The Remarkable History of "We the Living"

Andrew Leigh on Breitbart's Big Hollywood reviews a remarkable DVD, released just in time for the holiday season.

The question is, what is not extraordinary about "We the Living"? The story itself, written by Russian born American author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the prehistory of the original film - shot in Mussolini's Italian Social Republic in 1942 and banned for its critique of collectivism, or the release of the 1986 version or now, the DVD?

"We the Living" is Ayn Rand's first and most personal novel, first published in 1936, a work which is "as near to an autobiography as I will ever write", she's on the record as commenting.

The novel is set against the background of the Russian Revolution. It tells the story of three people who see through the lies of the parallel reality that the Communists had erected, defy the power of the collective state, and demand to live their own lives, pursue their own happiness.

It laid the groundwork for the integrated theory Rand called Objectivism, which may be summed up as the Ethics of Capitalism.

Another work, "Atlas Shrugged" is still inspiring many liberty loving people today. At the bursting of the dot com bubble sales of the book sharply increased. At the height of the subprime mortgage crisis it ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books.

- "We the Living" (1942) IMDb page
- "We the Living" (1986) IMDb page
- Review on The Atlasphere by Andrew Leigh