July 7-13, 2011 - WhatzUp

24--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.whatzup.com- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- July 7, ’11Liberty & Equality Kiss in the WoodsAnthem by Ayn Rand (adapted bywoods without assistance from anyone else.Charles Santino and Joe Staton), NewRand’s story, of course, is a reactionAmerican Library, 2011On Booksto the revolution and the subsequent SovietDespite the fact that Ayn Rand wrote asystem in her native Russia, but Americantremendous amount and that everyone likes EVAN GILLESPIE libertarians have used it as a warning againstto drop her name, I’m convinced that no onewho likes her really understands her. Famousfor her love of individualism, she hasbeen adored by everyone from 70s progressiverock musicians to gun-toting libertarians,and when groups that diverse embracea writer’s message you can reasonablysuspect that there’s some misunderstandinggoing on. Fortunatelyfor those who want touse Rand as a figurehead, herphilosophy can be staked out insimplistic terms and is thus ripefor cramming into almost any ideologicalagenda. When it comes tosimplistic renditions of her philosophy,it doesn’t get any more simplisticthan Anthem, the novella deliveredhere in a graphic novel form, a genrethat makes a simple story even simpler.The setting of Anthem is a dystopianfuture in which a collective government hassubjugated the people and outlawed even themost minor forms of individualism. Eachperson is designated by a word and a numberrather than a proper name, and each personrefers to himself using collective pronouns. Ican’t tell you which pronoun is forbidden (itis, in fact, entirely unknown to the commonpeople) since the discovery of the word isthe flimsy hook at the end of the slight novel,but I can tell you that the book’s hero refersto himself as “we.”His “name” is Equality 7-2521, andhe is a street sweeper. He works with othernumbers, but he is forbidden to think of themas his friends. He is not allowed to speak tothose who do other jobs, especially not thebeautiful Liberty 5-3000 who works in thefields with the other women. (It’sunclear why he’s allowed to thinkof them as women). He must admireher secretly and quietly.While wandering about inan unauthorized manner oneday, Equality 7-2521 discoversan underground chamberbuilt in the days before thetakeover by the totalitarianregime. Inspired by thehours he secretly spendsin this time capsule fromfree-thinking yesteryear,he explodes in a burst of scientificcreativity, discovers electricity andinvents the light bulb. Thinking the authoritieswill love this new device, he presents itto them, only to be reprimanded sternly.Discouraged, Equality 7-2521 fleesinto the forest. Liberty 5-3000 follows him,and they live an idyllic life, kissing underthe stars and shooting bunnies with a homemadebow. They eventually give each othernames — Prometheus (remember the lightbulb thing) and Gaea — and move into a70s vacation home that someone left sittingaround. They discover that true happinesscomes from shunning others entirely andthat anyone can live easily and happily in theany form of government and as a justificationfor their own individualist agendas. Anthemdepicts what happened nearly literallyin Russia, but American fans are happy tosee it as metaphor if that’s what it takes touse it as an argument for unfettered individualfreedom.Anthem is a silly story, and its conclusions– that individuals acting purely out ofself-interest will make the world the bestplace it can be – are absurd, but that doesn’tstop many readers from loving it. Fans ofthe band Rush will recognize it as the basisfor the album 2112, although the hero of thatadaptation discovers the wonders of musicrather than household lighting products.Others will be able to distill a strident anticommunistmessage from it, and they won’tbe bothered by the inclusion of Rand’s moretroublesome philosophical bents, particularlyher rationalism and atheism, which aremore obscure in this book than they are inothers.I should probably comment on the artworkof this graphic novel as well. It’s looseand sketchy, black and white pencil drawingswith no color at all. Most significantly, thefigures are drawn with a cartoonish idealism.Both Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000are golden-haired, with wide sparkling eyes,cupid-bow mouths and button noses. Theycouldn’t look any more generic, which, asis the case with most things concerning AynRand, misses the point completely.evan.whatzup@gmail.comThe Company MenBobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is deep in denial. Though he’s justbeen made “redundant” at the GTX Corporation where he’s workedat as a sales manager for the past 16 years, he’s not all that worried.Despite the prudent warnings of his lovely wife Maggie (RosemarieDewitt) – who thinks they should try to sell their over-large home,drop their membership at the ritzy golf club and liquidate Bobby’sprized Porsche while they still can – Bobby pooh-poohs her, confidenthe’ll find something else in a few days. Meanwhile, GTX hasgiven him a fairly generous severance package, includingfull access to a job outplacement center. (His eyesroll at the go-team-rah nonsense spewed forth atthe seminars there; he’s so above all this nonsense.)Whatever he does, though, he swears hewon’t stoop to pounding drywall for his abrasivebrother-in-law, Jack (Kevin Costner), who owns aconstruction company.At least Bobby is still relatively young. TheCompany Men also follows the downward trajectoriesof two older executives at the firm. Not even beingthe CEO’s best friend can keep Gene McClary (TommyLee Jones) from losing his job. (The mass layoffs willartificially boost GTX’s stock value one more quarter,you see.) Also fired is Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper),who’s been working at GTX since returning from the Vietnam War,and who, at 60, finds himself all but unemployable. How each ofthese two men choose to handle this turn of events is alternatelyheartbreaking and inspiring.Written and directed by John Wells (who took the helm of “TheWest Wing” after Aaron Sorkin left the show), The Company Menis at its best when it stays focused on the specific characters whohave fallen on unexpectedly hard times and lets the themes developOn VideoDEREK NEFFnaturally from there. All three men are given depth and dignity bythe actors playing them. Surprisingly, even DeWitt is not just a twodimensional,put-upon scold here, and as a result Bobby and Maggie’smarriage feels like something worth saving when thingsstart to get difficult between them.Wells’ screenplay excoriates corporate greed, but itdoesn’t let these men off the hook either. They’ve all threebecome so blithely accustomed to leading lives of emptyluxury that, seen in one light, their sudden and bracing lossof income may just be what the doctor ordered.If Wells is sometimes guilty of making rather too selfconsciouslya Movie for Our Times, if the lines charactersare given occasionally seem a little too pointedly preachy(at one point Jones’ character actually says “They weregood people, Jim!” to which the heartless CEO replies,“They’re not our responsibility; we work for the stockholdersnow”), if the way things turn out for these menseems a little too schematically tidy, these are all minor andforgivable offenses.What is much more important is that The Company Men reallyis, in point of fact, a movie for our times, made by and for adults,with intelligent dialogue, sympathetic characters, each with theirown compelling parallel storyline, and lots of cathartic anger at theculture of corporate greed, anger that is going to be all too relatableto many who watch it.derekneff1@yahoo.com