The movie series and changing the era

[Christina]

The movie series released in three installments in the past few years has received mostly negative reviews. Perhaps the biggest complaint I had about the movies was the era change. They chose to set the story in 2016-2018, which I believe was a bad miscalculation. The dynamics of the story make far less sense in a modern context, such as the oddity of a woman in a position of power, or Dagny Taggart's "shocking" sexuality. They must fumble to make train travel a viable option again (the films say trains are now the only means of travel because of the high expense of gasoline). Modern methods of communication (texting, tweeting, other social media) are not even mentioned, except when Dagny breaks up with Hank Reardon VIA TEXT (not classy, Dagny). Imagine John Galt trying to hide his address and identity from the NSA, or the FBI raiding his "cult" in Colorado! Rather than having that wonderful burnished feel of a mid-century revolution, the story sits clumsily ready to start "next year," having lost a good deal of its steam. Any thoughts on why this decision was made, what you thought of it? Did the era change make as large a difference to you as it did to me? Is this a silly thing to be griping about when the movies themselves were so lackluster?

[E.D.]

Haven't seen the movies. Won't see the movies.

I do find your thoughts that the story has no relevance in modern context interesting, though. Sheds a light on the thinking behind it to begin with.

[Bhakta]

I agree that setting the films in the era when they were written would have improved them, but it probably would have cost them the audience they were going for. I saw the first movie in a theater, and the second on NetFlix. I have heard nothing good about the third one, but might watch on NetFlix eventually.