Dissent Shrugged in Rand Documentary

If logic were any guide, Ayn Rand would be little more than a footnote to history. Objectivism, the philosophy she created and espoused, has not taken hold in any substantive way, and her linked be^tes noires, the Soviet Union and the collectivism it insisted on, have just about disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Yet Ayn Rand is still with us. Her novels, 1943’s “The Fountainhead” and 1957’s “Atlas Shrugged,” continue to sell hundreds of thousands of copies every year. And a new Oscar-nominated documentary called “Ayn Rand--A Sense of Life” aims to illuminate her life for the uninitiated.

It is quite a life, involving a strong-willed heroine, a flight from the USSR, a chance meeting with a famous director, success first as a screenwriter, then as a novelist, and finally the worshipful attention of acolytes forever grateful for the way her thoughts revolutionized their life.

It’s a mark of how much the world has changed that Rand’s philosophy of “rational self-interest,” its disapproval of altruism and staunch defense of individualism and self-centered behavior, seems much less controversial now that it did half a century ago. With voters turning down school bonds and aid to immigrants, with everyone from Ronald Reagan to “Wall Street’s” Gordon Gecko promoting the notion of looking out for No. 1, the idea that selfishness was once out of favor seems a relic of a simpler, quainter time.

Given the potential a dispassionate examination of Rand’s life and thought has, its unfortunate that Michael Paxton, “A Sense of Life’s” writer and director, is unashamedly in the acolyte camp. While Rand’s story is strong enough to create interest no matter what, having the filmmaker be someone whose eighth-grade discovery of “The Fountainhead” “changed my life forever” is not ideal for the sense of perspective that would benefit this kind of film.

Young Ayn (the name, appropriately enough, rhymes with “mine”) determined to be a writer as a 9-year-old in St. Petersburg after reading a boy’s adventure novel called “The Mysterious Valley” and deciding that its self-reliant hero was the ideal example of masculine courage and resolve.

Her youthful passion for individualism conflicting with the group-think of the young Soviet state, Ayn left home for America, “her heart,” the narration breathlessly informs us, “skipping beats in anticipation.” Determined to break into the movies, she took a train to Hollywood and used a chance meeting with Cecil B. DeMille as a steppingstone to both extra work in his “King of Kings” and employment as a screenwriter.

With the Jennifer Jones-starring “Love Letters” as her biggest credit, Rand embarked on her magnum opus, the writing of “The Fountainhead.” Its story of an architect (loosely inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright) who blows up his own masterpiece rather than sully his hands with compromise, was rejected 12 times before Rand, who characteristically refused to change a single word, placed it with a publisher.

One of “Sense of Life’s” best sections involves the making of the King Vidor-directed film version of the novel. Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck apparently coveted the role that went to Patricia Neal, and after Frank Lloyd Wright’s demand for $250,000 to design the film’s buildings was rejected, the studio did the plans and hoped no one would notice they were structurally unsound.

“Sense of Life” does briefly spotlight some of the more controversial areas of Rand’s life, including her friendly testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee and her romantic infatuation with disciple Nathaniel Branden, but it handles them very gingerly, as if embarrassed at what genuine scrutiny might uncover.

Rand herself was apparently quite the media celebrity in her day, and the film offers clips from interviews with Mike Wallace, Phil Donohue and even Tom Snyder, all of whom seem unsure what to make of this determined woman who was completely convinced of her own eternal importance.

Unfortunately, “Sense of Life” is more convinced of that importance than it should be. To properly examine a figure like Rand, a natural polarizer whom people either loved or hated, a film needs to offer at least a sample of dissenting voices, not just proponents like Leonard Peikoff, grandly identified as “Ayn Rand’s intellectual heir.” Rand herself would have been delighted with this film, which takes her place in history for granted and shows her every action in the best possible light, but nonbelievers will be harder to convince.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: adult subject matter.

‘Ayn Rand--A Sense of Life’

An A G Media Corp. Limited and Copasetic Inc. production, released by Strand Releasing. Director Michael Paxton. Producer Michael Paxton. Screenplay Michael Paxton. Cinematographer Alik Sakharov. Editors Lauren Schaffer, Christopher Earl. Music Jeff Britting. Narration Sharon Gless. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

* In limited release.