his name and a mugger shoots Cesar. However, with his new mastery, he is able with a 'kick start' from Julia to turn back time and repair his own damaged brain.

- Mayor Cicero is reconciled to his daughter and meets his granddaughter for the first time.

- Clodius learns of his uncle's death and, blaming Cesar, whips up a mob to storm the construction site, but in a flash of an eye the city is completed before them as Cesar's expanded powers let him include entire construction crews in his timestop.

- Cesar emerges and gives a speech; reflecting that every one of them wanted someone else to provide for them but were ready to use violence to take what wasn't theirs, trusting there existed someone who was willing to be robbed; the city is complete, but none of them will live in it. 'Others, who saw and believed, will come, and they are welcome'.

- Clodius and his most devoted followers attack but the city itself folds in to protect Cesar, showing his wife's spirit in the metal recognises her murderer, and Clodius sinks into the ground.

- New Year's, magic baby, yada yada.

[transthadymacdermot]

Tagged for heads up seven up by @fortunatetragedy!

(Approximately) 7 lines from a scene I've been working on today where Rearden and his wife Jessica tell their friends Dorothy Hoyle + Frank Borden about a high-profile assassination they've just pulled off:

“Thank you,” said Jessica. “What have they said about it [the assassination]?” “A long notice in the News-Letter.” “A long notice,” Borden echoed. “Damn near a full column. But it is all idle speculation—they blame the United Irish assassination committee,* they blame the Defenders, the loyalists, the Whigs, the radicals, and so on and so forth.” Dorothy added another spoonful of honey to her tea. The Reardens kept no sugar, in protest of the slave trade. “They would be blaming Lord Donegall** himself were they not frightened he would shut them down.”

* a real thing which actually existed under that name, believe it or not. much that I've read on it credits belfast tailor joseph cuthbert with leading it, but it's also thought that people such as henry joy mccracken himself were involved.

** arthur chichester, 1st marquess of donegall, the most powerful aristocrat in northern ireland at the time + one of the most powerful in ireland in general. he exercised a great deal of control over belfast's politics (he would choose their mps, for instance. me when I'm in a corruption contest and my opponent is an 18thc irish aristocrat: ) + over east ulster in general but was traditionally absentee and less directly involved than, like, lord londonderry.

Tagging uhhh @orphanheirs @chiropteracupola @isherwoodj @breitzbachbea + anyone else who wants to take part :)

[kwebtv]

Katherine - ABC - October 5, 1975

Drama

Running Time: 97 minutes

Stars:

 Art Carney as Thornton Alman

Sissy Spacek as Katherine Alman

Henry Winkler as Bob Kline

Julie Kavner as Margot Weiss Goldman

Jane Wyatt as Emily Alman

Joe De Santis as Father Echeverra

Hector Elias as Juan

Jenny Sullivan as Liz Alman Parks

René Enríquez as Vega

Mary Murphy as Miss Collins

Catlin Adams as Jessica (as Nira Barab)

Jorge Cervera Jr as Julio

Barbara Harris as Lillian Colman (as Barbara Iley)

Ann Noland as Frizzy

Ta-Ronce Allen as Jennie

John Hawker as Rev. Mills

Brad Rearden as Carl

[adamwatchesmovies]

Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? (2014)

There’s something deeply satisfying about the failure that is Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt?. The first film had a budget of $20 million. It tanked at the box office. The sequel had a budget of $10 million and tanked as well. This third chapter was made with a budget of $5 million and earned less than $1 million in ticket sales. All three films feature a completely different cast despite being released only 1-2 years apart. If these movies were good, or even passable that would be depressing but these films are part nut-job parable, part cheezy romance. If there’s an entry in this series that’s so bad it’s good, it’s Part III: Who Is John Galt?, though whether it’s worth sitting through two films to have a couple of laughs at its expense is another story…

After pursuing Quentin Daniels to a remote part of the country, Dagny Taggart (played this time by Laura Regan) crashes into an invisible barrier. She’s discovered Galt’s Gulch, a hidden valley where the United States' brightest minds have retreated to avoid the government's oppressive over-regulation of companies and products. Dagny is told by John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) that she and Henry Rearden (Rob Morrow) are the only people missing from this new hidden society of free entrepreneurs and inventors. Is Dagny ready to abandon Taggart Transcontinental and the rest of the outside world, or will she continue a fight everyone else thinks has already been lost?

At the end of Atlas Shrugged: Part II, I wondered what the point was. So much of the second movie reiterated what we had already been told. What unsuspecting plot points or revelations could possibly justify this book by Ayn Rand being turned into a trilogy? As this film begins, you’ll double-underscore that question because Rearden, who for the most part has been an important secondary character, is basically written out of the film to make room for John Galt, whom Dagny instantly falls for. It’s like a demented version of a fairytale conjured up by some loony objectivist. After falling into Galt’s magical kingdom, Dagny is confronted by the mystery man whose name is spoken like a curse in the outside world. What a surprise! He’s handsome and charismatic. Best of all, he believes that unfettered self-interest is good and altruism will ruin society. If that doesn’t make a lady want to take off her clothes, I don’t know what does.

The film tries so hard to make John Galt into a hero it becomes comical. At one point, he hijacks a broadcast by the President of the United States - oh, sorry. I mean the “Head of States” (Peter Mackenzie) - so he can deliver a message of rebellion and hope to the people. We're supposed to see him as some Bizarro world version of V. After heroically giving himself up, he is tortured by those goons in the White House in a way that resembles a crucifixion way too much to be a coincidence.

Who Is John Galt? is so hammy you might lose track of the film’s message, which is the same as before. The big enemy is the government. Yeah, there’s been some interference from Dagny's useless brother, the President of Taggart Industries (Greg Germann, whose character has a sub-plot that amounts to so little it must have been included solely because it was in the source material) but it’s those meanies up on Capital Hill that have been causing all the trouble. They insist on breaking up monopolies, taxing the rich, forcing wealthy states to share their money with poorer states, etc. Remember that last one. A turning point in this film that shows just how evil the Head of States is comes when we learn that a trainload of grains meant for a poor state is being diverted to another. “But the people will starve!” screams Dagny. “Why does she care?” you’ll ask. “Didn’t she previously tell us that altruism is for dummies and soft-headed care-bears?”

The biggest joke in this whole movie comes during the end credits when we see that the film’s budget included contributions from Kickstarter supporters. It’s so ironic I wonder how many of them sent money to director J. James Manera so they could metaphorically piss all over this film and on Ayn Rand in the process. If she believed in half of what this film exposits, she must’ve been one of the most uncompassionate, cold-blooded reptiles to ever disguise herself as a human being.

It’s easy to find things to say about a movie like Atlas Shrugged Part III: Where is John Galt?. My friends and I watched it together and our collective suffering will make us a more tightly-knit group. That doesn’t mean I recommend you watch it. The first two parts are so dull and infuriating that the “homework” needed for you to understand the irony of this cinematic blight just isn’t worth it. (On Blu-ray, April 7, 2023)

[kaleidoscopr]

Francisco D'Anconia and Henry Rearden are like a calm & mature, non-toxic L and Light Yagami.

[kingbeghe]

[longmemphis]

Atlas v rising

The " Atlantic Ocean" is derived from "Sea of Atlas". The term Atlas has been used to describe a collection of maps since the 16th century when Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his work in honour of the mythological Titan. He had many children, mostly daughters, the Hesperides, the Hyades, the Pleiades, and the nymph Calypso who lived on the island Ogygia. He was a brother of Epimetheus and Prometheus. Ītlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia or Clymene. In some texts, he is even credited with the invention of astronomy itself. In antiquity, he was credited with inventing the first celestial sphere. Atlas was said to have been skilled in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. Later, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa and was said to be the first King of Mauretania. According to the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, Atlas stood at the ends of the earth in extreme west. Atlas also plays a role in the myths of two of the greatest Greek heroes: Heracles ( Hercules in Roman mythology) and Perseus. CBS Interactive.In Greek mythology, Atlas ( / ˈ æ t l ə s/ Greek: Ἄτλας, Átlas) is a Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity after the Titanomachy. " 'Atlas Shrugged' Film Banks on Election Fever". ^ a b "Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)".^ a b c d "Atlas Shrugged Franchise Movies at the Box Office".^ a b c d e "Atlas Shrugged Franchise Box Office History - The Numbers".Part I was released on DVD and Blu-ray on NovemPart II on Februand Part III on January 6, 2015. James Manera, stars Laura Regan, Rob Morrow, Greg Germann, Kristoffer Polaha, Lew Temple and Joaquim de Almeida, and had a USA box office of $0.8 million on a budget of under $5 million. Sweeney and Esai Morales, and had a USA box office of $3.3 million on a budget of $10 million. The second film, directed by John Putch, stars Samantha Mathis, Jason Beghe, Patrick Fabian, D.B. The first film, directed by Paul Johansson, stars Taylor Schilling, Grant Bowler, Matthew Marsden, Johansson, Graham Beckel and Jsu Garcia was released in April 2011 and had a USA box office of $4.6 million on a budget of $20 million. The trilogy received predominantly negative critic reviews and the aggregate USA box office is just under $9 million, with each film performing worse than the last on both accounts. See Part I's plot, Part II's plot, Part III's plot Cast įrancisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d'Anconia See Part I's production, Part II's production, Part III's production Plot In Part III, Taggart ( Laura Regan) and Rearden ( Rob Morrow) come into contact with the man responsible for the strike whose effects are the focus of much of the series. government continues to spread its control over the national economy. In Part II, Taggart ( Samantha Mathis) and Rearden ( Jason Beghe) search desperately for the inventor of a revolutionary motor as the U.S. In Part I, railroad executive Dagny Taggart ( Taylor Schilling) and steel mogul Henry Rearden ( Grant Bowler) form an alliance to fight the increasingly authoritarian government of the United States. The films take place in a dystopian United States, wherein many of society's most prominent and successful industrialists abandon their fortunes as the government shifts the nation towards socialism, making aggressive new regulations, taking control of industries, while picking winners and losers.

[wwemcumuscleslover]

Jason Beghe as Henry Rearden

Atlas Shrugged: Part II

The way this man delivery in every role is amazing...

I really supost not bee soo on my knees for this guy, but a must to face the fact that this ship is already deport right straight to the Dilfland

[promiseiwillwrite]

For solostinmysea

I was tagged by @solostinmysea in "tag 9 people you want to get to know better" (I am going to reply, but I don't honestly know 9 people on here, lol)

Three ships: (we are going All the way out in the weeds for this) Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden (Rand was Very wrong how she ended that damn book, I was so disappointed) Miroku and Sango, and I've become quite fond of the Harleen Quinzel and Pamela Isley ship art that gets posted on LGBTQ in Comics' blog.

First ever ship: Leonardo and April O'Neil.

Last Song: Keane: This is the Last Time, from their Hopes and Fears album.

Last Film: Pretty sure it was Princess and the Frog, Disney.

Currently Reading: Three different large manuals concerning Perennial gardening, Container Gardening and Western Gardens, respectively, as well as "Women who Run with the Wolves" by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. My second time through.

Currently Watching: The Book of Boba Fett

Currently Craving: respite. I want to not have to deal with Anything for 24 to 48 hours. I am tired in my bones, and I have to adult anyway.

[transthadymacdermot]

Yet another thing where I don't have the book I got it from with me so I can't show anyone what I'm talking about but I think that rearden rrl definitely owns the commemorative revolution of 1782 china sets with the seal of the owner's irish volunteer company and other relevant images depicted that some people had back then. I think that if you went over to his house he would serve you a ye olde ulster fry and you would happily eat your way through half of it and then suddenly realise that you're eating it off of a plate with henry grattan's face painstakingly painted on it and you would just have to live with it

[ibboard]

Recently saw a huge long thread of “which character are you like”, and then Matt Mercer posted the link and his full results.

I was guessing some of the scores (”slovenly or stylish” or “disarming vs creepy”? What kind of scale are those?) but it’s probably not entirely wrong.

I don’t know the top ones, but Data, Simon Tam, C-3PO  and Ross Gellar probably isn’t far out, and I’m happy to see Giles in the top 25!

Everyone over 75% (which starts with Hermione)

Bernard Lowe (Westworld): 90%

Lane Pryce (Mad Men): 90%

Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place): 90%

Filius Flitwick (Harry Potter): 89%

Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation): 89%

Amy Farrah Fowler (The Big Bang Theory): 88%

Simon Tam (Firefly + Serenity): 88%

Dr. Chan Kaifang (Space Force): 88%

Brian Johnson (The Breakfast Club): 88%

C-3PO (Star Wars): 87%

Dr. Marcus Brody (Raiders of the Lost Ark): 87%

Ross Geller (Friends): 86%

Waylon Smithers (The Simpsons): 86%

Felix Gaeta (Battlestar Galactica): 86%

Evan (Superbad): 86%

Peter (The Room): 86%

Thufir Hawat (Dune): 86%

Artie Abrams (Glee): 86%

Dr. Adrian Mallory (Space Force): 86%

Al Robbins (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation): 86%

Dr. Shaun Murphy (The Good Doctor): 86%

Tom Hagen (The Godfather): 86%

Leonard Hofstadter (The Big Bang Theory): 85%

Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory): 85%

Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): 85%

Timothy McGee (NCIS): 85%

Count Alexei Karenin (Anna Karenina): 85%

David Rosen (Scandal): 85%

David Phillips (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation): 85%

Pope (Outer Banks): 85%

Odo (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine): 84%

Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby): 84%

Raymond Holt (Brooklyn Nine-Nine): 84%

Jared Dunn (Silicon Valley): 83%

Ash (Alien): 83%

Jack Crawford (The Silence of the Lambs): 83%

Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe): 82%

Abed Nadir (Community): 82%

Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock): 82%

Donald Mallard (NCIS): 82%

Jimmy Palmer (NCIS): 82%

Ray Ploshansky (Girls): 82%

Linus Caldwell (Ocean's 11): 82%

Severus Snape (Harry Potter): 81%

Dexter Morgan (Dexter): 81%

John Munch (Law & Order: SVU): 81%

Jasper Hale (Twilight): 81%

Michael Bluth (Arrested Development): 81%

Kimball Cho (The Mentalist): 81%

Dr. Aaron Glassman (The Good Doctor): 81%

Dr. Jennifer Melfi (The Sopranos): 81%

Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice): 80%

Charlie Carson (Downton Abbey): 80%

Miranda Hobbes (Sex and the City): 80%

Norman Wilson (The Wire): 80%

Peter Gregory (Silicon Valley): 80%

Amy Santiago (Brooklyn Nine-Nine): 80%

Marty Byrde (Ozark): 80%

Geordi La Forge (Star Trek: The Next Generation): 80%

Dr. Eric Foreman (House, M.D.): 80%

Oliver Hampton (How To Get Away With Murder): 80%

Ellen Parsons (Damages): 80%

Preston Burke (Grey's Anatomy): 79%

Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons): 79%

The Narrator (Fight Club): 79%

Billy Keikeya (Battlestar Galactica): 79%

Dana Scully (The X-Files): 79%

Walter Skinner (The X-Files): 79%

Henry Rearden (Atlas Shrugged): 79%

Johnny Rose (Schitt's Creek): 79%

Kenny Stowton (Killing Eve): 79%

Q (Tommorrow Never Dies): 79%

Brandon Stark (Game of Thrones): 78%

Cedric Daniels (The Wire): 78%

Alfred Pennyworth (The Dark Knight): 78%

Ray Arnold (Jurassic Park): 78%

Richard Hendricks (Silicon Valley): 78%

Donald Cragen (Law & Order: SVU): 78%

Randall Pearson (This Is Us): 78%

Jimmy Price (Hannibal): 78%

Caitlin Snow (The Flash): 78%

Capt. Oliver Queenan (The Departed): 78%

Varys (Game of Thrones): 77%

Principal Skinner (The Simpsons): 77%

Elsie Hughes (Westworld): 77%

Arthur (Inception): 77%

Dwight Schrute (The Office): 76%

Leo McGarry (The West Wing): 76%

Toby Ziegler (The West Wing): 76%

Jin-Soo Kwon (LOST): 76%

Dr. Strange (Marvel Cinematic Universe): 76%

Richard Webber (Grey's Anatomy): 76%

Lucius Fox (The Dark Knight): 76%

Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1): 76%

Betsy Heron (Mean Girls): 76%

Robert Fischer (Inception): 76%

Alan Harper (Two and Half Men): 76%

Jonah Byrde (Ozark): 76%

Dr. James Wilson (House, M.D.): 76%

Janet (The Good Place): 76%

Captain Jim Brass (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation): 76%

[adamwatchesmovies]

Atlas Shrugged: Part II (2012)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Die-hard fans of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged might have enjoyed the 2011 film adaptation. Everyone else clearly found it to be a tremendous bore. Critics panned it and the movie failed to earn even a quarter of its $20 million budget in ticket sales. Despite this, Either Or Productions made Atlas Shrugged: Part II: a film that’s just as dull as its predecessor, but with half the money. The best thing I can say about this sequel is that while none of the actors return, at least the screenplay makes it pretty easy to figure out who is who without any of the dialogue sounding clunky.

Despite the success of the John Galt Line, Taggart Transcontinental railroad Vice-President Dagny Taggart (Samantha Mathis) and Henry Rearden (Jason Beghe) face new challenges. Ellis Wyatt set his oil fields ablaze before vanishing. To make things worse, the U.S. Government has enacted a "Fair Trade” law, which forces Rearden to sell to all buyers at the same price. Rearden doesn’t want to do business with the Science Institute after they nearly bankrupted him with their false claims that his metal was unsafe. Meanwhile, the country’s brightest minds continue to disappear, leading to one question “Who is John Galt”?

We’ve all seen movie franchises recast some characters at one point. It was a much more common in the 90s (I’m thinking of all the actors who played Batman as an example). I’ve never even heard of a series that had all of its cast jump ship a mere one year later. It’s the first sign that Part II is in trouble. The second is the dialogue. This film by John Putch is interested in pushing an agenda. To do this, it contorts itself in a pretzel from which no one could ever escape.

I know all films, particularly those in the science fiction category, require a certain suspension of disbelief. It isn’t fair to question all aspects of the story's world because the movie’s “got to happen”. This time, I can’t help myself. In my defense, the movie isn’t selling its world very well. Atlas Shrugged is set only a few years in the future but the people in it don’t behave like anyone in the 21st century would.

It would be difficult for anyone to care about the story's big conflict unless they were exactly like Henry Rearden: someone who only cares about making money. After refusing to sell his Rearden Metal/Rearden Steel to the government, he's put on trial. Technically, he’s only accused of defying the “Fair Trade” law, but everyone inside and outside the movie knows the truth. His first crime is owning a monopoly on Rearden Metal, which might have you wondering “Does this movie know what a monopoly is?” There’s nothing stopping people from using other construction materials on their projects. He’s the only one making Rearden Metal… just as McDonald’s is the only restaurant selling Big Macs. His second crime is making more Rearden Metal than everyone. I think what the film means to say is that he is making metal in greater quantities than any other factory. Screenplay writers Duke Sandefur, Brian Patrick O’Toole and Duncan Scott must be trolling us. Otherwise, they think we’re idiots. Are we supposed to think the government would tell factories to create materials at the same rate as everyone else, regardless of how much staff they have, how big their factories are and what their capacity might be?

There are other logical holes in this film’s politics, the biggest come when the government announces Directive 10-289. It forces companies to freeze wages, prevents them from firing anyone, forbids employees from leaving their jobs, from making or spending more money than they had the last year (I guess if you were unemployed, on maternity leave or hadn’t entered the workforce yet you’re just expected to starve) and everyone must give all of their patents to the government. Meanwhile, there are protesters outside of Taggart’s offices. What are they picketing? Even when the film is populated almost entirely by straw men, nothing makes any sense. At least the performers are marginally better than before. Samantha Mathis and Jason Beghe have more chemistry than the actors they replaced.

Like Part I, Atlas Shrugged: Part II is a bore until the very end when it loses its mind, spouts all sorts of “Profits first. People? Who cares” sentiments and then ends on an infuriating cliffhanger. The special effects are dreadful. The story hardly progresses, making you wonder if the two films couldn’t have been combined into one or better yet, left as a book. At the end of the first movie, I was curious to see where this was all going. Now, I’m heading into Part III but only because I’m this far in and might as well. I guarantee you it’s going to suck and I’m almost sure it will be an even cheaper production with an entirely new cast and crew. (On DVD, April 7, 2023)

[maybesimon]

i want to read a genderswapped version of this book where dagny's still a girl, but henry rearden is henrietta rearden, who is married to the society creep lyle (the details here don't work out because stupid gender roles). +: rearden's speech about having the freedom not to care for someone else!! + realizing that the moral code you're working with is bad and you feel guilt doing good (relevant) +: more than 1 Good & Capable Woman in the story -: no gay tension with francisco

[whileiamdying]

"Atlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike"

is consistent with its predecessor as a somewhat awkward translation of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel to our current era, handled with bAtlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike

By Dennis Harvey, Variety Oct 13, 2012 1:20am PT

Though it flopped in wide release following surprisingly strong limited play, last year’s “Atlas Shrugged: Part I” evidently did well enough — or its producers are simply committed enough — for this second of a projected trilogy to be made. “Atlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike” has a whole new director, cast and crew, with slightly higher production polish and more familiar faces onscreen. Nonetheless, it’s consistent with its predecessor as a somewhat awkward translation of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel to our current era, handled with bland telepic-style competency. Theatrical biz will be middling, ancillary better.

With the economy collapsing, the government shutting down private industry and the “best minds” all mysteriously disappearing, Taggart Transcontinental chief operating officer Dagny (Samantha Mathis) and self-made Rearden Steel magnate Henry (Jason Beghe) are the last bold individualists who give a damn about this once-glorious nation in a sea of lily-livered takers, including her weak brother (Patrick Fabian) and his bitchy wife (Kim Rhodes). Naturally this only makes our heroes hotter for one another, though it’s hard to find time for mashing lips when so many crises must be contended with from sea to shining sea.

As the dread too-big government increasingly legislates their own businesses out of their control, Dagny tries to unlock two secrets: how to work an electromagnetic motor she’s found laying about (with help from Diedrich Bader’s wacky rogue scientist), and figuring how who the hell that John Galt guy is anyway. In a plane-pursuit sequence that begins and ends the film, she finally gets her wish — though auds will have to wait until “Part III” to see Mr. G. (D.B. Sweeney) in more than just silhouette.

As before, Randheads will be divided between those who find the pic insufficiently grandiose enough to be the “Atlas” of their dreams, and those so in thrall to the author’s ideas that any reasonably professional product will suffice. Others, particularly those who haven’t read the book, will simply find it silly, talky and dull. That said, John Putch (a more experienced TV helmer replacing the first film’s Paul Johansson, another actor-turned-director) maintains a decent pace and a straight face. Still, the whole project remains hobbled by the initially budget-minded decision to set the story more or less in the present rather than the 1950s, when it already seemed somewhat improbable.

This renders the story’s railroad emphasis wildly anachronistic, despite some attempted explanation. It also requires the pic to pretend ours is still a primarily self-contained national economy, rather than bound to the modern global one. (The filmmakers themselves couldn’t quite pull that off, as the end credits reveal substantial post-production work was done in China.)

Thus, a time-warp air hangs over the whole affair, though the film’s three scenarists have dropped a few up-to-the-moment buzz phrases into the mix to seize their just-in-time-for-elections moment; Rand’s cartoonish conflict between industrious quality people and lazy, effete quasi-socialists is now “job creators” vs. “looters.” There are repeated glimpses of Occupy-like protestors, who eventually turn against their alleged government benefactors, although notably, none of them gets so much as a single line to speak.

Though the actors this time come with higher-profile track records, they’re surprisingly not much of an improvement, and in some cases (notably Esai Morales as decadent playboy-cum-secret-free-market superhero Francisco d’Anconia), quite the opposite. Of course, with dialogue this clunky and expository, one can hardly blame them; with no attempt at finding a stylistic equivalent to Rand’s heightened worldview (a la King Vidor’s 1949 film of “The Fountainhead”), they’re stuck playing real in a context that feels unaware of its unreality.

The mostly blah corporate and hotel settings are in a sense apt, but add no flavor. While “Part II’s” attempt to encompass Rand’s sweeping narrative on a far-below-major-studio budget is admirable, the underwhelming f/x dampen its few opportunities for action sequences.