The documentary is a good summary of "Atlas Shrugged," and the ethics and politics that inform it. It also has some biographical information about Rand up to the book's publication. It would be a good introduction for people new to the book and her ideas. I started reading Rand about 30 years ago and I wish the documentary would have gone deeper. I would have preferred 30 minutes less of cheerleading and 30 minutes more of exploring her ideas and their ramifications.That the documentary didn't go into Rand's personal life and the Objectivist movement's ups and downs was a mixed blessing. I was surprised that Leonard Peikoff wasn't in the documentary but Amy Peikoff was, and that it completely ignored 9/11 and what I consider Objectivism's hysterical response to Islamic terrorism, which continues to this day.

This movie became an inspiring and enjoyable introduction into Ayn Rand's life. I did not read the originals and I was looking for a good summary, since I am mostly interested in her philosophical views (not the fiction aspects of the book). Now I am happy to have invested 83 minutes into the movie, which turned out to be a wonderful summary with a snappy summary of her life all the key quotes from her magnum opus. The movie contains interviews with herself, as well as sharp observations from researchers and students, such as "she was a bomb-thrower" or "America has to live through Atlas Shrugged now".I guess, the phrase "Any work is creative work if done by a thinking mind" applies to this movie - it was definitely done by a thinking mind, and made me think.

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) became a permanent (or "standing") committee of the House in January 1945. It had existed on a temporary basis since 1938. HUAC was supposed to investigate "un- American propaganda" in the United States. Although it also investigated pro-fascist or pro-Nazi activity, HUAC is most widely known for its investigations of suspected Communist influence in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Along with the investigation of Alger Hiss, the investigation of Communist influence in the motion picture industry is one of the defining episodes in the committee's history. HUAC would continue to exist into the 1960s, but these memorable hearings are its best-known legacy. The committee's name was changed in 1969, and it was abolished in 1975, when jurisdiction over investigation of foreign influence was transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.2HUAC and HollywoodThe first HUAC investigations of Communism in Hollywood occurred in 1940, when Representative Martin Dies, a Texas Democrat, was chairman of the committee. Dies convened meetings of the committee in Los Angeles and questioned several actors and writers, including actor Humphrey Bogart and writer John Howard Lawson. All denied either being Communists or knowing with certainty that any of their co-workers were Communists. These early hearings ended with Dies finding no credible evidence of Communist activity in the movie industry. Once the United States entered World War II in 1941, the Soviet Union was an ally, and Congress had little interest in exposing any Communist activities in Hollywood.

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.