By Lee Pfeiffer
We've railed for years about meticulously-crafted feature films being thwarted when released to DVD due to awful sleeve designs, or worse, inaccurate information. In some cases, stars are credited who don't appear in the film and in other cases stills from a different movie are used to illustrate the package. A new film version of Ayn Rand's legendary novel
Atlas Shrugged is the latest case for embarrassment. Rand's book has long been cited by political conservatives as a text-book guide to a form of financial Social Darwinism (i.e the most productive members of society thrive when freed from government restraints and are allowed to practice self-enriching policies with a minimal amount of interference. This, they argue, benefits society as whole.) Liberals have long argued that Rand's idea of an ideal society would be one devoid of compassion and charity and the debate is as alive today as it was when Rand's book was published in 1957. A primary message of the book- and one that has been steeped in controversy- is that there simply isn't much merit in self-sacrifice. Rand argued that self-interest promotes success in life and decried government as an entity that increasingly stifles individual achievement. Thus, you can imagine how the filmmakers reacted when they discovered that sloppily-written liner notes on the DVD say the story extolls the virtues of "self-sacrifice." The video company issued an immediate mea culpa and the director expressed his frustration- but it's too late: the DVDs are on shelves worldwide. For more
click here