Review: All the King's Men

[Dean Roddey]

Watched this one tonight. It's quite a piece of work. It's done in a pretty classic style, very much a Citizen Kane type piece, black and white, political intrigue, the little man against the fat cats, a traditional symphonic score and so forth. A powerhouse cast with Senn Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Patricia Glarkson, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, and Anthony Hopkins in the major roles.

Based on the novel of the same name, it's the story of Willy Stark, a man from rural Alabama who gets pissed off and isn't going to take it anymore and rides that anger into the Gov's office, only to find that it's impossible to play in that game without losing your morals. I've never read the novel, I'm embarrased to say, so I don't know how true the movie is to it. The novel is in turn based loosely on Huey Long.

I quite enjoyed the film. The acting is top notch and it's a great story with plenty of intrigue and colorful characters. I usually find the 'soaring symphonic score' thing to be intrusive and hokey, but it really worked for me in this film. Sean Penn is, IMO, one of the best out there today. He's definitely at the top of his game in this one. He gave some speaches in the movie that had me ready to vote for him.

There was a little problem with the accents. It takes place in Loosieanna, but most of the cast is British and they had a little trouble at times staying in accent. Penn was quite good with his. A pretty small problem overall, though it nudged me out of the illusion a few times.

Anyway, overall a really good movie experience for me. Just goes to show, yet again, a juicy story, good camera work, and good acting is all it takes to create a compelling movie, at least for movie lovers anyway. This isn't the kind of fare that is going to take the mega-plex by storm, though with this kind of storyline it's unfortunate that it won't.

[lonwolf615]

Wow, Dean. I think thats the first review I've read of this one that judged the film as a movie, on its own merits. Most reviews I've seen have been negative, but seem preoocupied with external considerations and not whats on screen. (The book, the original film, politics, due to SP's involvement and his known political stance). You seem to be saying its an enjoyable experience if one can approach it with a clean slate and just watch it on its own terms. Thanks for cutting though the BS.

[RobertWood]

I value your opinion, Dean, and I'll rent this based on it.

But WTF, have you seen this?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_kings_men/

I don't believe I've ever seen it be that extreme before. Have ya'll?

[Dean Roddey]

BTW, it was late last night and I meant to say 'semi-black and white'. It has a very desaturated palette. It's in B&W in a few places, or just so desaturated that it might as well be B&W and I just saw it as being B&W. In some places it's quite colorful.

I approached it knowing absolutely nothing about it or anyone else's previous opinions of it, so I was judging it purely on my reaction to it. I found it quite interesting and engaging.

I find reviews like this one:

"Zaillian does not make things easy for the audience. ... You admire (Stark) for wanting to help the people while at the same time you despise him for his underhanded methods."

I mean that's the entire point. If that's a problem, then I'm not sure what could be done. The whole point is that he's a man who wants to do good but ends up being drawn into slimey politics in order to accomplish it. If you tried to make him otherwise, it would just be another watered down, least common denominator Hollywood movie.

I will agree with some of the reviews that his 'turn' was a little abrubt, and could have been done a little better.

[Gus]

Good review Dean.

I'll check it out over the holiday break

[ssabripo]

Speaking purely in terms of picture quality, this movie just jumped to my top 5, possibly top 3!!! This will be one of my reference DVDs now to show off my Denon 3910 and Pioneer Elite plasma.

story, color/contrast, acting aside, the detail and HD-like transfer on this movie is beyond Superb!!!! :) :cool:

[Li On]

Yes, great PQ for a DVD. Watched last night on PS3 HDMI 480p to the Pearl VW50 1080p projector. Decent movie too.

regards,

Li On

[thehun]

I agree, good PQ all around. I was to write a "review" as well shortly after I watched it but I got busy and forgot about it. In any case I pretty much agree with Dean on most of his points. I thought Penn was particularly strong in this one.

[sciondriver]

Great movie folks....PQ and sound was balanced and clean. Put down your action or sci-fi flick and see some quality acting. Best non blockbuster I have watched since "the presitge".

[Gary McCoy]

I just viewed the Blu-Ray version. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Melodramatic, Southern-fried Politics, and a main character ultimately consumed by his own overwrought ambitions.

The story is taken from the book of the same name, which I vaguely remember from an American Literature course in the 1970's. It is of course unmistakenly based upon the life and career of Huey Long, aka "The Kingfish". The author Robert Penn Warren received a Pulitzer, and the 1949 movie version won the Oscar for Best Picture.

The 2006 version of All the Kings Men is better IMHO, a more coherent screenplay that contains more of the book than the earlier film. In truth, both films are flawed, and both are worth seeing.

Interestingly enough, Robert Penn Warren never publicly confirmed that the book was based upon Huey Long. He could not, as Long's political machine continued to put his decendants in office until the 1960's. Huey Long's younger brother Earl was running the state from inside a mental hospital, having been committed by his wife Blanche - Earl claimed rightly that there was no law stating he had to relinquish office just because he was in a mental hospital. Later Earl appointed a new head to the state's hospital system, who had him set free. Blanche refused to reconcile with Earl, and he moved in with a stripper named Blaze Starr. These events are described in the movie Blaze, more or less as I remember them (I was 8 years old, living in Metairie, LA). In truth, Earl's antics scandalized my parents and I barely noticed - but I do remember an unusually cold Winter in 1959, snow actually fell in Louisiana and stuck for a few hours, and Earl cancelled school - I would have voted for him after that.

It was an amazing time, and a memorable introduction to politics. Unfortunately, lesson two would be the Cuban Missile Crisis, and my frightened parents moved the family North out of range of Castro's missiles.

[Shaded Dogfood]

I had forgotten all about Blaze. Quite an enjoyable movie, with a raging-out-of-control (but in a good way) Paul Newman, and a good-looking Lolita Davidovich as Blaze.

[jgido759]

Good flick. However, as you stated, the Louisana accents left much to be desired. James Gandolfini probably did the worst sounding Louisana accent, still sounded like he was from Jersey.