Fountainhead, The (1949) Movie Script
http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/ _script.php?movie=fountainhead-the
Here is link to 2nd Trailer & Photos from the movie._
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041386/
Script: Special scenes & speeches marked in red or with > >
Do you want to stand alone against the whole world?
There's no place for originality in architecture._
Nobody can improve on the buildings of the past. One can only learn to copy them._
We've tried to teach you the accepted historical styles._
You refuse to learn. You won't consider anybody's judgment but your own._
You insist on designing buildings that look like nothing ever built before._
This school has no choice but to expel you._
It is my duty as your dean to say you will never become an architect._
You can't hope to survive unless you learn how to compromise._
Watch me. In just a few short years
I'll shoot to the top..._
...of the profession because
I'm gonna give the public what it wants._
You'll never get anywhere._
So you want to work for Henry Cameron, huh?
Oh, I know. He was a great architect 30 years ago._
But he fought for modern architecture..._
...and he's done for. What do you get?
Why do you wanna work for me?
You're setting out to ruin yourself._
You know that?
I ought to throw you out of here right now before it's too late._
l... I wish I'd done this at your age._
Why did you have to come to me?
I'm perfectly happy with the drooling dolts I've got._
I don't want any fool visionaries starving around here._
You're an egotist. You're impertinent._
You're too sure of yourself._
Twenty years ago, I'd have punched your face with the greatest of pleasure._
You're coming to work for me tomorrow morning at 9:00._
No, no, no._
Now, leave these here. Now get out._
Wait._
What's your name?
Howard Roark._
Paper here. Read all about it._
Paper, mister?
Get your morning Banner._
Read all about it._
Morning Banner._
Paper, mister?
Get your Banner._
Read all about it._
Morning Banner, sir._
Read all about it._
Give me that paper._
Now give me another one._
Give me all of them._
I said, give me all of them._
You... You all think
I'm beaten, don't you?
That's all the money I've got, but I can still do this with my money._
I can still do this..._
Howard. Look at... Look here._
In this paper, won't you..._
It's no use, Howard._
Why don't you give up?
Come inside._
It's no use._
You... You took over when I gave it up._
My... My heir, eh?
And look at it._
You haven't got any further than I did..._
...and you won't._
- We'll see._
How many years have you been on your own now?
And what have you got to show for it?
You've done four buildings in all these years._
That's quite a good deal to show for it._
After the kind of struggle you've had?
I didn't expect it to be easy, but those who want me will come to me._
They don't want you, son. Don't you understand? This is what they want._
Gail Wynand's Banner the foulest newspaper on earth._
You hold to your own ideas and you'll starve._
Gail Wynand gives people what they ask for:
The common, the vulgar, and the trite._
And he's maybe the most powerful man living._
- Can you fight that?
- I never notice it._
Look. You see those people down there?
You know what they think of architecture?
I don't care what they think of architecture or anything else._
l... I don't want to see what they'll do to you._
Me, I am... I'm through._
I've had enough._
I don't want any part of Gail Wynand's city!
Get me an ambulance._
Howard, look at those buildings._
Skyscrapers, the greatest structural invention of man._
Yet they made them look like Greek temples..._
...Gothic cathedrals and mongrels of every ancient style they could borrow..._
...just because others had done it._
I told them._
I told them that the form of a building must follow its function._
That new materials demand new forms._
That one building can't borrow pieces of another's shape..._
...just as one man can't borrow another's soul._
Howard, every new idea in the world comes from the mind of some one man..._
...and you know the price he has to pay for it?
I built that._
Howard, you do me a favor._
All my things that you're keeping for me, I want you to burn them._
All my... My papers, my drawings, my contracts._
- Everything. Burn them, will you?
- Yes._
I don't want to leave anything to the world._
How sorry, I'm leaving you to face them._
Howard, it's no use!
Give in. Compromise._
Compromise now._
You'll have to later, anyway._
Why are you saying that to me?
That's not what you did._
That's why I'm saying it._
Because it's not what I did._
Do you want to end up this way?
It's your future._
- Do you want it?
- Yes._
Then may God bless you, Howard._
You're on your way into hell._
- Hello, Howard._
- Hello, Peter._
Just passing by. Thought I'd drop in._
I haven't seen you for such a long time._
Did you know Guy Francon made me his partner last week?
No._
You see, you don't keep track of my career, but I've watched yours._
Yes, it's Francon and Keating now._
I don't have to tell you that Guy Francon is the leading architect._
No, you don't have to._
Remember? I told you once I'd rise._
- Hello?
- Western Union?
No. You have the wrong number._
Are you waiting for something, Howard?
You were telling me about Guy Francon._
I was just reminding you of what I once predicted._
I hate to see you brought down to this._
Remember how we started?
And look at us now._
Haven't you had enough of it?
Why did you come here, Peter?
Because we're old friends..._
...and I hate to see you being beaten._
- I'm not._
Oh, it's no use pretending now._
You haven't had any clients for a year._
You're wrong, Peter._
For a year and a half._
Well, you might have a couple of hundred dollars left and then it's the end._
I have $ 14 left and..._
...57 cents._
And all those bills?
It's an unpaid electric light bill?
It's a disconnect notice and in the drawer, you'll find an eviction notice._
How do you expect to go on?
That's my concern and not yours._
Now, don't protest, Howard._
You can pay me back anytime._
You need it._
Thank you, Peter._
I don't need it._
But I want to help you._
I don't give or ask for help._
Oh, why don't you drop it?
- What?
- The pose._
Or the ideals, if you prefer._
You can't stand alone. Give in._
Learn to get along with people._
Design the kind of buildings everybody does, then you'll be rich, famous._
You'll be admired._
You'll be one of us._
Is that what disturbs you about me, Peter?
That I want to stand alone?
Is that it?
I don't know._
Go home, Peter._
It's getting late._
- Have you lost your watch, Howard?
- I hocked it._
Good night._
Good luck._
New Scene
- Hello?
- Mr. Roark?
- Yes._
- I promised our answer today, Mr. Roark..._
...but unfortunately, the board of directors hasn't reached a decision yet._
I know you've been kept waiting a long time..._
...but the drawings you submitted for our building are so unusual..._
...that we find it difficult to decide._
I think I can promise you a definite answer tomorrow._
If not, it'll have to wait over the weekend..._
...but by Monday we'll know._
You've been wonderfully patient with us, Mr. Roark._
Can you wait a little longer?
Yes, I'll wait._
Thank you._
Mr. Roark, the commission is yours._
The Board of Directors..._
...of the Security Bank of Manhattan has chosen you as the architect for our building._
My congratulations._
You've done a beautiful job._
The board was quite impressed by the project._
It's a tremendous assignment, an unusual opportunity for an architect._
You're unknown but you'll be famous when this is erected._
It's a chance you've wanted for years._
- Yes._
- It's yours._
On one minor condition._
Oh, it's just a small compromise..._
...and when you agree to it, we can sign the contract._
- What is it?
- Well, of course..._
...we wouldn't alter your plans in any way._
It's the ingenuity of your plans that sold us on the building._
But its appearance is not of any known style._
The public wouldn't like it._
It'd shock people._
It's too different, too original._
Originality is fine, but why go to extremes?
There's always the middle course._
So we want to preserve your beautiful design..._
...but just soften it with a touch of classical dignity._
Here._
We've had this made to show you our general idea._
It's very simple. All you do is copy it._
We want you to adapt your building like this._
Now there's a touch of the new and a touch of the old..._
...so it's sure to please everybody._
The middle of the road._
Why take chances when you can stay in the middle?
You see? It doesn't spoil anything, does it?
And we must always compromise with the general taste. You understand that._
No._
If you want my work, you take it as it is..._
...or not at all._
- But why?
A building has integrity, just like a man._
And just as seldom._
It must be true to its own idea, have its own form and serve its own purpose._
But we can't depart from the popular forms of architecture._
Why not?
- Because everybody's accepted them._
- I haven't._
Do you wish to defy our common standards?
I set my own standards._
- Do you intend to fight against the world?
- lf necessary._
But after all, we are your clients, and it's your job to serve us._
I don't build in order to have clients._
I have clients in order to build._
Mr. Roark, we can't argue about this._
The decision of our board was final._
We want these changes._
Will you accept the commission on our terms, or not?
You realize, of course, your whole future is at stake._
This may be your last chance._
Well?
Yes or no, Mr. Roark?
No._
You realize what you're doing?
Quite._
Roark, this is sheer insanity._
Can't you give in just once?
After all, you have to live._
- Not that way._
- How else?
Don't you have to work?
I'd rather work as a day laborer, if necessary._
- Well, can you beat that?
- No._
It was you who recommended
Roark in the first place._
You chose him._
You said he would be good._
- Wasn't he?
- You suggested those changes._
You said he'd accept them._
Oh, yes, so I did._
I told you, Mr. Gail Wynand wants buildings that show a classical influence._
- Then why did you pick this man?
- An experiment, gentlemen._
A very interesting experiment._
But what are we going to do?
Pick another architect, of course._
Yes, Mr. Toohey._
I'm sure you know that I seek nothing for myself, Mr. Wynand._
My only motive is a selfless concern for my fellow men._
The new building of the Security Bank is such an important undertaking..._
...and you hold the controlling interest, Mr. Wynand._
The board of directors has attempted to pick an architect quite unsuccessfully._
They will accept anyone you choose._
And I felt it my duty to offer you my advice._
- Whom do you recommend?
- The rising star of the profession..._
...Peter Keating._
No other architect can equal his ability._
That, Mr. Wynand, is my sincere opinion._
I quite believe you._
- You do?
- Of course, but, Mr. Toohey..._
...why should I consider your opinion?
Well, after all, I am the architectural critic of the Banner._
My dear Toohey, don't confuse me with my readers._
l... I took the liberty of bringing you some samples of Peter Keating's best work._
You may judge for yourself._
- lf you have seen any of these buildings..._
- I have._
They were excellent 2000 years ago when they were built for the first time._
But surely you're not in favor of so-called modern architecture?
It's worthless because it's merely the work of a few unbridled individualists._
Artistic value is achieved collectively..._
...by each man subordinating himself to the standards of the majority._
- I read that in your column yesterday._
- You did?
Thank you._
The greatness in Peter Keating's personality lies in the fact that there's no personality..._
...stamped upon his buildings._
- Quite true._
Thus he represents not himself but the multitude of all men together._
And produces great big marble bromides._
I believe I am failing to sell you Peter Keating._
Why, no._
You're succeeding._
Your Keating is worthless..._
...so he's probably the right choice for that building._
He's sure to be popular._
You wouldn't expect me to pick a man of merit, would you?
I've never hired a good architect for any of the banks, hotels..._
...or other commercial structures I've built._
I give the public what it wants, including your column, Mr. Toohey._
Am I to understand you will choose Peter Keating?
I really don't care. One of those fashionable architects is just as inept as another._
I think you have a good idea, however._
I think I will decide according to the advice of the Banner's "Architectural Experts."
Yes, indeed, Mr. Wynand._
But you're not my only expert,
Mr. Toohey. You have a rival._
I should consult Dominique Francon, as well._
- Yes, sir?
- Ask Miss Francon to come in._
- Miss Francon and I do not always agree._
- I'm sure of it._
- Yes?
- Mr. Wynand, I know it's inexcusable..._
... but Miss Francon is not in the building._
Shall I telephone her home and ask her to come here at once?
No._
You're not going in person..._
You know, Toohey?
One of these days, you'll bore me._
I shall endeavor not to do so until the right time._
> > Wynand goes to Dominque to call her to write on his paper.
How did you come in?
Your maid let me in._
Without an announcement?
You can't expect her to share your attitude._
You're the only person in New York who'd refuse me admittance._
Why did you come here?
I needed you at the office._
I found you absent._
Isn't it unprecedented for you to come in person after one of your employees?
I hoped you'd take note of that._
I wanted to ask your advice..._
...about a matter which will be of great interest to you._
I must pick an architect for the Security
Bank building. Whom would you recommend?
No one._
I don't know a single architect of ability._
And you're not looking for ability, Mr. Wynand._
And if I left the choice up to you?
- I wouldn't care to make it._
- No?
Ellsworth Toohey is very anxious to get the commission for Peter Keating._
Peter Keating is a third-rate architect._
- Is he? He's your father's partner._
- Oh, yes._
- Aren't you engaged to Peter Keating?
- Yes._
If you found it amusing to tempt me by offering to help Peter's career..._
...you miscalculated._
I have no desire to help his career._
I was trying to tempt you, but I didn't find it amusing._
I should like to meet Peter Keating._
Will you have dinner with me this evening? We'll discuss the commission._
- lf you wish._
- Incidentally, I'd have fired anyone else..._
...for being absent from the office._
I know it._
- Shall I consider myself fired?
- You want to be?
Don't really care one way or another._
You know, you could do much more than write a small column about buildings._
You could make a brilliant career on the Banner..._
...if you asked me for it._
I never wanted a career on the Banner._
Tell me, what would you consider as tempting?
I'd like to find something you could want._
Don't try to, Mr. Wynand._
I'll never want anything._
Do you know what I was doing when you came in?
I had a statue which I found in Europe, the statue of a god._
I think I was in love with it..._
...but I broke it._
- What do you mean?
- I threw it down the air shaft._
- Why?
So that I wouldn't have to love it._
I didn't wanna be tied to anything. I wanted to destroy it rather than let it be..._
...part of a world where beauty and genius and greatness have no chance._
The world of the mob and of the Banner._
Do you still want me to have dinner with you tonight?
More than ever._
It's such a magnificent opportunity._
I'll do my best to please you._
- I take it you want this commission._
- Want it?
I'd sell my soul for it._
That may be the right phrase._
Everything in life has its price._
In this instance, the price is that you break your engagement to Miss Francon._
My engagement?
Why?
For any reason you care to imagine._
You may think what you wish about my motives but that is the condition I demand._
- Dominique?
- No, I'm not going to help you._
I'd like to see it decided between Mr. Wynand and yourself._
- But would you agree?
- The choice is yours._
Our engagement helped you to become my father's partner._
Mr. Wynand's patronage will help you much more._
I'm sure this is a joke, Mr. Wynand._
Things like this aren't being done._
They're done all the time but not talked about._
I grant you that
I'm behaving abominably._
It's extremely cruel to be honest._
I..._
I don't know what I'm supposed to do._
It's simple. You're supposed to slap my face._
You were supposed to do that several minutes ago._
No?
You don't wanna do that?
Of course, you don't have to and you don't have to accept._
Would you rather refuse the commission?
- No._
- Fine, Mr. Keating._
Now I think it would be best if you left._
Call up my office in the morning, and we'll sign the contract._
If that's what you want,
I'm not going to interfere._
We should be grown-up about it, shouldn't we?
I'm sure we'll have no trouble, Mr. Wynand._
Good night._
Why did you do this?
Did you believe I'd agree like Peter? Did you expect to win me by your usual methods?
Of course not. I merely wanted to show you that all men are corrupt, anyone be bought._
And that you're wrong in your contempt for me._
There is no honest way to deal with people._
We have no choice except to submit or to rule them._
I chose to rule._
A man of integrity would do neither._
There are no men of integrity._
I have many years behind me to prove it._
I was born in Hell's Kitchen._
I rose out of the gutter by creating the Banner._
It's a contemptible paper, isn't it?
But it has achieved my purpose._
- What was your purpose?
- Power._
Why are you trying to justify yourself to me?
I wasn't trying to jus..._
Yes._
- That is what I was doing._
- Why?
I think you know it._
You see?
I suppose I'm one of those freaks you hear about._
A woman completely incapable of feeling._
I was engaged to Peter Keating..._
...because he was the most safely, unimportant person I could find._
And I knew I'd never be in love._
Haven't you ever loved anyone?
No, and I never will._
If I fell in love, it'd be like the statue of the Greek god again._
I know it. I accept it._
I want you to marry me._
If I ever decide to punish myself for some terrible guilt..._
...l'll marry you._
- I'll wait._
No matter what reason you choose for it._
- Will you let me see you again?
- I'm leaving the city in a few days._
- Where are you going?
- To Father's place in Connecticut._
I'm going there so
I won't have to see anyone._
What are you really seeking?
Freedom: to want nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing._
Why, Miss Francon._
How do you do?
What are you doing here?
I'm out here for the summer._
Father let me have his house all to myself._
- I thought I'd take a look at this quarry._
- Let me show you around._
This is the best gray granite in Connecticut._
- Why, last month, we shipped..._
- Who's that man?
What man, Miss Francon?
No, never mind._
Why do you always stare at me?
For the same reason you've been staring at me._
I don't know what you're talking about._
If you didn't, you'd be more astonished and much less angry._
So you know my name._
You've been advertising it loudly enough._
You'd better not be insolent._
I can have you fired at a moment's notice._
- Shall I call the superintendent?
- No, of course not._
But since you know who I am, you'd better stop looking at me when I come here._
It might be misunderstood._
I don't think so._
> > Dominque ahs Roark come to replace fireplace marble threshold
Come in._
Good evening, Miss Francon._
You sent for me?
Yes._
Would you like to make some extra money?
Certainly, Miss Francon._
That marble piece is broken and has to be replaced._
I want you to take it out._
Yes, Miss Francon._
Now it's broken and has to be replaced._
Would you know what kind of marble this is and where to order a piece?
- Yes, Miss Francon._
- Go ahead, then. Take it out._
Yes, Miss Francon._
Oh, I'm sorry._
You might have thought that I was laughing at you, but I wasn't, of course._
I didn't want to disturb you._
I'm sure you're anxious to finish and get out of here._
I mean, because you must be tired._
There must be things you'd like to talk about._
Oh, well, yes, Miss Francon._
Well?
I think this is an atrocious fireplace._
Really? This house was designed by my father._
There's no point in your discussing architecture._
None at all._
Shall we choose some other subject?
Yes, Miss Francon._
Generally, there are three kinds of marble:
The white, the onyx and the green._
This last must not be considered a true marble._
True marble is the metamorphic form of limestone produced by heat and pressure._
Pressure is a powerful factor._
It leads to consequences which, once started, cannot be controlled._
What consequences?
The infiltration of foreign elements from the surrounding soil._
They form the colored streaks found in most marbles._
This is pure white marble._
You should be very careful, Miss Francon._
To accept nothing but a stone of the same quality._
This is Alabama marble, very high grade, very hard to find._
What shall I do with the stone?
Leave it here. I'll have it removed._
All right._
I'll order a new piece cut to measure and have it delivered to you._
- Do you wish me to set it?
- Yes, certainly._
I'll let you know when it comes._
How much do I owe you?
Keep the change._
Thank you, Miss Francon._
- Good night._
- Good night, Miss Francon._
Come in._
The man sent from the quarry, Miss Francon._
Who are you?
- Pasquale Orsini._
- What do you want?
The tall guy down at the quarry told me you got a fireplace you wanted me to fix._
Yes. Yes, of course. I forgot._
Go ahead._
Why didn't you come set the marble?
I didn't think it would make any difference to you who came, or did it, Miss Francon?
Good afternoon, Miss Francon._
How are you?
There was a man you had here._
A tall, gaunt man who worked a drill._
- Where is he?
- Yes, that one, he's gone._
- Gone?
- Quit, left for New York, I think._
- When?
- Two days ago._
What was his...?
No. No, I don't want to know his name._
- lf you want me to find him for you..._
- No._
I don't know what to do. I give up._
I've gone the limit. I'm at my wit's end._
- That's not going very far._
- It's all right for you to make cracks._
But I'm in trouble. We need some excitement to boost circulation._
I've got to invent a crusade and I don't know what on earth to crusade about._
We start a campaign against street car monopolies?
We did that two years ago, then we had a crusade against canned vegetables._
And a crusade against Wall Street._
Now, what else is there to be against?
You're a smart woman, couldn't you...?
- Sorry, I'm not good at that sort of thing._
- Gail Wynand expects results._
The Banner's got to be active._
I've racked my brain, and I can't think of anything to denounce._
- I can._
- What?
This._
- Who cares about a building?
- My dear, it depends on how you handle it._
It's an outrage against art and a threat to public safety. It might collapse any moment._
- Nobody's ever used that structural method._
- Yeah?
The owner of it is Roger Enright, one of those self-made men._
Stubborn and rich as blazes._
It's always safe to denounce the rich._
Everyone will help you..._
- The rich first._
- Yeah._
- Howard Roark, who is he?
- I wouldn't know._
Think what you could do with it._
A super-luxury apartment house going up..._
...and there's those poor people who live in the slums._
We could have some Sunday supplement stories about beautiful girls..._
...who are victims of the slums._
- With pictures in three-color process._
You've got something there._
You've got it._
It's a wonderful idea._
I know Wynand will okay it._
You know that this Enright House is a great building._
Perhaps one of the greatest._
Ellsworth, what are you after?
I daresay nobody knows what I'm after._
They will, though._
When the time comes._
So we've got three wonderful angles:
Highbrow stories about the bad art._
Scare stories about the girders collapsing._
Sob stories about the poor._
We get everybody riled up without any opposition._
Who'll want to defend it?
It's only a building._
- My first step would be..._
- Don't bother with details._
It's good. Go ahead._
Toohey can handle it._
What a surprise and what a lovely contrast to my usual visitors. Please sit down._
You approved a campaign against the Enright House?
Yes, of course._
It'll stir up a lot of noise._
I'm sailing next week._
I'll be gone all winter._
This will keep them busy._
Have you seen drawings of the Enright House?
No._
- Please send for them._
- What for?
That building is a magnificent architectural achievement._
- Is that of no importance?
- None._
You're willing to destroy it to amuse the mob..._
...to give them something to scream about?
That is the policy which has made the
Banner the newspaper of largest circulation._
Don't expect me to change it._
You asked me once to tell you of something I wanted._
I've tried never to ask favors of anyone..._
...but I'm going to now._
Please call off this campaign._
Is the architect a friend of yours?
I've never set eyes on him._
I don't know who he is nor care._
Why should you plead for that building?
Because it's great._
There's so little in life that's noble or beautiful._
I'm pleading for a man's achievement._
I'm pleading for greatness._
Are you reproaching me for the Banner?
I'm begging you, Mr. Wynand._
Dominique, I would give you anything I owned..._
...except the Banner._
My whole life and an unspeakable struggle have gone to make it._
I will not sacrifice it for anyone on earth._
It's your right to do as you wish._
It's mine to take no part in what you're doing._
Please accept my resignation from the Banner._
I'm sorry._
It's quite useless, my dear._
You can't fight me. You have no chance._
I know it._
While so many are in need of shelter..._
... effort is being wasted to erect a structural monstrosity..._
... known as the Enright House._
It is designed by one Howard Roark, an incompetent amateur..._
... who has the arrogance to hold his own ideas above all rules._
You are architects and you should realize that a man like Howard Roark..._
...is a threat to all of you._
The conflict of forms is too great._
Can your buildings stand by the side of his?
I believe you understand me, gentlemen._
If you'll sign a protest against the Enright House..._
...the Banner will be glad to publish it..._
...and we shall win because there are thousands of us..._
...thousands against one._
More of it. Look._
Letters to the editor._
Thousands of them, all screaming against that Enright House._
Ellsworth, you're wonderful._
How could you ever foresee a public trend so well?
- Roark._
- Mr. Enright._
Thanks._
- Don't pay attention to that public howling._
- I don't._
I've been denounced so much, it doesn't bother me anymore._
I started out in life as a coal miner._
Got where I am by acting..._
...on my own honest judgment whether others liked it or not._
When you grow older, you'll see that's the only way to succeed._
- I know it._
- They're tough._
They're gonna get tougher, don't worry._
- You'll win._
- I have._
- That's the only defense you need._
- I'll rest on the evidence._
That's exactly what I'm going to do._
I'll be the first tenant to move in._
I'll give a party to celebrate the opening of Enright House._
I'll invite them: The press, the architects, the critics. Let them see._
They think we're gonna apologize._
We'll celebrate instead._
I have nothing to say about this building._
God gave you eyes and a mind to use. If you fail to do so, the loss is yours not mine._
Don't you want to convince me?
Is there any reason why that should be my concern?
I dread to think of the fate of Howard Roark, whoever he is._
- Why? You don't think he's good?
- He's too good._
- Dominique._
- Hello, Peter._
What a pleasure to see you again._
You look more beautiful than ever._
What do you think of this building?
I'm taking a poll of the guests..._
- A what?
- A poll of opinion about it._
What for? In order to find out what you think of it yourself?
We have to consider public opinion, don't we?
No, don't ever hire an architect who's a genius._
- I don't like geniuses. They're dangerous._
- How?
A man abler than his brothers insults them by implication._
He must not aspire to any virtue which cannot be shared._
I wouldn't know about that intellectual stuff. I play the stock market._
I play the stock market of the spirit..._
...and I sell short._
It's stunning, perfectly stunning, but
I wouldn't want to live in a house like this._
One could never relax and feel homey._
You know what I mean._
- Comfortable and sloppy and, well, homey._
- No, one couldn't._
- Dominique._
- Yes, Father._
I can't understand how my own daughter can approve of this mess._
This is such uncivilized taste._
Are you going to defend it?
No, I won't try to defend it._
Mr. Francon, that stairway, it's not bad. It's a clever idea._
I'm designing a building right now where I can use an idea like this..._
...and I'd have to adapt it, of course._
Well, if one gave it some elegance..._
You know, a touch of Greek ornament._
The engineering idea is brilliant._
I could use it myself._
Hello. I've been waiting for you._
You're the guest of honor tonight, in more than just the social sense._
Whom do you want to meet first?
There's Dominique Francon looking at us._
Come on._
Miss Francon, may I present
Howard Roark?
You're..._
...Howard Roark?
- Yes, Miss Francon._
You don't know it, but Miss Francon has a connection with you._
She resigned from the Banner to protest their attack on your building._
- How did you know that?
- I heard about it._
- I didn't want Mr. Roark to know it._
- Why not, Miss Francon?
It was a perfectly futile gesture on my part._
Dominique won't admit it, but she admires your buildings. She understands them._
- I expected her to understand them._
- Did you?
- But you didn't know me._
- I used to read your column, Miss Francon._
I admire your work more than anything I've ever seen._
You may realize that this is not a tie, but a gulf between us..._
...if you remember what you read in my column._
I remember every line of it._
I wish I had never seen your building._
It's the things that we admire or want..._
...that enslave us,
I'm not easy to bring into submission._
That depends upon the strength of your adversary, Miss Francon._
Well?
Roger, why did you bring him here?
Why did you deliver him to these people?
Don't you see he doesn't have a chance against them?
> > Roark & Dominque
Come in._
I expected you to come here._
I didn't know your name._
You knew mine._
But you haven't tried to find me in all these months._
I wanted you to find me and have to come to me._
If it gives you pleasure that you're breaking me down..._
...l'll give you a greater satisfaction._
I love you, Roark._
Would it please you to hear that I've lived in torture all these months..._
...hoping never to find you, wishing to give my life..._
...just to see you once more?
But you knew that, of course. That's what you wanted me to live through._
- Yes._
- Why don't you laugh at me now? You won._
I have no pride left to stop me._
I love you without dignity, without regret._
I came to tell you this..._
...and to tell you that you'll never see me again._
You want to know whether you can make me suffer, don't you?
You can._
Roark, you're everything
I've always wanted._
And that's why I hoped
I'd never meet anyone like you._
I'll give you up now myself rather than watch you destroyed..._
...by a world where you have no chance._
- Why are you afraid?
- I know what they'll do to you._
You had the genius that made the Enright House._
But you were working like a convict in a granite quarry._
- I chose to do it._
- Why?
Don't you know why?
Yes. Because you won't conform._
They'll drive you down again._
Stone quarry's all you can expect._
- I got out of the quarry._
- Did you?
Do you think the Enright House is your beginning?
It's your death sentence._
Has any other client come to you?
No._
They won't._
They hate you for the greatness of your achievement._
They hate you for your integrity._
They hate you because they know they can neither corrupt you nor rule you._
They won't let you survive._
Roark, they'll destroy you._
But I won't be there to see it happen._
Do you want to leave me?
I've loved you from the first moment
I saw you, and you knew it._
You tried to escape from it._
I had to let you learn to accept it._
Are you gonna leave me?
Yes._
I won't stop you._
Roark, don't you see?
I don't want to leave you._
Will you marry me?
I want to stay with you._
We'll take a house in some small town,
I'll keep it for you._
Don't laugh. I can. I'll cook, I'll wash your clothes, I'll scrub the floor..._
...and you'll give up architecture._
If you give it up,
I'll remain with you forever..._
...but I can't bear to stand by and see you moving to some terrible disaster._
It can't end any other way._
Save yourself from tragedy._
Take a meaningless job._
We'll live only for each other._
I wish I could tell you it was a temptation._
Roark, yes or no?
No._
You must learn not to be afraid of the world, not to take any notice._
I must let you learn it._
When you have, you'll come back to me._
They won't destroy me, Dominique._
I'll wait for you._
I love you._
I'm saying it now for all the years we'll have to wait._
I'd do anything to escape from you._
I could've expected anything on my return except to see you coming here to meet me._
If I wanted to delude myself,
I'd think you were impatient to see me._
- I was._
- I'm very happy, my dear..._
...no matter your reason._
I'm honest enough to warn you, you shouldn't be._
I realize that._
What was your reason?
If you found another request to make of me,
I like to be able to grant it._
No. I didn't come to make a request but to grant you one of yours._
You still wish me to marry you?
More than anything
I was ever capable of wishing._
I'll marry you._
- Don't you want to ask me any questions?
- No._
Thank you._
You're making it easier for me._
Whatever your reason, I shall accept it._
What I want to find in our marriage will remain my own concern._
I exact no promises and impose no obligations._
Incidentally, since it is of no importance to you, I love you._
No, Mr. Roark, there is too much talk and public resentment against you._
We can't take part in controversies._
We can't afford to arouse antagonism._
I'm sorry, but we find it impossible to give you the commission for our building._
As one of our directors said, "You can't expect us to stick our necks out."
No, and I don't expect it._
Hello, Mr. Roark._
I hoped I'd meet you someday, like this, alone._
- You shouldn't mind talking to me._
- What about?
There's a building that should've been yours._
There are buildings going up all over the city, chances refused to you and given to fools._
You're walking the streets while they do the work you love but cannot obtain._
This city is closed to you._
It is I who have done it._
- Don't you want to know my motive?
- No._
I'm fighting you, and I shall fight you in every way I can._
- You're free to do what you please._
- Mr. Roark, we're alone here._
Why don't you tell me what you think of me in any words you wish?
But I don't think of you._
It's great, Mr. Roark. It's wonderful._
Ever since I saw the Enright House,
I knew you were the man I wanted._
But I was afraid you wouldn't do an unimportant gas station..._
...for me after doing skyscrapers._
No building is unimportant._
I'll build for any man who wants me._
Anywhere, so long as I build my way._
Your career has been as unprecedented as your buildings._
I never knew anybody to survive one of the Banner's smear campaigns._
Everything was against you._
How'd you break through?
- What'd you think of the Banner's campaign?
- It was a vicious appeal to fools._
Haven't you answered your own question?
But you had years torn out of your life, wasted by the Banner._
No. All these years, I've found some one man who wanted my work..._
...one man who saw through his own eyes and thought with his own brain._
Such men may be rare, they may be unknown, but they move the world._
- How did you look for them?
- I didn't. They called for me._
Any man who calls for me is my kind of man._
New Scene
This is probably something very big._
I made an appointment for you,
- Whose office?
- He telephoned half an hour ago._
Mr. Gail Wynand._
- I don't think you'll want to work for me._
- Why?
You ought to feel contempt for me if you've seen the kind of buildings I put up._
- You're honest, aren't you?
- Thank you._
That's the first time anyone said that about me..._
...and it's one of the few times when I am._
What I want you to build is not for the public. It's for me._
- What is it?
- My home..._
A country house just for my wife and me._
Did Mrs. Wynand choose me for the job?
No, Mrs. Wynand doesn't know anything about this. It's my own project._
I've looked at buildings all over the country._
Every time I saw one that I liked..._
...and asked who designed it, the answer was always Howard Roark._
I want you to know that I have very little respect for anything on earth._
The only thing I worship, and I've seen so little of it in life..._
...is man's ability to produce work such as yours._
I believe you._
Why do you say that as if it hurt you?
It doesn't._
Don't hold them against me, the things I've built._
Those worthless commercial structures and papers like the Banner made it possible..._
...for me to have a house by you._
They're the means, you're the end._
Don't apologize for your past._
It isn't necessary._
You do have courage, don't you?
No one else would dare say that to me._
But you're right. I was apologizing._
You see, I need you._
That house means a great deal to me, and you're the only one who can design it._
What kind of a house do you want?
Far from the city. I bought the land._
A place in Connecticut, 500 acres._
What kind of a house?
The cost, whatever you need._
The appearance, whatever you wish._
The purpose..._
You see, I want this house because
I'm very desperately in love with my wife._
What's the matter?
You think that's irrelevant?
No. Go on._
I can't stand to see my wife among other people._
It's not jealousy._
It's much more and much worse._
I can't share her with anyone or anything._
I want a house that will be only mine and hers._
Think of it as you would think of a fortress..._
...and of a temple._
A temple to Dominique Wynand._
I want you to meet her before you design it._
I've met Mrs. Wynand some years ago._
- You have? Then you understand._
- I do._
Start work at once._
Drop anything else you're doing._
I'll pay whatever..._
Forgive me._
Too much association with bad architects._
I haven't asked you whether you wanna do it._
Yes. I'll do it._
- What's the matter, Gail?
- Good evening, dear. Why?
- You look as if you felt happy._
- I feel as if I were young..._
...as I did when I was starting and believed the road ahead was clean..._
...and honesty was possible._
- You want it to be possible?
- Yes. I never realized..._
...how much I wanted to find it._
Dominique, you look very beautiful tonight._
No. That's not what
I wanted to say. It's this:
I feel for the first time that I have a right to you._
- You thought you hadn't?
- No, and that I'd never earn it._
But now I believe nothing will take you away from me..._
Nothing and no one._
- I don't love you, Gail._
- I know it..._
...but you'd never loved anyone else._
- What makes you think so?
- It wouldn't be like you._
You'd never surrender to anyone, but you don't hate me any longer._
No. I've found we have a great deal in common, you and I._
We both had strength, but not courage._
We've committed the same kind of treason some way._
If I have, I feel as if
I've been forgiven tonight._
- Why?
- I don't know._
You've always wanted to escape from the world._
Would you like to live in the country, away from everything..._
...away from the Banner?
- Yes. Yes, I would._
I'm having a house designed for us._
It will be my greatest gift to you._
If I've been guilty in my life, this house will vindicate me._
- Who is designing it?
- The only man of genius I ever met._
His name is Howard Roark._
Gail._
Do you happen to remember why I resigned from the Banner?
It was because of a campaign..._
...against the Enright House._
Just one of the Banner's smear campaigns!
Not important enough to remember, was it, Gail?
You staged so many of them._
You were away on your yacht._
He was just some architect whom you threw to the mob._
It built circulation. Didn't it, Gail?
When I spoke to him, he didn't remind me of it._
Why should he?
He knows he's won._
He could afford to be generous._
I don't accept generosity._
I never thought he could win against you, but he has._
Maybe we're wrong about the world, you and I._
He's the one who's earned the right to despise us._
Has he? That's a right
I'll never grant to anyone on earth._
There are no men of integrity, are there?
Well, you've met one._
There aren't._
He's not any better than the rest of us._
- What if he is?
- lf he were, I'd break him._
Nobody can break him._
I'll find out._
Why did you accept this commission?
Don't you hate me?
No. Why should I?
- Do you want me to speak of it first?
- Of what?
The Enright House._
You had forgotten that, hadn't you?
Let it remain forgotten._
I know what the Banner has done to you, but I stand by every word..._
...in the Banner._
- I haven't asked you to retract it._
Mr. Roark, I was away at the time of that campaign..._
...but my editor was doing what I had taught him._
Had I been in town,
I'd have done the same._
- That was your privilege._
- You don't believe I would have done it._
- No._
- I haven't asked you..._
...for compliments or for pity._
Sit down._
> > Wynand, owner of Banner newspaper, offers Roark a lucrative deal.
I wish to sign a contract to make you sole architect..._
...for all the future buildings I may erect._
If you accept, you will make a fortune._
If you refuse, I will see to it that you never build again._
You may have heard._
I don't like to be refused._
I want you to design my future commercial structures..._
...as the public wishes them to be designed._
You will build colonial houses,
Rococo hotels..._
...and semi-Grecian office buildings._
You will take your spectacular talent and make it subservient..._
...to the taste of the masses._
That is what I want._
Of course. I'll be glad to do it._
It's easy._
This what you want?
> > Roark make a terrible drawing of his design overlaid with Greek Columns, porticos, etc. an ugly mess.
Good heavens, no._
Then shut up and don't ever let me hear any architectural suggestions._
I didn't think anyone would waste time trying to tempt me again._
- I meant it until I saw that._
- I knew you meant it._
You were taking a terrible chance._
Not at all. I had an ally I could trust._
- What, your integrity?
- Yours, Gail._
Why do you think that about me?
Why don't you admit to yourself what we both knew the moment we met?
- What?
- That we are alike, you and I._
You're saying it about Gail Wynand of the New York Banner?
I'm saying it._
Gail Wynand of Hell's Kitchen..._
...who had the strength and spirit to rise by his own effort..._
...but who made a bad mistake about the way he chose._
No. You shouldn't deal with me._
You shouldn't remain here._
- You wish to throw me out?
- You know I can't._
Shall I tell you now what I think of this?
You told me._
I'll take this drawing home to show my wife._
I want her to see it and to thank you in person._
Will you come and have dinner with us tonight?
Will you?
Yes._
- Howard._
- Good evening, Gail._
You two know each other._
> > Roark meets Dominque to talk of the home design
- How do you do, Mr. Roark?
- And you, Mrs. Wynand?
Thank you for the house you designed for us. It's one of your most beautiful._
If you like it, I've fulfilled your husband's order._
What was the order?
To design a house as a temple to you, Mrs. Wynand._
Shall I accept it as a tribute from Gail or from you?
From both of us._
I appreciate it._
Particularly since I would have expected you to refuse the commission._
Why?
Was there nothing in your past to make you refuse it?
- No._
- Thank you, Howard._
I never expected you to forget and give in._
Isn't Mr. Roark the man you said you'd break?
I tried it and lost._
Are you admitting defeat?
Both of you?
Do you wish to call it that?
I think it was a victory for both of us._
Your feeling, once granted..._
...will you ever withdraw it?
Never._
Have you studied the floor plans of the house?
I should like to know whether the arrangement of the rooms is convenient._
- The rooms?
- Yes. The living room..._
...will open to a terrace over the lake._
- Did you notice the windows of our room?
- We'll get the first sunlight in the morning._
- You think I could ever live in that house?
- Why not?
- I can't. Please._
- Don't ask me to live in it._
- Why not?
Dominique, what is it?
Nothing._
Only the constant reminder._
- After the Enright House, we have no right._
- Please, forget the Enright House._
Yes, Mr. Roark._
I wouldn't be so frightened if I could understand. What have I done?
- Why did it happen?
- What are you whining about?
There's no use kidding myself. I've been slipping ever since Guy Francon retired._
I've had less work each year._
People are dropping me. Why?
You were a fashion, Peter._
Fashions change._
But I was at the top._
Why did I fall like that without any reason?
Don't be astonished, ask yourself, is there any reason for you to be at the top?
But you used to say
I was the greatest architect living._
Well, I could have had two reasons for saying it._
Maybe I wanted to honor you..._
...and maybe I wanted to dishonor and discredit all greatness._
l... I thought you were my friend._
Of course, I'm everybody's friend._
I'm the friend of humanity._
Now, why did you come here?
What do you want?
Cortlandt Homes._
You're not serious._
If I could get a great project to design..._
...like Cortlandt Homes, it would save my reputation._
But Cortlandt Homes is to be the greatest of all housing projects._
A model development for the whole world._
You can help me, Ellsworth._
You have influence on that project with those people._
Don't forget that this is not a Wynand project._
I'm only an unofficial adviser to them._
As an expert in architecture, nothing else._
But just a word of recommendation from you._
But, Peter, do you imagine you could design Cortlandt?
They haven't found anyone able to do it._
They're stuck._
Do you know the big problem in housing? Economy._
How to design a building that would rent at the lowest price possible._
Cortlandt Homes has to be the most brilliant product..._
...of planning ingenuity and structural economy ever achieved._
Do you think you could do that?
Well, I could try. I'd do my best._
Your best won't do it, Peter._
But you may try if you wish._
Here's all the dope on Cortlandt._
Work out a preliminary scheme._
Solve the problem. I'll submit it and push it for all I'm worth._
You will let me try._
All our best architects have tried and failed._
Nothing can be done in life without an idea._
My friends have the land, the money, the material..._
...but not the man to originate the idea._
Howard, I'm a parasite._
I've been a parasite all my life._
You helped me with my projects in school._
Everything I've built was stolen from you and men like you before us._
I've never had an idea of my own._
I've fed on you and hated you for it and I've come here to ask you to save me._
- Go on._
- Cortlandt is my last chance._
I know I can't do it. I've tried._
I've come to beg you as I did in school to design it for me._
To design it and let me put my name on it._
Well, there's no reason you should want to do it._
If you can solve their problem, go to them and obtain the commission._
- Do you think I could get past Toohey?
- No. No, you couldn't._
He's not the only one._
I'll never be given a job..._
...by any group, board, council, or committee..._
...but I would like to do this job._
You'd design Cortlandt for me?
I might if you offer me enough._
Howard, anything you ask. Anything._
Name a motive that would make me want to do it._
There's no reason why you should save me._
- No._
- But it's a humanitarian project._
Think of the people in the slums._
If you can give them decent housing, you'd perform a noble deed._
Would you do it just for their sake?
No. The man who works for others without payment is a slave._
I do not believe that slavery is noble._
Not in any form, nor for any purpose whatsoever._
Is there any kind of payment
I can offer you?
Yes, there is._
Now, listen to me._
I've worked on the problem of low-rent construction for years._
I've thought of the new inventions, the new materials..._
...the great possibilities never used to build cheaply, simply, and intelligently._
I loved it because it was a problem
I wanted to solve._
Yes. I understand._
Peter, before you can do things for people..._
...you must be the kind of man who can get things done._
But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the people._
Your own work, not any possible object of your charity._
I'll be glad if men who need it find a better manner of living in a house I build..._
...but that's not the motive of my work, nor my reason, nor my reward._
My reward, my purpose, my life is the work itself._
My work done my way._
Nothing else matters to me._
I've always wanted to build a large-scale project but l..._
I never hoped to get the chance._
Now, here's what I'll offer you._
I will design Cortlandt._
> > Roark to design Cortland
You'll put your name on it._
You will keep all the fees, but you will guarantee..._
...that it will be built exactly as I design it._
- I see._
- No changes by you or by anyone else._
That's the payment
I demand for my work._
My ideas are mine. Nobody else has a right to them except on my terms._
Those who need them must take them my way or not at all._
All right, Howard._
I guarantee it._
I give you my word._
Everybody would say you're a fool._
That I'm getting everything._
You'll get everything that society can give._
You'll take the money, the fame..._
...and the gratitude and I'll take that..._
...which nobody can give a man except himself._
I will have built Cortlandt.
> > Scene on the grass, Mr. & Mrs. Wynand & Roark_
"After two years of futile attempts to solve the problems involved..._
...the design submitted by Peter Keating is an astonishingly skillful solution..._
...that provides the best living quarters yet devised at the lowest cost."
- What on earth are you up to?
- What do you mean?
Do you think I pick artworks by their signatures?
Who designed that project?
Peter Keating._
Who designed this?
- Of course._
- What are you after?
- Drop it._
- All right._
I won't try to guess your motive..._
...but I'd know your work anywhere._
Howard, I never expected to feel gratitude to anyone..._
...but I'm grateful to you every moment of the day in the house you built._
I'm learning so many things
I never expected to feel._
- What?
- The wonder of ownership._
I'm a millionaire who's never owned anything. I've been public property..._
...like a city billboard._
But this is mine. Here I'm safe._
Why didn't you come here yesterday?
I missed you._
- Too much work in the office._
- You're killing yourself._
- You've worked too hard for years._
- Haven't you?
Yes. We need a rest, both of us._
My yacht's been refitted._
I'm planning a long cruise._
I've meant to for years._
Go with me._
Gail, is this an obsession?
What is Mr. Roark to you?
My youth._
- Is he what you were in your youth?
- Oh, no, much more than that._
What I thought I'd be when I was 16._
I'm sure Mr. Roark can't go on a yacht cruise._
Why, yes, Mrs. Wynand,
I'd be glad to go._
I thought, that you'd never give up your work for anyone._
I won't give it up._
I'll take my first vacation._
You're willing to be away for months?
I'd enjoy it._
It's incredible._
I believe you're jealous._
Wonderful!
I'm even more grateful to you if he's made you jealous of me._
Now, don't frown. I'll fix a drink._
We'll toast the cruise._
Roark._
Roark, don't go with him._
I can't stand this much longer._
I am jealous..._
...of you and of every moment you give him, of your impossible friendship._
- I don't want you to come here or like him._
- I don't want to discuss it, Mrs. Wynand._
Howard, that's where I was born,
Hell's Kitchen._
I own most of it now._
All those blocks._
I decided when I was 16 that that's where the Wynand building would stand..._
...and that it'd be the tallest structure of the city._
What's the matter?
Do you want to build it?
- Do you want it pretty badly?
- I think I'd almost give my life for it._
- Is that what you wanted?
- Something like that._
I won't demand your life, but it's nice to shock you._
I'll start to build it in a few years._
Do you know how much it means to me?
- Yes. I know what you want._
- A monument to my life, Howard._
After I'm gone, that building will be Gail Wynand._
My last and greatest achievement will also be your greatest._
The Wynand building by Howard Roark._
I've waited for it from the day I was born._
From the day you were born..._
...you've waited for your one great chance._
There it is, on the site of Hell's Kitchen._
Yours from me._
> > New Scene, Wynand commits suicide after giving Roark that huge commission.
Please, Mr. Keating, do let us stop arguing._
We've engaged Mr. Prescott and Mr. Webb as your associate designers._
- What for?
- Well, it's such a tremendous project._
You can afford to share the credit with two fellow architects who need a job._
Don't be selfish._
Besides, three minds are better than one._
But you've accepted my design._
Yes, of course. It's excellent, but we must make some improvements._
- What improvements?
- Well, the thing's too bare._
We ought to add a few balconies._
Balconies? What for?
To give it a human touch._
We got to have some kind of trimming over the entrance._
I won't allow it. It's my building._
It's my design._
But why shouldn't we have any say at all?
We want to express our individuality too._
On another man's work?
What the heck?
Any man's work is public property._
I can't let you._
Don't you understand? I can't._
Well, Peter, why not?
What's the matter?
You've never fought with your clients before._
- Is there anything different in this case?
- They're ruining the building._
- Oh, I suppose so._
- What do you care?
You made a contract with me that Cortlandt would be built..._
...exactly as I designed it, I did it only on that condition._
- What's a contract?
- You're old-fashioned, Keating._
- But I have a contract._
- What are you going to do about it? Sue us?
Go ahead. Try it._
You'll find that you can't sue us._
But you had no right to do this!
- What are rights, Peter?
- Whose rights?
Oh, what's the use of talking?
Let's go to work._
I couldn't help it, Howard._
They started making changes without reason._
Everybody had authority and nobody._
I tried to fight. They pushed me from office to office._
- I couldn't help it._
- I suppose not._
I had no way to reach you._
I was waiting for you to come back._
I was afraid._
What are you going to do?
They've got such a setup, you can't sue them._
- No._
- Want me to confess the truth?
- To everybody?
- No._
Will you let me give you all the money they paid me?
I'm sorry._
> > Roark & Dominque
Howard._
What are you going to do?
You have to leave that up to me now._
Why did you come here?
Because I couldn't stand it any longer._
You've been away for months._
I had to see you again..._
To see you alone._
Please go._
Roark, do I mean nothing to you?
I can't answer you now._
You stayed away from me for years._
I tried to forget you. I couldn't._
- You knew I never would._
- Yes._
I never thought it'd be Gail who'd bring you back to me._
Don't you see why
I can't stand it now?
Living in a house you designed, seeing you constantly as a stranger..._
...having no right to look at you, to tell you that l..._
Don't say it._
Do you remember?
You said once that you..._
For all the years we'll have to wait._
Roark, I know..._
...that you've known what I felt all these years._
We can never change it, neither one of us._
I'm going to leave Gail._
You may refuse to see me again, but I'm going to leave him._
Before you leave him will you help me with a problem of my own?
- Yes._
- Will you do it without asking questions?
Yes, Roark, anything you want._
You've seen Cortlandt Homes?
Yes. I know what they've done to your work._
Next Monday night, I want you to drive up to the side of Cortlandt._
You must be alone in your car._
You must make it appear you were an innocent bystander..._
Roark, I know what you're going to do._
This is a test, isn't it?
Can I equal your courage, am I still afraid for you..._
...can I help you take the most terrible chance you've ever...?
You can guess anything you wish._
Just listen. When I finish don't tell me whether you will help me or not._
If you decide to do it, say nothing..._
...but let me see you do it._
All right. Go on._
Drive up to Cortlandt Monday night at 11:30._
> > Dominquez at Cortland at night to help Roark blow up the malformed Cortland
I ran out of gas._
May I use your telephone, please?
I'm sorry, ma'am, but our phone's gone dead tonight._
Where is the nearest garage?
Way down the road._
Would you mind going there and getting somebody to help me?
Sure will, young lady. Glad to._
What do you know about this?
Arrest me. I'll talk at the trial._
We don't have to wait for the trial to convict him._
Howard Roark is guilty by his very nature._
It is whispered that he designed Cortlandt._
- What if he did?
- Society needed a housing project._
It was his duty to sacrifice his own desires..._
...and to contribute any ideas we demanded of him on any terms we chose._
Who is society?
We are._
Man can be permitted to exist only in order to serve others._
He must be nothing but a tool for the satisfaction of their needs._
Self-sacrifice is the law of our age._
The man who refuses to submit and to serve..._
Howard Roark, the supreme egoist..._
Is a man who must be destroyed!
We have never learned to understand what is greatness in man._
Self-sacrifice, we drool, is the ultimate virtue._
Let's stop and think._
Can a man sacrifice his integrity his rights, his freedom..._
...his convictions, the honesty of his feeling, the independence of his thought?
These are a man's supreme possessions._
To what must he sacrifice them?
To whom?
Self-sacrifice?
But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed._
A man's self is his spirit._
It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all..._
...and where do we find it?
In a man like Howard Roark._
Have that run off and set up on tomorrow's front page._
Yes, Mr. Wynand._
Gail, are you out of your mind, defending that...?
Keep still or I'll bash your teeth in._
The whole city is against him._
An unpopular cause is dangerous business for anyone._
For a popular newspaper, it's suicide!
- Public opinion is responsible..._
- Public opinion is what I make it._
For once, I'll fight for what I believe._
You'll stand alone against everybody for the first time in your life?
Yes, for the first time in my life._
> > Wynand visit Dominique in hospital
You fool, why did you have to make such a good job of it?
Didn't you know broken glass is dangerous?
- It didn't hurt._
- The next time you wanna play..._
...the innocent bystander let me coach you._
You didn't have to cut an artery._
Do the police believe that I was only an innocent bystander?
Yes, they believe it._
They have to. You almost died._
They don't know that you'd risk your life for him._
- For whom?
- Howard._
Haven't you always fought for his work?
I'm glad you did it and that it was for him._
I'm glad he did it._
- He had to._
- Yes._
- Have they arrested him?
- He's out on bail._
- What's he told them?
- Nothing._
He's refused to make any statement._
They all say he's guilty, but they can find no motive._
They think he designed Cortlandt..._
...but they can't prove it._
- Is the public against him?
It's the worst storm of public fury
I've ever seen._
- Are all the newspapers against him?
- Except one._
Gail, if you'll stand by him today..._
Don't offer me bribes._
It's a battle I've waited for all my life._
I know how much I have to redeem._
This will be my redemption._
This time, the Banner is serving a crusade._
> > Roark & Dominque at hospital
I was waiting for you to come._
- Do you want to ask me any questions now?
- No._
I may be sent to the penitentiary for years._
Does that frighten you?
No. I'll share whatever they do to you._
I failed you once because I was afraid to see you suffer._
Now I'll stand by you openly._
I'll take the disgrace, the scandal, the smears, anything._
Darling._
Yes._
You're Mrs. Gail Wynand._
You're above suspicion._
Everybody believes you were at the scene by accident._
If you let it be known what we mean to each other..._
...it'll be a confession that I did it._
Is that why you asked me to help you?
In order to stop me from joining you now?
Yes._
Dominique, if I'm convicted..._
...I want you to remain with Gail._
And you must not tell him about us..._
...because he and you will need each other._
All right, if that's what you want..._
...but if you're acquitted?
We can't speak of that now._
You'll be acquitted._
That's not what I wanted to hear you say._
If they convict you..._
...if they lock you in jail, if they never let you design another building..._
...if they never let me see you again..._
...it won't break me._
I know how to fight it._
I'm not afraid of them any longer._
That's what I wanted to hear all these years._
- Who designed Cortlandt?
- Let me alone._
- It's too late, Peter._
- Let me go!
- Who designed Cortlandt?
- Why do you want to kill Roark?
I don't want to kill him. I want him in jail, behind bars, locked, strapped, beaten._
He'll move as he's told._
He'll work as he's told._
- He'll obey. He'll take orders._
- Ellsworth, what are you after?
Power. What do you think is power?
Whips? Guns? Money?
You can't turn men into slaves unless you break their spirit._
Kill their capacity to think and act on their own._
Tie them together, teach them to conform, to unite, to agree, to obey._
That makes one neck ready for one leash._
Ellsworth._
You've heard me preaching it for years but you didn't have the wits..._
...to know what you were hearing._
Why do you suppose I denounced greatness and praised mediocrities like you?
Great men can't be ruled._
Why did I preach self-sacrifice?
If you kill a man's sense of personal value, he'll submit._
Can you do that to Howard Roark? No?
Then don't ask me why I want to destroy him._
That's what they mean, your noble ideals._
You believed in me._
Well, what's left of you now?
Come on. Who designed Cortlandt?
Howard Roark._
On what condition?
That it must be built as he designed it._
Write it down._
Write a full confession._
You're a great success, Peter._
You're my best achievement._
A totally selfless man._
Selfish? Is that what they call me?
Well I am. I live by the judgment of my own mind and for my own sake._
Let them say what they please._
By the time you come to trial, no jury will convict you._
The public will think what I want them to think. The Banner will save you._
Dominique, do you see why
I love the Banner? I hold power._
Are you sure of it, Gail?
You'll see the demonstration for yourself._
I rule that city. I've never lost a battle._
It's your first test of a real issue, which..._
- Hello?
- Gail Wynand, please._
- Speaking._
- Gail, this is Alvah._
Yes, Alvah?
Keating has admitted
Roark designed Cortlandt._
- Toohey has a signed confession._
- What?
It made the front page of the other daily so we had to go along._
Stay there. I'll come at once._
What is it?
Ellsworth Toohey got a confession from Peter Keating._
It's on the front pages tomorrow, including the Banner._
I'm not counting on public opinion one way or the other so don't be afraid for me._
I'll fight for you if it takes everything I own._
When I can't fire anyone on my paper,
I'll close it..._
...and blow your brains out or mine._
They've walked out on us._
The whole city room._
Our best boys._
They're Toohey's best friends._
- They won't work without him._
- Ellsworth Toohey is fired and stays fired._
I can't understand how Ellsworth got so much power._
I never noticed it but he got his gang in little by little and now he owns them._
- And I own the Banner._
- Do you, Mr. Wynand?
So you were after power, Mr. Wynand..._
...and you thought you were a practical man._
You left to impractical intellectuals like me the whole field of ideas..._
...to corrupt as we please while you were busy making money._
You thought money was power._
Is it, Mr. Wynand?
You poor amateur._
You've never been enough of a scoundrel for your own ambition._
That's why I'll be back on this job..._
...and when I am, I'll run this paper._
When you are. Now get out of here._
- How clever, my dear._
- Yes, it is, isn't it?
We must do what we can for the cause._
I just fired my cook because I caught her reading the Banner._
Gail, what are we gonna do?
I can't get anyone._
They refuse, no matter what salary I offer._
Nobody wants to work for the Banner._
Nobody wants to read it._
How long can we go on like this?
To the end._
Gail, give me back my old job._
I shall be proud to work for the Banner now._
Come on._
Take these to the back room, pick up the wire flimsies and bring them._
Then report to Manning at the city desk._
- All returns, eh?
- Yup._
Gives me the creeps._
Looks just like slabs in the cemetery._
And they keep growing every night._
Guess nobody buys the Banner anymore._
They're killing themselves._
Work night and day and still newspapers come back unread._
Ready with it, Mrs. Wynand?
There's the Sunday makeup._
It's fairly rotten, but it'll have to do._
I sent Manning home._
He was going to collapse._
Jackson quit, but we can do without him._
Alvah's column was a mess._
I rewrote it._
Don't tell him. Say Gail did._
All right._
It'll be all right, Gail._
It will be all right._
The Banner is not helping Howard._
It's ruining him._
It's turning more people against him._
He doesn't care about that but stand by him._
- Don't give in to them._
- I can't save him._
He'll win in his own way._
I can't save him. I have no power._
I never had any power._
Nobody's ever listened to me because nobody's ever respected me._
I wasn't a ruler of the mob._
I was its tool._
If you don't give in, you'll save yourself and the Banner._
I never ran the Banner. They did._
The men in the street._
It was their paper, not mine._
There's nothing to save now._
Gail, don't give in to them._
Don't give in._
You'd better give in._
We can't permit this to go on._
After all, we're your board of directors._
We have something to say._
We've lost all our advertisers we've lost our public, for what?
Now, if it were a serious cause, but for some fool dynamiter?
What is this, an intellectual issue? Are we losing our shirts for principles or something?
Gail, Gail, it's no use._
We must call Ellsworth Toohey and take him back._
We must reverse our stand on the Cortlandt case._
We must come out against Roark._
Wynand, this is final._
Yes or no?
Give in or close the Banner._
You'd better give in._
All right._
I solemnly ask of every man who hears this case..._
...to let his own mind pronounce a verdict upon it._
You have heard the testimony of the state's witnesses._
The confession of Peter Keating has made clear..._
...that Howard Roark is a ruthless egoist..._
...who has destroyed Cortlandt Homes for his own selfish motive._
The issue which you are to decide is the crucial issue of our age:
Has man any right to exist if he refuses to serve society?
Let your verdict give us the answer._
The state rests._
The defense may proceed._
(> > Howard Roark's statement at trial)
Your Honor,
I shall call no witnesses._
This will be my testimony and my summation._
- Take the oath._
- Do you swear to tell the truth..._
...the whole truth and nothing but the truth..._
...so help you God?
- I do._
Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire._
He was probably burned at the stake, he taught his brothers to light._
But he left them a gift they had not conceived._
And he lifted darkness off the earth._
Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads..._
...armed with nothing but their own vision._
The great creators, the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors..._
...stood alone against the men of their time._
Every new thought was opposed..._
...every new invention was denounced..._
...but the men of unborrowed vision went ahead._
They fought, they suffered and they paid, but they won._
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..._
...the creation which gave form to his truth._
He held his truth above all things and against all men._
He went ahead whether others agreed with him or not..._
...with his integrity as his only banner._
He served nothing and no one._
He lived for himself..._
...and only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things..._
...which are the glory of mankind._
Such is the nature of achievement._
Man cannot survive, except through his mind._
He comes on earth unarmed._
His brain is his only weapon, but the mind is an attribute of the individual._
There is no such thing as a collective brain._
The man who thinks must think and act on his own._
The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion._
It cannot be subordinated to the needs, opinions, or wishes of others._
It is not an object of sacrifice._
The creator stands on his own judgment._
The parasite follows the opinions of others._
The creator thinks._
The parasite copies._
The creator produces._
The parasite loots._
The creator's concern is the conquest of nature._
The parasite's concern is the conquest of men._
The creator requires independence._
He neither serves nor rules._
He deals with men by free exchange and voluntary choice._
The parasite seeks power._
He wants to bind all men together in common action and common slavery._
He claims that man is only a tool for the use of others..._
...that he must think as they think act as they act..._
...and live in selfless, joyless servitude to any need but his own._
Look at history._
Everything we have, every great achievement..._
...has come from the independent work of some independent mind._
Every horror and destruction..._
...came from attempts to force men into a herd of brainless, soulless robots._
Without personal rights..._
...without personal ambition..._
...without will, hope or dignity._
It is an ancient conflict._
It has another name._
The individual against the collective._
Our country, the noblest country in the history of men..._
...was based on the principle of individualism._
The principle of man's inalienable rights._
It was a country where a man was free to seek his own happiness._
To gain and produce, not to give up and renounce._
To prosper, not to starve._
To achieve, not to plunder._
To hold as his highest possession a sense of his personal value..._
...and as his highest virtue his self-respect._
Look at the results._
That is what the collectivists are now asking you to destroy..._
...as much of the earth has been destroyed._
I am an architect._
I know what is to come by the principle on which it is built._
We are approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to live._
My ideas are my property._
They were taken from me by force, by breach of contract._
No appeal was left to me._
It was believed that my work belonged to others to do with as they pleased._
They had a claim upon me without my consent..._
...that it was my duty to serve them without choice or reward._
Now you know why
I dynamited Cortlandt._
I designed Cortlandt..._
...I made it possible..._
...I destroyed it._
I agreed to design it for the purpose of seeing it built as I wished._
That was the price I set for my work._
I was not paid._
My building was disfigured at the whim of others who took the benefits of my work..._
...and gave me nothing in return._
I came here to say that I do not recognize..._
...anyone's right to one minute of my life._
Nor to any part of my energy, nor to any achievement of mine._
No matter who makes the claim._
It had to be said._
The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing._
I came here to be heard..._
...in the name of every man of independence still left in the world._
I wanted to state my terms._
I do not care to work or live on any others._
My terms are a man's right..._
...to exist for his own sake._
Further, you are instructed that the extent of the monetary loss..._
...suffered by the owners is not a matter to be considered by you._
The liability of the defendant..._
...for any financial loss..._
...is a question to be determined in a civil suit._
You are concerned here only with a criminal action._
You are to determine whether the defendant..._
...is guilty or innocent..._
...of the specific crime with which he has been charged._
You are the exclusive judges of the facts..._
...and under the instructions I have given you, it is your duty and your duty alone..._
...to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused._
Your Honor._
Foreman._
- Have you reached a verdict?
- We have, Your Honor._
The prisoner will rise and face the jury._
What is your verdict?
Not guilty._
I have bought from them the plans, the site, and the ruins of Cortlandt._
It's mine now and yours._
You'll rebuild it for me._
Just as you planned it._
Mr. Roark, Mr. Gail Wynand wishes to know whether you could come to his office._
- Is he on the wire?
- No. It's Mr. Wynand's secretary._
Yes. Tell her yes._
Mr. Roark, this interview is necessary but very difficult for me._
Please act accordingly._
Yes, Mr. Wynand._
Please read this and sign it, if it meets with your approval._
What is it?
Your contract to design the Wynand building._
Please listen carefully, Mr. Roark._
I have closed my newspaper._
The Banner has ceased to exist._
I wish to undertake the construction of the Wynand building at once._
It is to be the tallest structure of the city._
You will design it as you wish._
You will have full charge and complete authority._
But I do not care ever to see you again._
Please read the contract and sign it._
You haven't read it._
Please sign both copies._
Thank you._
This will be the last skyscraper ever built in New York._
The last achievement of man on earth..._
...before mankind destroys itself._
Mankind will never destroy itself,
Mr. Wynand..._
...nor should it think of itself as destroyed._
Not so long as it does things such as this._
- As what?
- As the Wynand building._
That is up to you._
Dead things..._
...such as the Banner..._
...are only the financial fertilizer that will make it possible._
It is their proper function._
I told you once that this building was to be a monument to my life._
There is nothing to commemorate now._
The Wynand building will have nothing..._
...except what you give it._
Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours and could've been mine._
May I see Mr. Roark, please?
Mr. Roark's way up on top._
Who's calling, ma'am?
- Mrs. Roark._
- Oh._