Fountainhead, The

"Do you want to stand alone against the whole world?" Architect Howard Roark has heard the voices of safety, convention, compromise. But Roark is a man as unyielding as the mighty structures he builds. And he will sacrifice everything -- the woman he loves or the project he dynamites when others interfere with his design -- to maintain his individuality in a world of lockstep conformity. Gary Cooper portrays Roark and Patricia Neal plays the troubled beauty whose desire for him almost destroys her in this emotionally and intellectually searing film scripted by Ayn Rand from her own novel. From a granite quarry to Manhattan skyscrapers to a thrilling courtroom finale with his freedom on the line, Roark does stand alone against the whole world. And that is his most towering achievement.

• drama
• romance