Cheap Ayn Rand - A Sense of Life (DVD) (Sharon Gless) (Michael Paxton) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Ayn Rand - A Sense of Life

Then along comes "Sense Of Life", which explains it all.

Remember, Pro-Rand are happy to espouse her benevolent Super-Man theories, and Anti-Rand relish calling her fascist. Ironically neither are really true.

See "..Sense Of Life"

I always thought her writing was juvenile (an ancestor of todays TV Soaps), and her politics naive. I had no idea how right I was.

See "..Sense Of Life"

Bottom line: Ayn Rand's "philosophy" is a little girl fantasizing about lantern jawed silent serial heroes (all of them in America) from her village in Russia. Look at Gary Cooper; look at her husband; look at the charlatan intellecual she had her affair with. They ALL LOOK THE SAME.

See "..Sense Of Life"

If you've seen The Fountainhead, she's Dominique, and her husband is Ray Massey. But her real life Cooper turns out to be a bum. Yeah -- that's A Sense Of Life, Ayn! Don't forget the Architect or Architects (albeit self-proclaimed, Frank Lloyd Wright) took a few steps back from her material, too.

See "..Sense Of Life"

And yet I have to respect the woman. She fought for everything she had. She *earned* everything.

See this film. Love her or hate her, you'll thank her for the documentary. And it's not like anyone of VOTING AGE (except perhaps for George Bush Jnr) takes her seriously.

An Exceptional View of Ayn's Life
Watching this exhaustive documentary (2:23) was a real eye opener for me. While I am conversant with her works, I was quite ignorant of the details of her life. The documentary follows Ayn from her oppressed Russian beginnings to (believe it or not) the pasteboard sets of 30s Hollywood to the intellectual circles of New York. The contrast are amazing and one can't but conclude that Any Rand lived a very fortunate life.

The commentaries are not very insightful - but only due to the exceptionally detailed information narrated by Sharon Gless. Strangely enough, one of the more dramatic events of her career; her affair with Nathaniel Branden, is glossed of in less than 15 seconds. So I recommend seeing "The Passion of Ayn Rand" for more on that story. A word to the wise: if you buy both this DVD and "The Passion of Ayn Rand", I suggest watching this one first. It will give you a more complete understanding of her background.

The Enigma of Ayn Rand
While an undergraduate student in the 70's, I discovered the works of Ayn Rand. As a professor of humanities and philosophy I have used her works in classrooms, where students are introduced to the enigma of Rand's philosophy.
Rand was a better novelist than she ever was a philosopher and the contradictions in her philosophy become obvious upon semi-serious reflection.
Yet, this is not to detract from her absolute popularity even to the present day. The DVD "A Sense Of Life" is a wonderful glimpse into the life of one of the 20th century's great idealists. Though eliminating some critical elements of her life that genuinely contradicted her philosophical views, the film does a fair job of sharing the story of her life in the big picture.
In the absense of reading her works, the film will have less impact that it could. There is little real analysis of her works in the film and the glossing over does not do her justice.
But, in all fairness, the film is a biographical film, not a critique of her literature. And in the sense of a biographical film it is a fair and acurate protrayal.
Though many philosophers have disagreed with her work, (one of my undergraduate phil. profs once said of her work: "If I were ever going to use Ayn Rand's books in my class, it would be a class on 'Rabid Subjectivism'"...an opinion I strongly disagree with.
I respected Ayn Rand, both as a novelist and as a thinker who tried very hard to formulate her ideas in an age that downplayed reason and critical thinking...such that Bertrand Russell was refused a teaching position in New York because of his philosophical opinions. Even Russell had his philosophical difficulties.
The film captures important scenes from Rand's interviews, though I never understood why Phil Donahue would interview Ayn Rand, as I don't consider him a critical thinker at all...But that is what we are offered.
In conclusion, the film is well worth the money and time to watch it...you may even be inclined to actually read some of her books.