I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I see this as a movie with Gary Cooper first, as a film second, and not at all as a philosophical treatise with which I must either agree or disagree before I can decide whether I enjoyed it. As stories go, it's pretty good. A guy wants to do his own thing -- but unfortunately, that is what modern architects do, and the results are dismaying, to say the least. Still, the film is deftly plotted, continuity is excellent, and the story moves right along to a smashing conclusion. Worth seeing.

"When I was a child, I understood as a child and spake as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things."I first saw The Fountainhead many years ago and greatly enjoyed its boldness. Now I find it painfully awkward to watch.The author behind the movie was - as we all know - Ayn Rand. Rand's life was (understandably) forever shaped by the Russian Revolution which began when she was twelve. This had two effects: (1) she developed no nuance of thought (everything is a rant about collectivism); and (2) emotionally, she never got past the age of twelve. Unfortunately, this comes out in the movie. It is like rereading something you wrote at that age: honest, emotional, and dreadfully embarrassing.

What the Hell? Oh my God, what a God damned piece of crap this was. I mostly know Ayn Rand in a secondhand manner (I read Anthem in 8th grade but don't remember it being anything more than a 1984 retread), so I guess I'm kind of glad I finally got to experience her peculiar sense of morality (which should be easily identifiable to anyone with a shred of intelligence as evil). What particularly strikes me about this film (whose screenplay she did write, for the record) is not just that her morality is repugnant, but that she's an unbearably awful writer. First off, the dialogue that's spouted off doesn't sound like anything that could ever possibly come out of a human being's mouth. It's three steps beyond clunky and overly expository. Screw subtext, right? We're just gonna say everything on our minds, thank you very much. Second, I mean, how egotistical is Rand here? Clearly, at least part of the protagonist (Howard Roark, played by Gary Cooper) is autobiographical, you have to imagine, and we just think we're the hottest thing ever, don't we Ms. Rand? Oh, you're an individual and such a genius that the only reason anyone can ever disagree with you is because they think mediocrity is the way to go. And, finally, you all saw that he did it, right? He blew the Hell out of that building and surrendered right next to a plunger. It's a pretty open and shut case. I don't care how awesome your courtroom speech is - it's not, by the way - it has nothing to do with the case at hand and I'm surprised there wasn't one objection raised, especially given how much movie lawyers love to do so. And then there's some really dumb stuff with the Raymond Massey character too, but I was too flabbergasted by what had just happened in court to care about that. King Vidor, who was personally chosen by Rand, does what he can with the material, but it's utterably unsalvageable. Patricia Neal is quite attractive and it was nice seeing Cat People's Kent Smith in the film, but it's objectively garbage.

I just caught this movie on one of the free cable movie channels. Other reviews have already picked it apart and listed all the reasons why the film is a stilted, sophomoric, pretentious, preachy, melodramatic mess. All I can add is that, if you've never read any Ayn Rand, you should see this movie. Not because it's good (it's definitely not), but at least you'll only waste two hours of your life having Rand's silly "every man for himself" philosophy and "every woman needs a strong man to dominate her" sexual agenda bashed into your head over and over and over. As someone who had the misfortune of spending way too many hours slogging through Atlas Shrugged on the recommendation of a friend, I wish I had just watched this movie instead. It would have warned me off anything with Ayn Rand's name attached to it.On the other hand, if you watch this and think it's brilliant (and the current 7.1 rating it enjoys on IMDb indicates that there must be a lot of people who think so, considering all the 1 and 2 star reviews it's gotten), then by all means run out and buy Rand's collected works. You'll love them.