A Most Violent Year

I just saw the movie, based on Shawn´s recommendation (it is available on YouTube), and I must say that I agree with Shawn on everything. It is as close as you get to an Objectivist movie. Thank you for the tip!

[Sal]
This is a positive movie with good people.
It was not at all what I expected from the trailers or the title and am lucky Shawn Silsbee recommended here.

I would avoid reviews; those I’ve read give away too much.
Here’s a bit worth sharing from one, however: “Most intriguingly, it’s about a good man in a corrupt universe, and about what decency and ethics mean — or not — in a world in which they’re not even part of the conversation.”

And this from the same review only points out that the reviewer completely missed the meaning of my very favorite piece of dialogue: “The central mystery — again, never convincingly resolved — isn’t why Abel tries to do the right thing throughout the film. It’s why he wants to.”

Thanks for the tip … I watched this movie, cringing several times thinking “this is where the malevolent universe premise kicks in, and a man of integrity can’t succeed.” But it never happened! There are some flaws, but it’s definitely worth watching.

I haven’t read “Calumet K” in a long time, but I think this movie bears some resemblance to it (see AR’s review in the October 1967 issue of The Objectivist) — dimmed by an intervening century of bad philosophy.

I also thought this was an excellent, rare movie that everyone on HBL should see.

I would never have seen the movie without the recommendations here. The most jarring thing about the movie is that you have a rich man in an very expensive house driving around in a very expensive car – and he is not evil or twisted.

The scene in the movie when the character with integrity is asked – out of honest curiosity – why he has it is at once the best and most depressing part of the movie. Its depressing in the sense that I don’t think the question “has ever been convincingly resolved” to most people in of our culture, which fact is a damning indictment of it.

I just finished this movie. It was very good. I cringed when I saw the review Sal posted. It’s a perfect criticism of our culture, isn’t it? The movie made the point that doing the moral thing is right because not only is it practical, but it’s consistent with an honest man’s sense of self righteousness.

A few criticisms:

I found the main character’s wife to be inconsistent in her motivations and thus I thought her role was a bit flat. 

I understand why the main character wanted to avoid guns – he noted that the feds would take him down. But I think there is a place for legitimate self defense, and I don’t know why it wasn’t considered. 

I enjoyed it as well and am amazed it got made: I too expected a typical mob movie, and can imagine studio execs worrying that no one would want to see a story about a principled businessman-hero and crafting the trailer to give the impression of something akin to The Godfather or Goodfellas.

And I agree with Steven that the wife seemed “inconsistent in her motivations”–like 90% of the people I know. 

I liked the movie, but in the beginning it was too slow and it was hard to get into it. I am also not sure why the lighting is so gloomy. However, overall I enjoyed it and it gave me motivation to work harder.

I also watched another movie by the same director/writer J. C. Chandor,  “All is lost” in which Robert Redford stars. It is about survival at sea and is very similar to the book “Adrift”. Maybe it was based on that book.

Re the “gloomy” lighting, it seemed to me that the director intended an homage to film noir. However, if so, I’m not sure he was entirely successful (compared to the best examples of that genre).

SLIGHT Star Wars Spoiler below:

The main actor in this movie, Oscar Isaac, plays a character in the new Star Wars film. In fact, his character may be the one I liked the most.

Oscar Isaac may be a fan of Ayn Rand:

https://reason.com/blog/2016/01/07/ayn-rand-is-not-a-sith-lord

^The above post notes that a number of individuals on the internet caught wind of Isaac wearing an Ayn Rand shirt in the past.

If he does like her, and if he doesn’t bow down to appease the haters, he became even more awesome in my mind.