What did you wa- (sees title, does double take) OH MY GOD, NO. Yes.

You watched THE FOUNTAINHEAD, the 1949 film adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel? I sure did.

Rand would not want you to do a contemporary review of her film, a so called modern take on a work from yesterday, especially for that so called voice of the people, the rag of the rabble, The Banner. Spoiler: She didn’t like the movie either.

I’ve read The Fountainhead as well as Atlas Shrugged, the fictional tomes that serve at the very least as the introduction to her philosophy Objectivism, but honestly come off as a better bedrock for her philosophy than the actual reasoning that many use as an excuse for Libertarianism. The “I’ve heard the sides of an argument and here’s the evidence, so logic says I should do this” but c’mon, in nearly every scenario it’s picking and choosing to back up what you already believe and will or won’t excuse so that you can choose to do the wrong thing for everyone, and that includes yourself despite claiming to be your own self interest.

Why don’t you shut up and talk about the movie and let it stand on its own merits? Okay Steve Ditko, calm down, I’ll get to it.

The book was divided into several sections for each of its main characters, setting up their arcs across two decades or so as it centers around the book’s main character Howard Roark, and there’s just no way that’s going to happen with this movie which is (in)famous for its long speech from the hero at the end. So, the condensed version that makes this movie goes like this: Howard Roark is an architect student who doesn’t conform to neo-classical building design and techniques, warned by his frenemy Peter that Roark will never make it if he’s not going to go with the flow. Roark gets a job with another modernist architect who is reduced to a shell of his former self because he also isn’t in tune with what’s already popular. They struggle to get jobs, the old man dies, and after a disastrous job interview where, at the behest of news opinion maker Toohey, Roark declines to proceed with the job by giving his modern skyscraper design a Greek column façade, he quits being an architect and becomes a day laborer at a quarry.

This Toohey guy is a piece of work. He’s basically using his job at The Banner to sway public opinion against, well, whatever he wants, but mostly that the public should be in control of everything (and agree upon what he agrees on) and that guys like Roark and their push for new ideas and excellence are to be stopped at all costs, in the court of public opinion and in court as well if it has to come to it. The Banner is owned by self-made bajillionaire Wynand who is in love with one of his writers, Dominique, who is engaged to the aforementioned frenemy Peter. Wynand offers a commission to the architecture company where Peter has basically weaseled his way to the top, but only if he breaks up the engagement with Dominique. Which Peter is like, “okay,” because besides having no talent of his own, he has no spine I guess. Dominique is not-so-secretly in love with the perfect man, a man of his own who doesn’t depend on the opinions or aid of others, and this man does not exist in her world.

A meet-hate-cute develops when Dominique, who turns out to come from a wealthy family herself, is visiting a family property which is on the edge of a quarry and guess who she becomes enamored with? Drilling expert Howard Roark! They glare at either other a lot. At some point she purposely breaks part of a fireplace in her bedroom, and sequesters Roark to come to her room and fix it. He places an order for the material and, after some abusive back and forth that goes from her lashing his face with a whip and him cornering her in her room while she’s crying on the floor WHAT THE FUDGE, MOVIE, he returns to his room to find a letter from a developer looking to hire Roark to design various commerce and residential buildings. A regular day laborer shows up to a horrified Dominique’s room to finish that fireplace repair. Roark’s gigs lead to more gigs, leading to construction of a beautiful apartment complex that the press, via Toohey, dumps on, but the various industrialists and wealthy tastemakers attend a grand opening and say to each other “this Roark guy is awful but also I love this building and I should hire him and not tell anyone.” Dominique is at the event in awe of the building, and shocked to find that the architect is none other than the overpowering jerk she was hoping to get ravaged by back in her room.

I don’t know how audiences took that part in the movie, if they had read the book or if there were some rabble who were like “oh good a movie, I don’t like reading, it promotes individuality” and then watched that bit. What did anyone think of it? How is that a ‘save the cat’ moment for Roark? Or did Ayn Rand never hear that concept, and think that he was already an identifiable character because he stood up for his beliefs. And that’s romance to her, abuse? I don’t know. I’m not going to ask a horseback rider who just whipped me in the face for a date, no matter how rich she is, I’m just sayin’.

Okay, where was I? Wynand thinks Roark is an awesome guy and wants to be friends. He starts hiring Roark for some design gigs, and Roark does his best to not get distracted, because the lady he is enamored with married Wynand. Yeah, Dominique. Roark didn’t know they were a thing and I think the rest of us forgot. But Roark & Wynand still become best friends, the three of them. Not in the friendship is Peter, who has basically run his architecture firm, that he weaseled his way to the top, straight to the bottom, alienating his partners into retirement while having no ideas of his own. He pleads with Roark to design an affordable housing project that he also weaseled his way into getting the contract, with that awful Toohey’s help. Roark, for some reason that’s still a mystery to me and I’m sure in retrospect to Ayn Rand herself, agrees. But, he’s very strict and stern with Peter – it has to be with his designs, no adjustments, a strict adherence to new materials for both cost and longevity.

(Roark does it for the challenge, but when I read the book I thought maybe there was a contemporary public problem of housing that Rand would have normally looked down on because, to hell with the poor. But maybe this was a concession that affordable housing was a public good that she could agree on despite being a good for the public. Like, she left Russia after it became the Soviet nightmare, experiencing the Depression and getting the book published during World War 2…both of which are barely mentioned in the book and not mentioned in the movie. If Roark was a character in Atlas Shrugged, he would have been a failed man for agreeing to take on such a job and not invited to Galt’s Gulch. Or the housing project would have been taking over the by the rabble with names like Durt McGurk after Roark left for Galt’s Gulch, and everyone who moved into the place would die from carbon monoxide poisoning. And Roark would be blamed.)

Okay, so Peter submits the plans and immediately the tastemakers break into the meeting with all kinds of ideas and alter the plans. They start building it and it’s hideous and Roark is angry. He gets Dominique to distract the nightwatchman and then blows up the housing project with dynamite. He is arrested at the scene of the crime.

We’re not even close to done here. Toohey wants to have Roark crucified, not for the public safety hazard that Roark is but because he went against public opinion, which is just his opinion. Wynand is like, no, we’re backing Roark for getting rid of that eyesore and for standing up for his work, so Toohey, in being removed from The Banner, takes everyone with him. This is the only time Dominique seems hot for Wynand, standing up for Roark and, well, for using his paper to stand up for something real. Despite her hot & bothered encouragement, Wynand caves and the Banner crucifies Roark publicly.

And so begins the last reel, a court appearance where Roark delivers a speech was something like 40 pages in the book, basically absolving himself for taking his toys and going home (by blowing it up). And the jury (which, in the book, is made up of self-made businessmen who have done everything on their terms, which comes from the narrative and not anything that the main characters would ever know about) acquits him.

So, The End? OMG no.

Wynand commissions Roark to build the most magnificent skyscraper in all of Manhattan. However Roark wants, no one will get to question him about it ever. Roark takes the offer and leaves. And, because this is a movie from the 1940s and divorce was apparently not allowed as plot point, WYNAND TAKES A GUN OUT OF HIS DESK AND KILLS HIMSELF.

The last scene is Dominique, who introduces herself as Howard Roark’s wife to the construction foreman, taking a construction elevator to the top of an unfinished skyscraper where a defiant Roark stands, trying not to get knocked over by the wind.

Uh, wow. Was it good? Oh geez louise no.

There are some inspired moments, and I’m serious about that. Lots of great lighting of Roark’s first boss’ office. Roark’s boss buying The Banner from street sellers only to rip them up, which would have a callback when things looked down for Roark later. Uh, that no one would talk like these people in real life, and the way the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired buildings appear juxtaposed to older buildings…all gives this movie a surreal vibe. There’s a faithfulness to the book in that these characters aren’t characters but just ideals that are moved around like paper dolls to express Rand’s idea of the perfect man, one sticking to his ideals, and also a love interest he corners in her room as she cries on the floor but WHATEVER. Otherwise, it’s a mess. Plus the love story that I don’t think anyone will mistake for any kind of love story. Maybe it’s a little more palatable for the rabble masses to digest instead of the heavy handed book (and its follow up, Atlas Shrugged) but it’s pretty difficult to get through, and not because the ideas are challenging. The ideas are very spelled out. Maybe there’s just no way to simplify this story to keep its message. Newspapers, oligarchs, architecture, by the time you get to the weird love story before it becomes a weirder love triangle, you’re probably tuned out.

I could go on and on about this but would barely recommend it beyond the opening of Roark’s trajectory from school to his first job, as nearly everyone tells him that he can’t be allowed to succeed with his ideas. To try and get anything out of this like a life mantra, beyond preserving your individuality, your time as an individual is also important. For anyone who has come up with something and had to stand firm while others tried to meddle or tell you no, keep at it. There, saved you 2 hours.

Anything about the cast? Production? Anything? Dominique is played by Patricia Neal, Roark is played by Gary Cooper. They’d have an affair after the movie wrapped up. Ray Collins plays a businessman who hires Roark, he was one of Orson Welles’ regulars and also Lt. Tragg from Perry Mason.