We struggle to be just. For we cannot help feeling at least a sympathetic pain before the sheer labor, discipline, and patient craftsmanship that went to making this mountain of words. But the words keep shouting us down. In the end that tone dominates. But it should be its own antidote, warning us that anything it shouts is best taken with the usual reservations with which we might sip a patent medicine. Some may like the flavor. In any case, the brew is probably without lasting ill effects. But it is not a cure for anything. Nor would we, ordinarily, place much confidence in the diagnosis of a doctor who supposes that the Hippocratic Oath is a kind of curse.
Whittaker Chambers, Big Sister is Watching You, National Review, December 28, 1957
Gary Cooper thought the speech of Howard Roark was rambling and confusing and didn’t make sense. Ayn Rand was furious that the full speech from her novel was not given in the film. Critics savaged the film. The film can be enjoyed if viewed as a parody of a movie based on a bad novel. If considered in that manner, the film is a laugh fest!
