Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 2 years, 5 months ago
    I own the film on videotape that plays on my antique computer. And yes, it is romantic fiction as Ayn Rand defined it. In her inimitable style, the romance is embedded in a philosophical/political/intellectual plot line of heroes and villains personifying Rand's values. I can't see any actor other than Gary Cooper in the lead role. I love the last line: "Mrs. Roark."
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    • Posted by CMBurton 2 years, 5 months ago
      It's so strange to think of it as a "love story" as that is typically defined these days, but I think I see what you mean when you say "romantic fiction as Ayn Rand defined it." I must say I much prefer her definition.
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 2 years, 5 months ago
    I think I have seen it twice. Once, when I didn't have a working television set, I sent into a bus station, and watched it on a coin-operated TV set. One time later, I did see it on my TV at home. There was considerable talk in the movie about individualism. It wasn't only about romance.
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  • Posted by Rex_Little 2 years, 5 months ago
    I saw it once on TV, must have been at least 40 years ago. Time has blurred the details, but I think it was a better rendition of its book than the Atlas Shrugged trilogy (especially part 3).

    Rand was reportedly unhappy with it. As a result, she demanded a degree of control over the script of any future movie than any producer would grant. That's a big reason why Atlas Shrugged never got made in her lifetime.
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    • Posted by $ Snezzy 2 years, 5 months ago
      Question at Ford Hall Forum, maybe around 1972: "Miss Rand, what is the status of Atlas Shrugged being made into a movie?"

      Her answer: "Safely under my control." (Usual thunderous applause.)
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      • Posted by Rex_Little 2 years, 4 months ago
        Yes, but they made cuts in it she didn't like. She wouldn't grant the right to make a movie of AS unless she had control over cuts, and no producer would give her that. Probably just as well; would she have allowed Galt's speech to reduced to anything remotely reasonable for a movie?
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  • Posted by freedomforall 2 years, 5 months ago
    The Fountainhead film was my first introduction to Ayn Rand's work.
    In spite of the film's limitations, I was hungry for more. Some time later a friend recommended that I read Atlas Shrugged.
    I loaned him a copy of the Fountainhead film to watch.
    He has built a number of buildings since then.
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  • Posted by skidance 2 years, 5 months ago
    I thought the Roark character was lackluster, Dominique too self-pitying, and Toohey too aristocratic for their roles. I'd imagined some shabby "intellectual," such as Bernie Sanders, in the Toohey role
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    • Posted by mccannon01 2 years, 5 months ago
      I can't disagree with all you say here, but I still liked the movie in general. I thought Patricia Neal was a bit "wooden" or robotic playing Dominique and I thought the same watching her in "The Day The Earth Stood Still". IMHO, she gets that blank stare like she's concentrating on remembering her lines instead of saying them more naturally like would be expected from an actress on the big screen.
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    • Posted by $ splumb 2 years, 5 months ago
      Rand based Toohey on Harold Laski, an Oxford-infected Brit.
      Robert Douglas, a RADA-trained Brit, was the actor who played Toohey.
      I think he made perfect sense.
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  • Posted by BostonTEA 2 years, 5 months ago
    A remake was discussed several years ago. But nixed by the producer who was interested in doing it, Zack Snyder.

    “‘Fountainhead’ right now is on the back burner,” he told the Times. “I don’t know how that movie gets made, at least not right away.” As to why he thinks it’s not happening, Snyder believed the political climate still isn’t right for the feature film. “We need a less divided country and a little more liberal government to make that movie, so people don’t react to it in a certain way.”

    https://www.indiewire.com/2021/03/zac...
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  • Posted by mshupe 2 years, 5 months ago
    The good news is that it was produced by a major studio using A list actors. Also, the style is film noire, which I thought was great, but today it confuses people into thinking it was a "B" movie. Ayn Rand had total script approval, but the Roark's courtroom defense fell far short of what it could and should have been. I think even Gary Cooper was critical of his lackluster performance. To me, due to the complexity of philosophical ideas, the script was oversimplified or stiff in many places.
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    • Posted by $ splumb 2 years, 5 months ago
      Ayn Rand was adamant that Roark's courtroom defense should be exactly as she wrote it.
      When she found out they cut it short, she decided that Atlas Shrugged would never be put on film in her lifetime.

      Warner Brothers did to Rand exactly what Cortlandt's owners did to Roark.

      Art imitates life, indeed.

      Patricia Neal would have made an incredible Dagny Taggart.

      And boy, was Robert Douglas terrific as Toohey. Pure evil.
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  • Posted by $ DriveTrain 2 years, 5 months ago
    Gary Cooper was horribly miscast as Roark and it left out a ton (of necessity, given time constraints,) but otherwise it was an ok adaptation.
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  • Posted by bobbitchen34 2 years, 5 months ago
    I saw the movie about 10 years ago on TMC ( I think). Having previously read the book I found the movie enjoyable. Don't think it would have been as good the other way around.
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  • Posted by $ splumb 2 years, 5 months ago
    Turner Classic Movies ran it a couple of months ago.
    I have a DVD recorder/player with full editing capabilities, so I burned it into a DVD.

    It's not true to the book, but I still enjoy it.
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