The Fountainhead
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Movie Reviews of The Fountainhead
Movie Review: Unintentionally Funny as Hell!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll be honest and clear: I can't stand Ayn Rand. Her philosphy of the self-interested life may have had value in the Stalinist Russia from whence she came, but in the Western world it merely gives the hubristic and self-absorbed an excuse to be obnoxiously self-righteous.
She came over here and started telling the wealthy and greedy they had a right to swindle everyone by virtue of their "gifts" at the precise time when regular folks were attempting to carve a slice of the American dream for themselves and found they were being robbed by the "elite". In person to person conversation her ideas were discovered to be ill-founded and non-sensical; just ask her best friends and lovers: their opinions are published.
Like many of the self-interested self-righteous (Objectivists, Satanists, Social Darwinists) she was obviously, simply, a broken-hearted idealist turned sour and mean. People like Rand think of the world as the 'Wild-West' and believe they could survive there. More sensibly, other's prefer to live in a society - for better or worse but assured of a chance to succeed. Rand didn't understand: she came from Russia.
So, it is hilarious to watch "The Fountainhead" and listen to actual human beings spout her drivel with a straight face. I understand she wrote the script herself. What she may not have realised, coming from Russia and being as utterly ignorant of American pop-culture as she was of American history, is that her protagonist's antagonists, those altering "Roark"'s edifices, come across like Republic serial villains - minus the giant saws, rope and railroad tracks.
It really is that bad and funny. I'm paraphrasing of course, but it's like "Mu-hu-hu-ha-ha! You thought you were God's gift to architecture; I'll add terraces to your office building, Roark, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
The film will make you glad that actual adults don't behave like "Roark" and the rest of the cast. Their behavior belongs to some special corner of unreality where airships fill the sky side by side with autogyros and Hercules (spruce goose) model aircraft over bottom-lit skyscraping pylons and perispheres; a world of flamboyant extravagance in both style and emotion - a world that would, if it did exist as Rand surely would have desired it to, be on the fast track to destruction for it's stubborn adherence to ideology over compromise and self-righteousness over understanding... kind of like Soviet Russia.
Hmmmm...
But that's what you get when a Stalin-era Russian drops herself smack into the middle of a society she doesn't understand and doesn't know the background of and presumes to tell how to run itself.
Blowing up buildings on principal? Adherence to ideology to the death? I think that's the turn-of-the-century Russian anarchist in Rand clawing to get out *laughs*.
Absurd.
Anyhow, Alan Greenspan was a friend and acolyte of Rand and he himself, in the wake of the recent world-wide banking/investment disaster, has admitted before Congress that the personal philosphies he adhered to for a lifetime were flawed and their implementation has just about wrecked the economies of a large percentage of the earth's nations.
Thanks for nothing, Ayn, except your silly movie.
Movie Review: I Love This Movie, Finally the Silly studios did a good thing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I like all things about architecture anyway and this movie is so much more than just cold steel of buildings. Yes it is a LOVE Story but it is more than that as well. This movie shows it is not easy living with the ugly politics that make it painful to be a visionary genius advocating designs and concepts far ahead of their time. Money focuses most intently on what worked in the past so anyone daring to look too far into the future is seen as a distablizing influence. In the Monied world the idict is conform or die and be quick about it, and The Fountainhead is a movie about that lone awesome magical individual who goes against the conventional wisdoms of his time to champion new ideas that currently have no high powered corporate backers.
I like The Fountainhead because, it shows that firm unwavering commitment to one's core ideals matters amd matters most when few of the current in crowd have the guts to stand with you. The Fountainhead shows how far too many people let themselves be led like mindless sheep by a media, "that thinks it alone knows whats best for society. The Fountainhead shows how too many people are content to live blind, bland uninspired lives steeped in a purposefully ignorance that in time saps their creative souls. The Fountainhead is as much about art as it is a movie about architecture, The Fountainhead is more than a movie about love between a man and a woman, the The Fountainhead speaks to the human heart of man and why he creates. True creativity like the human can not be constrained, corporate blinders are inconsistant with what any visionary person see's be they inventor, accountant or architect.
I love this movie because, it embraces and celebrates the human hearts need for creativity to live at its fullest potential. Is the movie perfect NOPE, but for what it is The Fountainhead is awesome. I have been wishing and hoping the Fountainhead would come out on DVD. I have the VHS version and I wear it out watching it. Of course I will be buying the DVD of The Fountainhead and hope you treat yourself to a copy as well. Watch The Fountainhead then go out and create something awesome that changes the world for the better! Hey a old wolf dude can dream can't he! Art, Passion, Creativity and Love are just four parts of the same thing to remove any one deminishes all that remain that is the message behind The Fountainhead which is why I like it and think you should buy a copy from Amazon.com like I did!
Movie Review: Enjoy this movie for what it is, ain't gonna get no better.
Summary: 5 Stars
Howard Roark, independent architect, is determined to do it his way or not. To make ends meet during lean times he gets a day job at a rock quarry. There he meats his match and bets literally wiped by the boss's daughter Dominique Francon (Patricia Neal.) they both seem to know more of the world than most people do. She works for a newspaper and to punisher self for falling in love with Howard marries her boss Gail Wynand (Raymond Massy.) This does not denture Howard form building Gail and Dominique their dream house. Eventually getting the chance of a lifetime to build low-income housing through another architect, he jumps at the chance as long as it means only doing it the Howard Roark way. Watch the movie to find out what happens and why he is such a stickler for the work of the individual.
You can argue about film versus book until the cows come home. You could say, "Let's make this with Helen Mirren and Mel Gibson." You can even have Turner colonize it. Well folks, it is not going to happen; so do not waste your time wishing, and look at this movie.
This is a pretty faithful summary (as opposed to adaptation). In that, you get the essence of the book with a few saved speeches. All the actors get their point over to you: this includes Gary Cooper as Howard Roark (he purposely looks stoic and amused) and Patricia Neal as Dominique (looking frustrated and aloof.)
The scenes, black and white with exaggerated camera angles, portray the story very well. The Frank Lloyd Wright architecture adds to the time period. The tone of the movie gives the impression that this was copied from a stage play where one person at a time talks and no one overlaps until the first person is finished.
All in all, the entire movie is worth the viewing. And reviewing for the details.
Movie Review: Nietzsche in America
Summary: 5 Stars
King Vidor's hysterically overwrought 1949 film is finally available on DVD, and well worth a look. It's full of ludicrously didactic speeches (by Ayn Rand herself) and mismatched performances (Neal's "expressionist" performance - all angles and curves - v. Cooper's exhausted naturalism). It is not a forgotten masterpiece, as some have recently claimed, but it is endlessly fascinating. Rand attempts to appropriate Nietzsche (Roark = Nietzschean superman) and place him in an American context. Yet for all its celebration of individual initiative/integrity, and all its attacks on the masses and mob mentality, the film seems to want us to SUBMIT to the charisma and force of the male protagonist. How is this not unlike what the National Socialists attempted by claiming Nietzsche as a precursor to fascist ideology? Note, in particular, the final shot and its jaw-dropping symbolism: Roark astride the world's tallest skyscraper as the camera (simulating the POV of Dominique) slowly makes its ways towards his outstretched legs? You might think my write-up a bit exaggerated -- but wait until you see the film! My review is modest in comparison!!Movie Review: Worst movie I've ever loved.
Summary: 5 Stars
I must say that I totally loved this movie is spite of what some might describe as cartoonish, one dimensional characters. In fact, it seemed that over-acting was going on all through the film, over-acting accompanied by obvious preaching. This film has a message and it doesn't let you forget it.
But who cares? I loved it anyway. Here's why:
First, Patricia Neal.
Second, Patricia Neal.
Third, Patricia Neal.
Oops. Started looping there.
Fourth, the photography. Black and white never looked better. Color might even have ruined it.
Fifth, architecture. I found the buildings and the commentary on architectural styles fascinating.
Sixth and finally, the message. This is a story about a person who is brilliant, knows he's right, and doesn't care what others think about him. Truly a message for our time when so many are cowed by political correctness. Bravo!