The Fountainhead is about a college dropout named Howard Roark. The reason that Roark got kicked out was because he told the dean that he did not care about the buildings history, but the modernization of the buildings. After being kicked out, he decided to work for Henry Cameron, who is a popular architect. Roark got told by some of his peers and friends from college that he should not work for Cameron. A few years later, Cameron is going down a dark path and Roark is trying to help him. Cameron finds out that he is about to die and tells Roark to burn all the documents that Cameron had and to compromise or he will become like Cameron. After Cameron’s death, Roark found a design that Cameron never built but was a modern design. He is granted the commission to build the building, but it will have to have some changes made. Roark had no hesitation to turn the offer down since they wanted the changes. The board has to find a new architect to build this building and made the decision of Roark’s friend, Peter Keating. There is another critic for the newspaper that has to agree with Keating becoming the architect, Dominique Francon. Keating is given the commission only if he leaves Francon since she is his fiancé, and he agrees. Francon and Roark share a romantic time together and Francon tells Roark that people will destroy him. After losing the commission, Roark is asked by a gas station owner to build his station. Roark succeeds and eventually has an office of his own. Keating is struggling to create this design and goes to Roark for help. Keating tells the newspaper that he did not design this himself and this makes the head of the newspaper upset knowing he had no power to begin with. In the end, Roark is a successful businessman with his wife, Dominique.
This movie was interesting because it had a lot of different plot changes. Watching this, you never knew who was going to come out and change the movie. What I also found interesting is all the different emotions and roles you got to see Howard Roark have. He went from nothing to one of the greatest people in the world. He made friends all throughout the movie, while loosing some as well.
The interaction between the entrepreneurship and the society based on the perspective of the movie was like climbing a mountain. When you start you already hate it because you see how much further you have to go, but when you get to the top you can finally breathe. To put this in the perspective of the movie, Roark was already in a bad place from the beginning. He had people that already despised him and people that did not support him. Later on, as he is “climbing”, he gains the experience and progress he needs to succeed. When he finally has a great job with an amazing wife, he has finally reached the top of the mountain. Roark needed the support of people to become successful. Without them, he would still be a nobody. The entrepreneurship in this movie affects society by seeing that nothing can become something. I think in today’s world, people do not see the creativity and the inspiration that entrepreneurs see or seek. All Roark had was a dream and passion for that dream. He took that dream and made it become a reality. Roark showed people that it is a good thing to dream and have an imagination, because one day it will become real. How the society supported this entrepreneurship was by giving Roark something to fight for. They did something by do nothing. By this I mean that people stomped on the idea of Roark working for Cameron as an architect. This pushed Roark to become better and to show those people that he can be great. The interaction between the society and entrepreneurship was taking the hate and disbelief that people throw at you and making something out of it. Entrepreneurs will never be this person that people have loved from the beginning, most of the time it is the opposite. People are what create entrepreneurs. They push them to have the great ideas and they do not make it easy for them.
