The Passion of Ayn Rand
by Christopher Menaul
List Price:
Our Price: $5.17
You Save: $4.77 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.09 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Eric Stoltz, Helen Mirren, Julie Delpy, Peter Fonda, Sybil TemtchineDirector: Christopher Menaul
Brand: Showtime Entertainment
Producer: Barry Krost
Producer: Doug Chapin
Producer: Irwin Meyer
Producer: Linda Curran Wexelblatt
Writer: Barbara Branden
Writer: Howard Korder
Writer: Mary Gallagher
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-02-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Showtime Ent.
DVD Reviews of The Passion of Ayn Rand
DVD Review: Effective rendition of Barbara Branden's bio of Rand
Summary: 4 Stars
This Showtime film takes up the life of Ayn Rand from chapter 20 in Barbara Branden's biography of the same title. The director and screen writers have effectively transmitted the turn from naive hero worship of Rand that Barbara and her boyfriend Nathaniel experienced in the late 1940s to the subsequent stormy love affair between Rand and Nathaniel with its consequences in the lives of Frank O'Connor (Rand's husband) and Barbara, who had married Nathaniel. When the affair started, Rand was in the middle of writing her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, a philosophical novel about unstinting individualists who love whom they will on the way to creating the world they want.
Julie Delpy fairly portrays Barbara's "descent into hell" (to borrow from a Doris Lessing title) of psychological intimidation and manipulation and its breeding of guilt, but Helen Mirren appropriately dominates the screen, mastering Rand's intensity down to detailed mannerisms that conform not only to Barbara's account but to filmed interviews. (For excerpts from these interviews and more, see Michael Paxton's "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life," DVD, 2004, available on Amazon.) Whereas Delpy gives us a woman in tune with social dynamics (including jealousy) as well as ideas, Mirren shows a single-minded pursuit of personal goals that easily ignores the existence of others, a kind of "blanking out" of social reality (to borrow an epithet that Rand frequently used). In the scene where Rand negotiates her affair with Nathaniel in the presence of Frank and Barbara, Mirren's voice, face, and body move inexorably from her assumption that everyone will accept her simple moral calculus--what's best for her must be good for all--to mild indignation that the others cannot see with her clarity what is in her/their best interest. Mirren, like Rand, is in control.
Peter Fonda's Frank O'Connor is subdued, sometimes stiff, sometimes baffled, the repressed husband described in the bio. In a scene showing all four walking on a sidewalk, director Menaul has Frank slightly behind the group, ceding the right of way to another pedestrian heading in the opposite direction. Frank seems to take a fatherly interest in Barbara, distantly reminiscent of Jean Val Jean and Cosette. Fonda carries the sense of repression well, showing Barbara kindness and Rand forbearance. Eric Stoltz does an effective job of creating the mixed emotions of a man more in love with ideas than with people, until he finds someone younger, not quite so bright, that he can control without effort.
The supporting cast of easily intimidated businessmen (men only) and easily awed young intellectuals (mostly men but some women) accurately conveyed how hangers on can become sycophants or be driven to despair by the presence of charismatic people. When reason is a weapon to inculcate agreement rather than a tool for building understanding, second-hand parroting can often substitute for real thought. One of these characters works as a screenwriter and must compromise to keep his job, and Mirren's contempt for him is vivid and excruciating. ("Contempt" is an attitude high in the Randian social repertoire, and Mirren picked up on it well.)
The opening and closing New York skyline scenes recall Rand's fascination with the distinctive tall buildings of American modern architecture, but the nightscape hints at the darkness of the story, which is more sad than poignant. The jazz score adds to this feeling, underscoring the Bohemian mood of New York in the 50s and early 60s. This film has little room for what Rand called the "tiddly-wink" music that she relaxed to, though the Blue Danube Waltz gives some of the exhilaration that she must have felt when she was in control. (Rachmaninov, one of her favorites for "serious" music, may have been either too subtle or too bombastic for this film.)
And now for a small quibble...
Although Showtime should be commended for making this film, they also undercut the story on the back of the DVD by saying Rand had a "bizarre love life." Though the Victorians were scandalized by Dickens's and Hugo's affairs with much younger women, few today would care; apparently an older woman writer needing a younger man to stay inspired still seems "bizarre" to our Victorian holdovers.
Description of The Passion of Ayn Rand
PASSION OF AYN RAND - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Virtue of Selfishness (Signet)by Ayn Rand
Signet; Published: 1964-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.37
Price in other shops:
![The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2] Image](/images/The-Cook-the-Thief-His-Wife-Her-Lover-Region-2-B0000UM0NU-X.jpg)
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2]DVD
Best price: $9.40
Atlas Shrugged (Cliffs Notes)by Andrew Bernstein
Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-06-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.41
Price in other shops:
The Roman Spring of Mrs. StoneShowtime Entertainment; Release date: 2004-03-23; DVD
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
I Am John Galt: Today's Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying Itby Donald Luskin, Andrew Greta
Wiley; Published: 2011-05-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Ayn Rand's We the LivingRelease date: 2009-09-11; DVD
Best price: $22.50
Price in other shops:
Ayn Rand - A Sense of Life (Director's Vision Edition)Release date: 2004-08-17; DVD
Best price: $21.01
Price in other shops:
Ayn Rand: In Her Own WordsE1E; Release date: 2011-04-05; DVD
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
The FountainheadWarner Brothers; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops:
Atlas Shrugged: Part OneFOX; Release date: 2011-11-08; DVD
Best price: $13.48
Price in other shops: