The Fountainhead - Roark's Courtroom Speech

From the 1949 film '"The Fountainhead" based on the novel of the same name by Ayn Rand. Gary Cooper plays Howard Roark as he defends his dynamiting of Cortlandt. Ayn Rand wrote the screenplay herself, so novel purists need not worry.

Please rate and comment.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• ayn
• rand
• fountainhead
• roark
• speech
• courtroom
• defense
• cortlandt
• gary
• cooper

[mortivik]

lordhighexecutioner: You haven't read the book, it seems.

The contract he had specifically says they had to agree to his design, as-is. They broke the contract, thus not "paying" him as was the deal -- *they* initiated force against *him* (stealing), and he refuses to let them steal from him, thus blowing up Cortlandt.

[ThunderboltSnake]

~Humanity is put on Earth to Innovate NOT Imitate~

~This was the best part of Ayn Rand's book of this name~

~Rand's best whole work is her "Anthem" to this day~

[paweleve]

Great movie, great book, and great speech!

[remoman]

If I was the judge I would say "nice speech... You are hereby sentenced to 25 years imprisonment with a no parole period of 20".

[krishbrish]

I strongly believe that Gary Cooper did not justify the power of Howard Roark...

[JustBme87]

It feels good to see something that speaks my cup of tea, I very much relate to this as an happily unemployed artist w odd jobs jus making ends meet

[virginboy92]

3 people are too fuckin stupid to understand this

[tuxguys]

7/4/11, 12:38 AM...

Happy Independence Day, all, and what better way to celebrate it than with Howard Roark's (Gary Cooper's) Testimony/Summation regarding the Individual vs. the Collective. At 3:49 he references the Last Best Hope of Mankind (we crazy Americans).

Although I find what I've heard about Ayn Rand, personally, to be repulsive, the Libertarian, and Theist, in me (which is just about all of me), finds her ideas to be Intellectual Pornography of the Highest Order.

(This is good.)

[superBernard49]

Toohey looks ready to kill.

[rsimpson69]

@Grasslander But additionally, it would seem logical that political interests, always consumed with maintaining the status quo, and not at all with making real improvements, and likely made up of established businessmen whose fortunes would suffer from the new competition offered by those new inventions, would probably denounce those new inventions, at least initially.

What do you see? I see irony, since the 'selfish' creators actually do more for humanity than the 'selfless' public servant.

[rsimpson69]

@Grasslander I think that means that though he recognized the potential demand there would be for his creation, he does not create it solely, or even mostly, for that demand to be met, but more for his own needs to be met. Those needs can be tangible like a reward he'll receive in exchange for his creativity, or intangible like the satisfaction of seeing his idea come into existence. In either case, the meeting of the demands of others is secondary, at best.

FWIW, I am not a Randian

[Grasslander]

"Every new invention was denounced." False. "No creator was prompted by a desire to please his brothers, his brothers hated the gift he offered. His truth was his only motive. His work was his only goal. His work - not those who used it. His creation - not the benefits others derived from it." -- False. Typical of human-hating Ayn Rand, an amateur who knew nothing of business OR innovation, and who was just as hateful as the communists.