Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD, the movie from the world famous novel of the same name by philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand is a movie that I first saw a young teenager and it intrigued me. Seeing this movie caused me to seek out the novel from which it was made and after having read the source work, I looked for her other fiction works which includ(ed) WE THE LIVING, ANTHEM, ATLAS SHRUGGED and a play entitled THE NIGHT OF JANUARY 16th.

To be sure, as I write this, AYN RAND is still a person who engenders continuing controversy (even 25 years after her death). She was born in Czarist Russia as Alice Rosenberg into an upper middle class mercantile family. She witnessed the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty and the initial successes of the Bolsheviks under Lenin. At a young age she knew she hated Communism and at the first opportunity, emigrated to the United States. After first settling in Chicago, she then moved on to Los Angeles where she found work in the movie studios in the wardrobe departments. At night, she worked on a novel, the better to learn English and to develop a mastery of the language in both its oral and written forms. In 1936, she sold WE THE LIVING and it enjoyed some modest success, more so in England than the USA.

After completing the novel THE FOUNTAINHEAD, Rand had difficulty selling it as it was considered too long, too philosophical and too original in its anti-statist, super individualistic thinking. By 1943, with the United States firmly involved in WW II, she found a publisher and the book soared to the top of the NY TIMES best seller's list. Knowing that a movie would firmly place her in the ranks of the truly successful, she sought to sell the rights to the book, but with firm personal controls over various aspects of its production.

The movie would be produced by WARNER BROTHERS and Rand's ruthlessness and obstinate behavior meant that Jack Warner would never produce anything she wrote again. For that matter, no other Hollywood studio has produced any of her published material.

I have read in several biographies that Rand was dis-satisfied with the casting of the two main leads. Gary Cooper played HOWARD ROARK, the man of independent vision and single-minded integrity and Patricia Neal played DOMINQUE FRANCON, the woman who Roark desires, but loses to an arch enemy. Rand considered Cooper too old (at that time he was 40) and Neal a bit too young for their respective roles.

RAYMOND MASSEY, known for his highly dramatic role as JOHN BROWN is cast as the publishing magnate, GAIL WYNAND, a man of ruthless ambition who has risen from the gutter in Hell's Kitchen to the pinnacle of newspaper publishing in NYC. His vehicle of choice is a worthless tabloid known simply as THE BANNER.

Our protagonist HOWARD ROARK is first seen at the beginning of the movie as he is about to be expelled from some nameless university with a well reputed architecture department. As he stands in shadow facing some obsequious bureaucrat of a dean, he is told that his designs are a slap in the face to all that has come before and that his refusal to conform leaves the university no choice but to expel him. Cooper, filmed in shadow and with his back to the camera says nothing.

We see Roark walking the streets of NYC as he looks for work. By coincidence, he runs into one of the great architects of the age, Henry Dana, now an alcoholic outcast. Roark goes to work for him and when he dies takes over his office. However, his few commissions are few and far between and he is almost broke. The phone company calls to tell him that his service is to be disconnected and he also faces eviction. His old college roommate, PETER KEATING, played by the late KENT SMITH comes calling. Keating is a no talent boot licker who has managed to get himself placed on the fast track at a fashionable architectural firm. He offers Roark money. Here is the first we see of the ROARK I came to admire. He refuses what he assumes is charity and when Keating tells him to consider it a loan, he still refuses, telling the audience that he would rather work as a day laborer than accept handouts.

In the next scene we see Cooper wielding a jackhammer in a granite quarry in Connecticut. It seems that he has kept his word.

Then Neal re-appears as the arrogant, aloof and bored daughter of the owner of the quarry. Dominique Francon also cannot stand all of the noise that the drilling and dynamiting cause because it interferes with her sleep. She spots Roark in the quarry who stares back at her with barely disguised lust. Dominique notices this and is un-nerved but also, curiously attracted to this blue-collar worker in her father's quarry. She engineers a way to meet him by damaging a piece of marble in her bedroom's fireplace. She summons Roark to fix it. There is an amusingly dry scene where Roark informs Dominique about the different types of marble and how the piece is not that damaged. He uses a chisel to really deface the piece and then tells her, "now it does need to be replaced." He arranges to do so, but doesn't return.

Out of the blue, Roark has been summoned by a man who has seen several of his other buildings and knowing his own mind, decides to commission the architect to build an upscale apartment residence in the heart of NY. The man is ROGER ENRIGHT. Another self-made man, Enright needs no one to tell him what he likes and knows inherently that the man who designed the buildings he liked had been one of vision and a commitment to the integrity of the design and the project.

As the ENRIGHT HOUSE is being built, it becomes the target of derision and social criticism from many quarters within the city. But none of the criticism is as vicious as that spewed by THE BANNER's chief architectural critic, ELLSWORTH MONKTON TOOHEY. Toohey is a sterotyped statist. He mouths all of the platitudes about safety, originality, vicious egoism, commonly accepted standards of taste and the needs of the common man. Despite these mealy-mouthed paens to 'the little guy,' what Toohey is really after is power. How he goes about achieving it is one of the masterpieces of writing in the original novel and while some of its intricacies are lost on the screen, Toohey's underlying evil is still readily apparent to the viewer.

During the course of the movie GAIL WYNAND, who employs both Dominique Francon and Ellsworth Toohey is seen as a man not so much in control of the city he believes he has risen above, but as one who has become enslaved by it. His flagship paper, THE BANNER, is truly a rag and RAND was supposed to have modeled it after the NY DAILY NEWS.

To get back at Roark for his rejection, Dominique finally agrees to marry Gail Wynand, knowing that by her own self-debasement, that she will hurt Roark even more. Despite this, Roark and Wynand eventually become friends, after Wynand commissions him to build the dream house in the country that will serve as his tribute to Dominique and their fortress away from the madness of public life.

Then the complication arrives.

As Roark has seen his career climb, that of Peter Keating has started to slip and slip badly. Keating comes hat in hand to Roark for help, as he did so many years before, when he had trouble with his designs or engineering projects. The project at hand: to build low-cost housing efficiently and inexpensively, while still meeting the specifications of the city agency and the bank that are managing the project.

Roark knows that he will never receive a commission if the final decision is based on a commitee vote. He agrees to help Keating on one condition. That condition is a major one. He demands that CORTLANDT HOMES be built EXACTLY AS HE DESIGNED IT. That there be no changes or modifications, that the design be submitted and accepted "as is." Keating agrees and Roark produces the winning design.

But there are complications and the 'commitee,' feeling pressure to conform to then accepted architectural standards has brought in other, equally inept architects to add some "flair" to the exterior facade of the project. Roark sees this disfigurement of his creation and vows to correct the injustice. Dominique offers to help and together they conspire to destroy CORTLANDT.

After dynamiting the construction site, Roark is immediately apprehended and brought to trial. Initially, THE BANNER, under Wynand's personal editorial leadership defends Roark, despite Ellsworth Toohey's vehement diatribes against Roark in his columns. There is a strike by the pressmen after Wynand fires Toohey and management personnel do all they can to keep publishing. Every day, thousands of papers come back unread.

The BANNER's Board of Directors pressures Wynand to cave into public pressure and eventually Wynand is forced to do so. He rehires Toohey and denounces Roark in the editorial pages of THE BANNER.

Roark stands completely alone in court and without legal representation. He tells the judge, the jury and the world that his defense will also be his only argument and closing statement.

In what is probably one of the finest courtroom soliloquies you will EVER see, Roark explains what happened, why he did what he did and what his motives were. His argument is both historical and logical and it comes from the depth of his soul. As we watch his only defense, we know that Howard Roark is a man of true and deep integrity. In essence, he is appealing to the jury and to that one man or woman who knows what it is like to face trial and travail and to rise above insurmountable odds while remaining true to their personal vision. His defense is the defense of every independent mind who came before and who faced punishment at the hands of less talented men, who lacked the spirit, the vision and the integrity to admit that theirs was not the only way.

Roark's defense was stirring in the novel. It is equally so on the screen. It personifies individuality and the need to respect individual judgment, even if that judgment flies in the face of accepted norms.

Roark's defense argument is what the rest of the movie has been leading up to and his statements in court end up being the distillation of RAND's entire philosophy. It was masterfully written and well done by Cooper.

The remainder of the movie concerns itself with the outcome of the trial and the results of certain actions and it also shows that enemies can come to respect and admire their foes.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD is that rare movie, very rare by the standards of the late 1940s that glorified the individual at the expense of the collective. It sought to repudiate every collective endeavor as evil, while enshrining as heroic the achievements of the individual creator as that which is best and should be encouraged.

The novel from whence the movie was derived obviously covers these weighty subjects in greater detail. But as a primer to the philosophy of one of the 20th century's most original thinkers, the movie version of THE FOUNTAINHEAD does an excellent job of introducing the viewer to RAND and her characters.




Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older