All the King's Men (1949)

Waste of time

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

"All the King's Men" is essentially the career of the infamous Louisiana politician, Huey Long...though the studio made a few changes here and there in order to avoid lawsuits. This is because the film is NOT a flattering look at a politician who seemed to start out with the best of intentions and eventually became a monster.The film begins with a newspaper reporter (John Ireland) trying to cover the political campaign of a small-time and unknown newcomer, Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). But the campaign is completely undermined by the state political machine--crony politics where a small group of men essentially run the entire show. After losing, Willie runs again...and once again loses. By his third election, Willie has learned much...and eventually realizes how to beat the entrenched party machine. And, instead of a group of people, the people of his state have one man running it all....and that one man appears to have all the worst qualities of the old machine...and then some.This film earned the Academy Award for Best Picture...and two more for acting. Crawford took home the Best Actor statuette and Mercedes McCambridge the Best Supporting Actress and John Ireland nominated for the Best Supporting Actor awards. And, the acting in this film was pretty good. In fact everything about the film is very good except for two things...it would have been nice if they'd called it like it was and said the man was Huey Long instead of a guy inspired by him and if the film WAS set in Louisiana or some rural setting, why didn't anyone look or sound like they were from this part of the country? Minor quibbles...and a film, overall, that's well worth your time...though I think the better pictures that year was "The Heiress" as well as "12 O'Clock High".By the way, in the final climactic scene, pay attention to the assistant for the Governor...his gun fires 8 or more times without reloading...and it's a revolver!!

The rise and fall of a corrupt politician (Broderick Crawford), who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.So this was based on a novel that was inspired by Huey Long... but keep in mind it is not the story of Huey Long. No matter how much you want to say it is, and how many links you want to draw, it is not. (Because if it is, they told a completely different story from the reality.)What this actually is, is a story about corruption and power, plain and simple. It may not be true that "everybody wants to rule the world", but many people do. And many are willing to cut corners, take bribes and other dastardly things to help them succeed. Granted, as much as we dislike it, there is a certain amount of this that is politics as usual and may not ever be cleaned up. But then you have guys like Willie Stark who take it beyond the boundaries of good sense...

The Academy Awards choice for Best Film of 1949 follows naive backwoods reformer Willie Stark (a thickly fictionalized senator Huey Long), picked by a rival candidate for State Governor to "split the hick vote". But when he realizes how he's been used, Stark doesn't just get mad; he gets even, organizing a ruthless political machine that eventually consumes him. Watching Oscar winner Broderick Crawford transform the character from honest do-gooder to populist demagogue is electrifying, but it's a shame this adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize winning novel had to lean so hard on pulp fiction melodrama, beginning with the familiar crutch of voice-over commentary, and from a rather bland protagonist: journalist John Ireland, trapped on the Willie Stark bandwagon. The point is well made and worth repeating: politicians can't use bad money for good deeds without being strangled by all the strings attached, but the message is lost between all the juicy plot twists: a suicide, an assassination, an auto accident crippling the Governor's star quarterback son, so forth and so on.

Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning by Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men has a lot going for it. For anyone who is interested in politics and governing then you will like this film, but there is also the themes about how power and wanting power corrupts and whether a bad man can do good.Jack Burden (John Ireland) is a reporter assigned to cover the election for county treasurer in the rural south (Louisiana in all but name), particularly focused on Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). Willie is a honest man campaigning to against local corruption but harassed by the local establishment. When he is proved right after a tragic school accident Willie becomes a political powerful and Jack helps his campaign for Governor, from being a patsy to independent candidate and winning the election. But Willie ends up making deals with the people who he campaigned against and becomes more like the people he hated, running campaigns of intimidation and looking for absolute power. But he also invests in the state, building roads, schools and hospitals for the people.As stated the main theme of the film is that power corrupts with how a idealistic man becomes a part of a system, being no different to the previous people. Robert Rossen sets to show this with his direction and writing both the personal drama of how Willie changes and his quest for power and relationships with people to the affects of his policies have a positive affect on the people of the state. Rossen shows how corrupt people effective subvert democracy and freedom of the press at all levels, in what is meant to be the most democratic country in the world, how people or elites who have power are not willing to give it up. All the King's Men not only shows how politics and it's corrupting affects, Rossen shows the person relations, particularly Jack's idealistic believe in Willie having seen him in his early days and see believing in him even when he see what he has done.The acting is excellent throughout the film, with Crawford being the best as the idealistic politician. He spoke with real charisma and was believable, giving real conviction of the role, from being a good man to being a corrupt individual. His voice reminded me of Sam Douglas as Scott Shelby in Heavy Rain. Ireland too is very good, playing a man who wants to believe in something, who has a hostile relationship with his step-dad and hate his own background. Many of the supporting characters well rounded and ably performed.Rossen was a very competent, technical director, giving the audience some good set pieces, from the winning speech and the car clash, to wide shots and few cuts being used which was common for the time. With the amount of material in the film Rossen was able to tell it in a entertaining, fast-paced, tort film.