Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life
Story of a once-in-a-millennium spirit __ 10/10

Written by Michael Paxton
Directed by Michael Paxton

Sharon Gless … Narrator
Michael S. Berliner … Himself
Harry Binswanger … Himself
Sylvia Bokor … Herself (artist)
Daniel E. Greene … Himself (artist)
Cynthia Peikoff … Herself
Leonard Peikoff … Himself

Ayn Rand: If a life could have a theme song, and I believe every worthwhile one has, mine is a religion, an obsession, or mania, or all of these expressed in one word: individualism. I was born with that obsession and have never seen and do not know now a cause more worthy, more misunderstood, more seemingly hopeless, and more tragically needed.

… as the camera approaches the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor at night with crisp, pensive piano chords accentuated with a couple of low drum rolls penetrating the quiet space. Then Sharon Gless‘s soft, pleasantly firm voice narration continues to identify the source of that quotation: Ayn Rand. Calling it fate or irony that she was born in a country least suited to a fanatic of individualism, Ayn Rand (born Alice Rosenbaum) herself provides most of eloquent verbiage that Gless and others use to document her exceptional life.

Michael Paxton’s Sense of Life, a splendid achievement in its own right, is as thorough and objective a treatment of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand— from her coming to America from the bowels of collectivism, to her perseverance and accomplishments as a writer, to the succinct description of her writing artistry and her philosophy of Objectivism, to the chronicling of Ayn Rand’s “presence” as a public figure—as one will probably ever see. His film is also dramatically compelling… at least for those of us who care about the progress of individualism. Continue reading →