A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I have long heard of the wisdom and cultural significance of Ayn Rand and "the Fountainhead." I finally had an opportunity and the time to watch it thanks to the library and "movie recycling" machine of TBS. The plot emphasizes the conflict between the Individual and Collective. It is pure ideological stupidity. What Ayn Rand describes as Individuality is egotism and stupidity. What she describes as the Collective is the symbiosis of the group for its mutual benefit. It is almost like she is fulfilling the dictum of Erik Hoffer in that the most fervent Communists become the most fervent anti-Communists. Except that she has no understanding of either Communism (which became an authoritarian attempt to replace the inherited royalty with criminals) versus Democracy where the leaders (and their wealth) are held accountable by the members of society. The acting sucks. The plot sucks. The sense of how and why people in society make economic decisions sucks. The value of seeing the movie is that it might be useful as a benchmark for ineptitude by anyone who advocates it or speaks highly of it.

This flick is as good as riveting drama gets. It is truly a battle between good and evil. It's a battle between heroes and villains. It's a battle between uncompromising people and those who arrogantly feel they can "improve" on another's creations. It's a love story unlike anything ever filmed. Astonishingly enough it's story of what happens when evil encounters uncompromising integrity and changes for the better. It's a story of how evil can destroy good. It's a story of how good can destroy evil. It's a story of the battle between creators and those parasites who would destroy them. It's a battle between individuals and the collective population that wants to destroy them.It may sound a bit odd to say this, but take away the space ships, light sabers and other special effects and it's a little like Star Wars.

Let's face it - On the surface The Fountainhead appears to be a fairly ambitious film. But in reality the final product is nothing but a downright silly and confused adaptation of Ayn Rand's famous philosophic novel from 1943. This flick completely misses the mark on all of the book's vitality, dynamics, and character development by a country mile. The Fountainhead has been stripped bare, right down to the plot's basic essentials.The Fountainhead's story spotlights in on a 'Frank Lloyd Wright'-type architect by the name of Howard Roark and his fierce clash with the compromises of society. Roark is a defiant, inflexible man whose determination to retain his artistic integrity must be kept in his complete control at all costs, even if that means resorting to an act of destructive violence.The Fountainhead's one major flaw, and biggest disappointment, was the casting of the 50 year-old Gary Cooper to play a 25 year-old Howard Roark. Not only was that a bad decision, but the story's super-intense romance which Roark had with Dominique Francon was seriously compromised by Cooper's age, too.Roark's love-interest was played by actress Patricia Neal, a woman who was young enough to be Cooper's frickin' grand-daughter, for crying out loud. The sexual-chemistry between these 2 actors on screen was just about nil.The character of Dominique Francon was, indeed, an odd one. This woman was just plain weird from my perspective. I mean, she had the most peculiar, and annoying, way of purposely tormenting any man with whom she found herself attracted to. As far as her actions went - Instead of being pleasantly alluring and enticing, Dominique came across as being extremely repulsive. Believe me, Dominique was one mixed-up babe, that's for sure.All-In-All - The cast did what it could within the stifling limits of a plodding, heavy-handed script that was written by novelist Ayn Rand, herself. At best, The Fountainhead was mediocre movie-entertainment. It should have been a whole lot more than that.

Taken from a novel by Ayn, "The Fountainhead" is a film of ideas. As such, it won't appeal to everyone. It can be viewed as a love story or as the struggle of one man to remain true to the values and goals he has set for himself, but Rand's philosophical underpinnings run through every scene.The film is very stylized and very dramatic. The sets are wonderful and the score is excellent. Most of the acting is good. Unfortunately, the most deficient portrayal is that of the protagonist, Howard Roark. Gary Cooper gets about half of his lines right. The other half have no emotional connection to the inner story of the film. Cooper himself said he did not understand some of the story. Patricia Neal as Dominique Francon gives a very strong and very nuanced performance.Obviously, those who do not understand or agree with Rand's philosophy will not enjoy the film. Roark is an individualist with high principles. He designs buildings according to his own ideas of beauty and refuses to compromise to conform with the views of others. Dominique is the woman who understands him, but fears for his well-being, knowing the penchant for society to tear down what it cannot control or own.Rand, who had been a Hollywood screenwriter, wrote this screenplay herself. She was so dissatisfied with the process of filming the novel, due to attempts to amend the story, that she vowed never to subject herself to Hollywood's machinations again. The resulting film is fairly true to Rand's vision, but she disowned the film because it is not totally what she intended.