All the King's Men
by Robert Rossen
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DVD details
Actor: Broderick Crawford, Joanne Dru, John Derek, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridgeDirector: Robert Rossen
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey
Producer: Robert Rossen
Writer: Robert Rossen
Editor: Al Clark
Writer: Robert Penn Warren
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-05
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of All the King's Men
DVD Review: Read the book instead
Summary: 4 Stars
Having read the book a year or so ago for the first time I was excited to see the movie but I was disappointed. The book was so evocative of Louisiana. The state was practically another character. Warren did a great job of the interconnectedness of the people and their traditions. Also in the book there was a part set during the civil war that was wonderful. I understand why they couldn't put that part in the movie but the movie felt like it could have been Anywhere small town US in the 30's rather than LA. Also the acting seemed overly dramatic and dated to me. There was still enough good about the movie for me to give it 4 stars (more like 3.5) but I'd suggest reading Warren's incredible book rather than watching this movie.DVD Review: Powerful, Dismaying, Heartrending, High Tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
All the King's Men
(This review discusses important events in the movie. It should not be read by anyone who wants to experience this film, knowing nothing in advance about what will happen. CC.)
The title, "All The King's Men," comes from the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty."
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again."
The identity of the original Humpty is unknown, but the rhyme beautifully fits the film. The "king," Willie Stark, has a tremendous fall, both in character and fortune. His men can't put him together again, morally or physically. Indeed, other characters, both friends and foes, also fall. The movie is high tragedy, in both the gravity and the depth of the falls.
In ordinary life, the word, tragedy, commonly means an event, like an auto accident, evoking pity and fear. In fiction, it means a particular kind of plot. In tragic stories, characters fall from happiness to misery, thanks to a fatal collaboration between their flaws and the course of events. The audience feels pity, from the loss of good; and fear, from the triumph of bad.
Many people avoid tragic stories, because of the conflicting emotions they produce: love of the characters' goodness vs. fear and hatred of their evil. But this mixture of good and bad makes tragedies more realistic and moving, since we who watch are such mixtures ourselves.
As several Amazon reviewers have noted, the action in "Willie Stark" strikingly illustrates the famous maxim: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." At the beginning, there was much good in Willie, and little apparent evil. By the end, this ratio is reversed. Why is the initial good so easily corrupted? Where did the evil, which dominates the middle and end of the story, come from?
In the first scenes, Willie shows many desirable qualities: exceptional intelligence, courage, perseverance, honesty, sympathy for the powerless. Moreover, he is accurate, alert, articulate; careful, considerate, concise, courteous, creative; decisive, determined, diligent, direct, discerning, discreet, dispassionate; effective, empathic, energetic, enterprising, expressive; fair, farsighted, firm, frank; generous, gentle, great-hearted. (And this sentence includes only virtues whose names begin with the letters, A - G.)
By the end of the movie, he has often been abrupt, adulterous, aggressive, amoral, antagonistic, anxious, argumentative, arrogant, avaricious; belligerent, biased, bitter, bloodthirsty, boastful, brusque, brutal; callous, casuistical, cavalier, censorious, coarse, cocksure, combative, contemptuous, covetous, crafty, cruel, cunning; deceitful, designing, destructive, devious, dictatorial, disruptive, dissipated, dogmatic, dominating; envious, exhibitionistic; fanatical, fatuous, fickle, foolish, fretful, furtive; grandiose, greedy, grim, grouchy.
In the first third of the screenplay, Willie's attractive qualities dominate. In the last two-thirds, his unattractive qualities dominate. It's as if, during the interval between his unsuccessful, first race for governor, and his successful, second race, he has "sold his soul" to power, whatever the moral cost. Such a "pact with the devil," or with the "forces of evil," is a frequent theme in tragic drama.
On Google, perhaps the most quoted line from the film is Willie's belief that "man is conceived in sin and born in corruption." He uses this idea to justify his own evil conduct, claiming that his opponents would be, or have been, just as evil for selfish ends, whereas the evil he does is for the public good. The quoted line is quite similar to Verse 5 of Psalm 51 in the Old Testament. It reads, in the King James Version (the one Willie would have grown up on), "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." But how differently Willie and the psalmist respond to the same idea! Willie asserts it, to justify doing evil. The psalmist asserts it, as requiring forgiveness and renewal. In Verse 10, he writes: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
All the main characters in the film are defined largely by their response to the substantial presence of evil in human nature. Two of them respond in part by deliberately taking a human life. The elderly, aristocratic Judge Stanton, after resigning as attorney general in Willie's administration, becomes a powerful supporter of Willie's impeachment. Willie obtains proof of ancient, grievous misconduct by the Judge, but offers not to expose it, if the Judge will stop supporting the impeachment. The judge rejects the offer, ends the meeting, and kills himself (off camera) minutes later. Does he act from shame? family pride? bitterness? executing justice on himself? falling nobly on his sword? We don't know. Instead of suicide, I wish he had acknowledged his misconduct to God and the world, praying with the psalmist for a clean heart and a right spirit. No one is good enough or bad enough to dispense with this prayer.
The Judge's nephew, Dr. Adam Stanton, though very uneasy about Willie's tactics, had agreed to direct the huge, free, public hospital that Willie plans to build. But Adam now knows that Willie threatened to expose his uncle, and that his sister, Anne, helped Willie obtain the accusatory information. He also learns, just before he acts, that the Senate has rejected the impeachment. Willie appears, to greet a cheering crowd. Adam kills Willie, knowing that he, himself, will be instantly killed by bodyguards. Why does Adam kill? The question is important. Whether this act was just or unjust depends largely on the motive. Was it in order to succeed where the impeachment had failed: ending the usurpation of a free, democratic state government by a dictator? To revenge the threat that led to his uncle's suicide? To protect his sister from an evil predator? All three? The movie doesn't show. There was no homicide letter. I hope Adam's motivation was primarily the first of these, and that it included something like the psalmist's prayer.
DVD Review: RELEVANT AND RIVETTING PERFORMANCE!
Summary: 5 Stars
All The King's Men is the story of the rise of politician Willie Stark from a rural county seat to the governor's mansion. Along the way, he loses his innocence, and becomes just as corrupt as the politicians he once fought against. Also included is the romance between one of his "right hand women" and the up-and-coming journalist who brings Stark to prominence.
Rossen originally offered the starring role to John Wayne, who found the proposed film script unpatriotic and indignantly refused the part. Crawford, who eventually took the role, won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for his role in Sands of Iwo Jima.
The film won Oscars in the following categories:
Best Picture - Robert Rossen Productions (Robert Rossen, producer)
Best Actor - Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark
Best Supporting Actress - Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke
It was also nominated for
Best Supporting Actor - John Ireland as Jack Burden
Best Director - Robert Rossen
Best Film Editing - Al Clark and Robert Parrish
Best Writing, Screenplay - Robert Rossen
In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
DVD Review: 3.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 5 Stars
The Bottom Line:
Broderick Crawford is so good as Willie Stark that the other characters often seem bland standing next to him, the only real flaw in this stellar Oscar-winning adaptation of Warren's dense political novel; please watch this version and not the recent remake.
DVD Review: More things change
Summary: 4 Stars
...the more they stay the same. A classic film that's a little raw in its telling, but is still a film with a lot to say. Broderick Crawford gives a great performance of a 'Hick' lawyer that pulls himself through the muck with good intentions, but soon finds out how much mud can stick to you and sling onto others. There are elements in this film that is still true and relevant to our political officials to this day. A man is born in sin and raised in corruption, after all. A good film that all movie lovers should see.
Description of All the King's Men
The story of the rise of politician willie stark from a rural county seat to the spotlight. Along the way he loses his initial innocence and becomes just as corrupt as those who he assaulted before for this characteristic. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/05/2006 Starring: Broderick Crawford Mercedes Mccambridge Run time: 110 minutesWriter-director Robert Rossen and character actors Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge (in her film debut) took home Oscars (for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively) for this excellent adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Crawford stars as Willie Stark, a charismatic populist Southern politician (inspired by the real Louisiana Governor Huey Long) who belies his "man of the people" roots as he ruthlessly maneuvers, lies, and deals his way into the halls of power. John Ireland is his right-hand man, Jack Burden, a newsman turned political flack who hangs on to Stark's early idealism even in the face of Stark's most reprehensible acts of corruption. McCambridge is Stark's cool mistress come calculating assistant. The immediacy of the drama is due in part to a documentary-like style, notably in the scenes on the campaign trail where Stark sways crowds with his folksy rhetoric and estimable charm. Joanne Dru and John Derek also costar. Rossen's savage screenplay and firm direction give the film a powerful punch, but it's Crawford's blustery charm and oversized performance that carry the picture. --Sean Axmaker
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