Form and Function in The Fountainhead Movie Review

Form and Function in The Fountainhead - Movie Review Example Regardless of the controversy over colorizing old works, of the good intentions of Rand's number one fan, regardless of such architects turned critic as Nancy Levinson, who in an essay on the film balks at its typical Hollywoodization of architects, (29-39) and regardless of the compulsion to "modernize" a storyline or script with the modern color wheel, The Fountainhead in its original format, condition, and shape is a testament to the themes, metaphors, and symbols, characters, and storyline of the novel by the same name. The film elements and creative choices, that is, contribute to the ideas expressed by objectivist philosopher and writer Ayn Rand. From the start of the film, the characters are constructed and developed to embody the ideals of Rand's message(s). She once said, My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity and reason as his only absolut e. (www.aynrand.org) Not only does the film's central focus-architects and architecture-affirm the architectural business, representing real-world players, but the characters, especially the protagonist, reveal Rand's outlook: Howard Roark represents this concept as an idealistic, principled individualist who refuses to conform to the rules of architectural school (resisting the copying of ancient, classical styles), who works blue collar jobs rather than buy into the popularism that is the architecture business, and who designs what he pleases. As the last ditch effort to grasp his autonomy, even, he destroys his greatest creation. When he is indicted, sued by the state, he makes his climactic stand: "The creator thinks; the parasite copies."