The Passion of Ayn Rand

"Ayn Rand wouldn't like this movie" said director Christopher Menaul prior to its premier at the Sundance Film Festival. Based on the biography by Barbara Braden, this film focuses on the later years of Ayn's life and her affair with an associate. It would be a difficult task to make a movie that would focus on the genius of Ayn Rand. It is necessary to read her books to find this. Her real passion was for freedom and creativity, a result of being an immigrant to America from post-Revolutionary Russia. Instead, this film covers the sexual passion, which is only a minute element of the complexity of Ayn Rand. Her background, books and Objectivism philosophy are only given brief mention peripheral to the sexual involvement. Approaching it this way does create a more commercial result. It was produced by Showtime, so it probably will not be released to theaters, but should appear on cable soon.

The acting in this movie was outstanding and makes it more memorable. Of particular merit are Julie Delpy as Barbara Braden and Peter Fonda accurately portraying the meek Frank O'Connor.

A movie should be judged by whether it is the best product that can be created by the elements being used. On this basis, it succeeds.

This was an entertaining, thought-provoking movie. This film will be a valuable resource for the ingenue researching Ayn Rand's life and work for the first time. The film succeeds because it portrays Ayn Rand's character in all of its complexity without emphasizing any one single as- pect.

Some of Miss Rand's devotees may find this production oversexu- alized, but as someone familiar with her life and work, I find the account of her behavior and her thinking to be consistent with much of what I've read about her and heard in interviews. Considering Ayn Rand's passion for the consistency of principle and action, this film is in no way disparaging to her in character, even while it may not be as compli- mentary as some would like.

In fact, this movie may become an important historical resource for those who are unfamiliar with Miss Rand's life and work and want to research her. Like many outstanding biographies, this production provides a well-rounded view of her character and philosophy. It leaves the viewer, as the historian, to draw her or his own conclusions about the strength or weakness of Miss Rand's character, without in- doctrinating her point of view. This movie is an accurate and fair por- trayal of a woman who often incited controversy with her powerful commitment to the consistency of her actions with her ideals.

Having read almost all of Rand's works and considering her a brilliant philosopher and writer, I was apprehensive about seeing her personal side in a movie. I was not disappointed. I understand her work very well and was able to completely separate her personal conduct from her philosophy. Was her personal conduct in conflict or harmony with her philosophy? An esoteric question, and I don't care.

She was once quoted as saying that the character Kira, in her book 'We The Living', was the closest thing to an autobiography that she would ever write. Kira was a pure character with heroic characteristics. Ayn Rand in real life was probably not. Again, I don't care. None of this detracts from her philosophy. By the way, don't miss Rand's book-turned-into-film 'We The Living' starring Rossano Brazzi and Alida Valli filmed in Italy during WWII without Rand's knowledge or blessing. It is a cinematic feast. Italian actors, Russian setting, English subtitles and well adapted. Reportedly, Hitler had it canned after one showing because it criticized totalitarian dictatorships.

Back to this movie. It is reasonably well done and very interesting. Hoving subscribed to her newsletter, 'The Objectivist', I will never forget the short column she wrote therein, something to the effect "Nathaniel Branden is no longer associated with me, etc" (after she had dedicated Atlas Shrugged to him).

There is a human side to every hero.

Above all, read 'The Fountainhead', her greatest work. Forget the film, it was poorly adapted (by Rand?) and Cooper/Neal did not do the book's characters justice.

I read Atlas Shrugged in 1964 and thought I'd discovered Atlantis or something. I learned that a friend had seen Ayn Rand speak at Ford Hall Forum was also excited by her ideas. It was a couple years before we learned that there had been a split between Ayn Rand, Nathaniel and Barbara Branden -and many more years before we learned the split had occurred years before we were told about it. (And it was clear that information was covered up, repressed for years.)

So when Barbara Branden came out with, The Passion Of Ayn Rand, and it later was made into the movie - I paid attention and compared what was presented with my memories. Most of what is in the movie corresponds to what I remember. I like the movie's frankness for it shows how damaging Rand was to other people's relationships and how disappointed she was with the men in her circle who consistently fell short of her fictional male characters.

It is notable that every biography of Rand starts with her terrible experience under the Soviets - but none make much of that experience's role in forming Rand's later attitudes and philosophical stance. Her resultant "anti-collectivism" is completely valid on its face but in practice it becomes an excuse for rank selfishness and coldness toward "inferior people."

Rand's fascination with men as fantasy heroes and sexual controllers of women has always been evident and was acknowledged by Rand herself. It is never mentioned how this contradicts Rand's forcefully promoted "principles." She punished all who violated her rules but never thought her own transgressions affected how she should be regarded as one promoting a moral system.

The movie should be seen by all those who have read Rand's works and know at least something of her actual history. It provides the balance of her human flaws to offset the alleged purity of her ideals. A balance she as a writer never accomplished.

I agree with Wayne Tolmachoff's review, published here, and with director Christopher Menaul's statement that Ayn Rand probably would have been horrified by the intimate nature of Barbara Branden's fascinating biography of this highly individual and talented novelist/philosopher. I enjoyed and suffered along with Peter Fonda as Rand's pleasant but invisible husband Frank O'Connor and thought that the entire cast was commendable. Unfortunately, the captivating and powerful performance delivered by Helen Mirren in the title role hasn't been mentioned. Critic Geoffrey Gilmore wrote "...it's impossible to conceive of another actress playing Rand" and indeed, who but Mirren is capable of conveying Ayn Rand's sensual intensity and penetrating intelligence, not to mention heavy Russian accent? Helen Mirren shows, through the subtlest of gestures and expressions, Rand's extreme emotional repression and tyrannical control of the people around her. At the same time, Mirren's performance hints at the vulnerability, isolation and loneliness that Rand must have experienced as she destroyed or abandoned one important personal relationship after another. Whether you love Ayn Rand or hate her, this film makes a powerful impression.