Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged

This documentary does a good job of capturing Rand's ideas and philosophy - missing in the movie that came out last year. It starts out with the idea that the events of the novel are being played out in real life today. Then it drops back in history to show how Ayn Rand escaped from communist Russia and came to America in the 1920's. But when she finally got here and the Depression started, how surprised she was to hear American intellectuals claiming that things were so much better in Russia with communism being the answer for everything. But Rand knew differently. She knew that the 1930's under Stalin saw tens of millions murdered or starving and forced to work in labor camps. Rand spent her career making it crystal clear - especially in Atlas Shrugged - that collectivism in any form is inherently evil and inevitably leads to disaster.

The documentary also focuses on Rand's contention that the so-called virtues of altruism and self-sacrifice are misguided and that this willingness - so ingrained now in progressive western thinking - to subjugate the individual to the collective is not only most responsible for our country's current woes but it is this same twisted sense of morality that ultimately leads to totalitarianism.

This is a film with a lot of information and insight that can easily be viewed more than once.