The Fountainhead!

The philosophy that came to dominate the work of Steve Ditko was that of Objectivism. It celebrated reason over emotion and self-interest over philanthropy. Much of the philosophy is a convenient dodge for modern hucksters, mostly politicians as they find its reverence for raw capitalism a nifty way to justify policies which increasingly focus wealth into a smaller and smaller pool. It offers those afflicted with avarice a noble excuse from having to worry about the impoverished as they are conveniently labeled as lazy moochers, and so responsible for their own situations. It's a ghastly mindset that has taken hold in the United States and has demolished the middle class which fueled the most potent economy the world has seen. Now to his credit, Ditko abided by a more thorough understanding of Objectivism, even those aspects which might've hurt his immediate and long-term interests because he desired apparently above all things to be consistent. 

This philosophy was promulgated by the author Ayn Rand and she did it most effectively and famously in her first novel The Fountainhead which was made into a sleek and handsome Warner Brothers movie starring Gary Cooper, Raymond Massey, and Patricia Neal among others. (Note: I've never read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead -- have tried but can never make much progress alas.) 

The story is of an inhumanely confident architect named Howard Roark who demands that his clients build according to his worldview and plans regardless of their whims because by hiring him they are submitting to his vision as an artist. As played by the somber Cooper, he is a utterly rigid and somewhat taciturn man who destroys a project which was not built according to his specifications. The fact he didn't actually own the real property the project was built upon, nor pay for the materials with which it was constructed, nor actually officially take credit for the building of it, seems to have not been a worry to the puritanical desire to see only his imagination on display. 

Both Cooper and Patricia Neal play their parts like statues come to life, ideal physical people who toy with one another in a gamesmanship of a romance which seems more like an battle between two water buffalos than a courting between people. In his trial he makes a potent speech which outlines much of the Objectivist mindset. And that's the problem with this flick, with a screenplay written by Rand herself and with a contract that forbid changes we get torpid conversations and speeches that rattle along with some clarity but never with a whisper of emotion. Cooper and Neal both say "Fuck Me Now!" with their eyes, but they never come close to saying anything so powerful with their mouths. 

Steve Ditko pursued much the same game plan with many of his later projects beginning in the 1960's. Some have a dash of the theories thrown into stories filled with action and drama, while some stories grind to a grisly and often boring halt as multiple characters expound seemingly ceaselessly on the ideas in question. The fusion between words and pictures deserts Ditko in the worst cases of these screeds and the reader gets bogged down in a comic page from which there seems no escape. 

Rip Off