On the surface, Locke writer-director Stephen Knight has given us a minimalist movie about a man, his car, and his mobile device. For 85 minutes we watch a man who pours concrete for a living, driving alone in his car and talking on the phone. On a deeper level, however, this is a movie about something subtle and important: The role of honor. 
Top Responses to “Honor in the concrete”
Carrie Ann B
Great, concise review that gets at the essentials, Kurt. Thank you, as always, for sharing your perceptive insights. Your review moved me to take a break from work (which is NOT an easy thing for someone to inspire in me!) to go see "Locke" yesterday. Wow, this one will have me...
More »
Don H
Nice review, with which I agree. I saw the film several weeks ago and also was immediately struck by the parallels with the work of Ayn Rand. First, as in "The Fountainhead," a major plot element is the construction of a huge skyscraper. But perhaps less obviously, "Locke"...
More »
Other Recent Articles See all » Submission guidelines »
The Tao of Roark: A love song to life on earth
Do you enjoy learning from The Fountainhead? Now you can glean even more. In The Tao of Roark, Peter Saint-Andre explores key personal growth themes from Ayn Rand’s novel — themes... More »
Clockwork Angels: The Novel
We’ve long known the rock band Rush was influenced by Ayn Rand’s writings, including her sci-fi novelette Anthem. Now lyricist Neil Peart and co-author Kevin J. Anderson have... More »
North and South: An industrial synthesis
Charlotte Bronte meets Ayn Rand in this 19th Century novel about a minister’s daughter who finds her independence and an industrialist who transforms from a despot to an... More »
War and purpose: Cossacks in Paris
Historical novels remain one of the few genres that capture the world-altering nature of big events, as well as the heroes (and villains) behind them. Set in the same time period... More »
The unexpected Ayn Rand
Critics claim Ayn Rand’s characters are too godlike, with few human characteristics and no inner conflicts. But the subtleties of Rand’s characters reveal they're actually quite... More »
Top News See all » Submit a link »
My Adventure In Search of Galt's Gulch (shrugout.liberty.me)
|
|
Ayn Rand had a sense of humor (huffingtonpost.com)
|
|
U2's Bono: Only capitalism can end poverty (inquisitr.com)
|
|
Snowden Shrugged: Is the NSA whistleblower the ideal Ayn Rand hero? (theamericanconservative.com)
|
|
Medical Thriller Inspired By Ayn Rand (amazon.com)
|
|
Detroit: Ayn Rand's "Starnesville" come to life (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
|
|
Ayn Rand Killed Sears (salon.com)
|
|
The Science of the Best and Worst Jobs (reasonforsuccess.com)
|
|
Recently Online
From Our Blog See all »
Les Miserables is magnificent
From Don Hauptman: You can believe the hype: Les Miserables is magnificent. The achievement is especially noteworthy given... More »
First mini-review of the Atlas Shrugged Part 2 movie
Pieced together from Q&A in a thread at IMDB, by someone who saw an advance screening: Bottom Line: Definitely better than the... More »
Recent Comments
I can highly recommend Helen Smith's book "Men On Strike". I wrote my review of it on Amazon at the permalink below... http://www.amazon.com/review/R1KFH1MZZ8PIL2/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm In the light of... More »
One more thought, lest it sound like I'm not giving Ivan and the film sufficient credit for parallels to Rand's work. I see Ivan's reverence for his work and his integrity concerning his buildings to... More »
What I mean by Locke's having been deontological is that before his one big mistake, he had scrupulously performed all of his duties in every realm, so that everyone could count on him as extremely... More »
Interesting, I didn't know the parable as "Death in Tehran" but as "Appointment in Samarra," which is also the name of a John O'Hara novel. I'm not sure I see Locke as acting on a deontological... More »
One more quick thought... With respect to Oedipus, I thought that his tragic flaw was his hubris in thinking that he could elude his fate by leaving his home, sure that this would prevent him from... More »
