Stephen Colbert offers a Rand-y analysis of Hollywood
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The Colbert Report
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Stephen Colbert has a straightforward explanation for the lackluster box office of “Atlas Shrugged: Part I.”
‘It’s almost like most Americans don’t want to see a movie that says most Americans are parasites,’ ‘The Colbert Report’ host said, noting the film’s take of $469,000 in its third week of release.
The right-wing parodist applied Ayn Rand’s libertarian philosophies to Hollywood on his Comedy Central Show Wednesday night in a segment about the adaptation of her 1957 novel.
‘Atlas Shrugged: Part 1’ lays out Rand’s passionate defenses of capitalism and selfishness as railroad executive Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) and steel magnate Hank Rearden (Grant Bowler) battle to save their businesses in a depressed future economy.
The Colbert segment singled out the 24 Frames interview with the film’s producer and co-writer, John Aglialoro, in which he fired back at the movie’s detractors. After ‘Atlas’ was trounced by critics, Aglialoro said he was reconsidering shooting parts 2 and 3 of the planned trilogy and might instead go ‘on strike.’
‘Truly a lesson from the pages of Ayn Rand,’ Colbert said. ‘If you’re talented and hard-working, one day you, too, could give up.’
Colbert also offered Randian analyses of cinema classics--’ ‘Star Wars’ is really about a group of violent illegal aliens plotting to blow up a gated community’--as well as of Hollywood decision-making.
After showing a clip of Bowler’s character declaring, ‘My only goal is to make money,’ Colbert quipped, ‘I haven’t seen a film with that message since ‘Transformers 2.’ ‘
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--Rebecca Keegan
