Watching All the King's Men, it is hard to believe that writer-director Steven Zaillian is an Oscar-winning screenwriter (for Schindler's List). For that matter, it is hard to believe that this film was made by the same guy who previously directed Searching for Bobby Fischer and A Civil Action, two very fine films about, respectively, a young chess prodigy and a personal injury lawyer whose greed is thwarted by pride, obsessiveness and, ultimately, a sort of moral self-reflection.

Those films had a clarity of vision and a clarity of exposition that made them truly engaging, even—if not especially—when characters and situations turned out to be more complicated than we thought. But All the King's Men is just murky and muddled throughout. This film was originally going to come out one year ago, but it was held back because those who saw it found it confusing and hard to follow. Zaillian spent months re-editing the film, but apparently to no avail; all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put this movie back together again.

Sean Penn as Willie Stark, a Louisiana politician

Sean Penn as Willie Stark, a Louisiana politician

The film does have a talented cast, and it's not hard to see why so many worthy actors were willing to hop on this particular bandwagon. The film is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, which in 1949 became a film that won Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, and Supporting Actress; and there was every reason to believe that a new version might get some of that attention, too. But most of them never get a chance to make much of an impression, in the end.

There are exceptions to this. Sean Penn, who has often been criticized for going over the top or taking himself too seriously, is almost ideally suited for the part of Willie Stark, a Louisiana politician who wins the heart of "hick" voters by railing against the establishment in big, loud speeches and making lofty promises to clean things up once he becomes state governor. At first, he seems like a relatively innocent idealist—his wife's a schoolteacher, he drinks nothing stronger than orange soda pop—but once he takes office, he turns out to be just as corrupt as the people he replaced.

The problem is, his transformation happens much, much too quickly. I was reminded of how one of the main criticisms of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is that the Jack Nicholson character became so crazy, so soon, that there was nowhere left for him to go for the rest of the movie; in All the King's Men, Stark's transformation from decent bumpkin to cynical sleazebag seems to happen even more quickly, and any drama that might have been milked from his fall from grace is pretty much lost.

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Jude Law as reporter Jack Burden

Jude Law as reporter Jack Burden

Then again, on one level, the story isn't really about Stark. The Louisiana governor's rise to power is witnessed through the eyes of Jack Burden (Jude Law), a reporter who comes from a more affluent background than Stark; he takes a shine to the "hick" politician, so much so that he quits his job at the newspaper when the editors complain that his pro-Stark columns are at odds with the paper's endorsement of one of the other candidates. Given how corrupt Stark becomes so soon in the story, it is difficult to see what Burden sees in the man; but he lets himself be used, as Stark gets him to work his contacts with the upper class for political gain.

Stark also tells Burden to dig deep into the background of Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), a political opponent who also happens to be the closest thing Burden ever had to a father. Stark wants something that he can smear the judge with, and he insists, despite Burden's protests, that every man, no matter how seemingly innocent, has something to hide—something that can be brought into the light.

This taps into one of the film's key themes, which is that everyone is tainted by sin—and you don't have to be a Christian to impose that reading on the film, since the movie takes place decades ago in the Bible Belt, in a time and place when characters like Stark could easily connect with the masses by peppering their speech with explicitly religious language. Crucifixes are a recurring visual motif, and the house of one character with a secret to hide is filled with Catholic icons and lit candles.

Jack with old friends Anne (Kate Winslet) and Adam (Mark Ruffalo)

Jack with old friends Anne (Kate Winslet) and Adam (Mark Ruffalo)

But if sin is this film's subject, then what is sin, exactly? Stark mixes his religious rhetoric with references to evolution and privately tells one character that goodness is just something that people make up as they go along; if you'll pardon the metaphor (and this is not how he puts it), Stark suggests in effect that the only way to rise above the filth of the world is to b.s. our way into believing in something better—but it's still b.s., which isn't really all that different from filth, is it?

What's missing from this film is a profound sense of goodness, absent though it may be from the lives of these characters. Burden occasionally pines for a sort of lost innocence—especially when he reflects on his childhood with friends Adam (Mark Ruffalo) and Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet)—but goodness and innocence are not quite the same thing. Neither Stark nor the film show any real awareness of the goodness that human beings have fallen from and have the potential to return to.

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So much for the film's thematic problems. Then there are the narrative problems, beginning with the fact that the bulk of this story has been moved to the 1950s. The original novel was inspired by the career of Huey P. Long, the Louisiana politician who served as governor and senator between 1928 and 1935, and Stark's politics—his populist, big-spending programs—fit perfectly within the cultural dynamics of the Great Depression. But, as Victor Morton has asked, would they really have been all that popular during the booming post-war economy of the Eisenhower era?

Stark wants to find the dirt on Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins)

Stark wants to find the dirt on Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins)

The film also takes a while to find its footing, lurching as it does from the present to the past to something in between and then flashing back to something even further back in the past—and that's all just in the first few reels. Things like that kill a story's momentum. In addition, Zaillian repeatedly violates the law of "show, don't tell," by having his characters constantly tell each other things that we really ought to be able to see for ourselves. And he shows very little interest in the practical social realities within which these characters live. What sort of interactions does Willie Stark have with his fellow politicians, nemeses though many of them may be? Why do the senators suddenly want to impeach him? Yes, yes, we know they are in the pockets of Big Oil, but what has Stark done that he could be impeached for?

Questions like these leave you wondering if entire subplots ended up on the cutting room floor, and by the end of the film, you are left wondering who or what it was supposed to be about. If movies are politics and audiences are the electorate, then moviegoers may want to vote for one of the other candidates at the multiplex.

Talk About It

  Discussion starters
  1. What is the nature of sin? How does it relate to goodness? Are we all tainted by it equally
  2. What is the nature of goodness? Do we just make it up? Does it come from somewhere else? How do we tell the difference
  3. How do people become bad? At what point do you think Willie Stark becomes a corrupt politician? Was he always corrupt? What is the significance of orange soda pop and liquor in signifying goodness and badness in this film
  4. One character says, "Everything else can be filthy and corrupt, but a man doesn't have to be." Do you think his actions prove this claim? Disprove it?
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The Family Corner

For parents to consider

All the King's Men is rated PG-13 for an intense sequence of violence (in which two people are shot multiple times and blood spills across the floor), sexual content (mostly consisting of exotic dancers and references to infidelity) and partial nudity (a woman lies on a bed and covers her chest with her hands). God's name is also taken in vain a few times.


What Other Critics Are Saying
compiled by Jeffrey Overstreet

from Film Forum, 09/28/06

Movie critics have condemned quite a few films in recent weeks, and their reviews came as no surprise. No one expected, for example, the Tim Allen sci-fi comedy Zoom to be anything but disposable entertainment. And the formulaic basketball flick Crossover was a failure—plain and simple.

But what has happened here? How could it be that All the King's Men is receiving almost unanimous rejections from film critics?

It could have been a contender. All the King's Men is based on Robert Penn Warren's fantastic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It was directed by Oscar winner Steve Zallian. It boasts a brilliant cast that includes Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, and Jude Law.

And yet, even though this story about the rise and fall of a crowd-pleasing Southern politician paints a profound picture of ambition, greed, and corruption, the film just isn't working for critics.

That goes for most of the Christian press critics too.

Greg Wright (Looking Closer) says, "For a film that is about shameful manipulation, both personal and political, Zaillian disingenuously and shamelessly pulls the audience's strings."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) is similarly bothered. "Like its demagogue protagonist, [the film] aspires to greatness. Yet, while achieving it to some measure, both movie and man fall short."

Frederica Matthewes-Green (Frederica.com, originally published in The National Review) files a complaint about certain cast members. "Penn is a terrific actor … but the accent suits him like a bad toupee. … I say this as a native southerner. I have heard a lot of accents across the south. I grew up in Charleston. I have lived in New Orleans. I never encountered anything like Mr. Penn's accent outside of movies like this." And she adds that Jude Law "does no better …."

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Marcus Yoars (Plugged In) acknowledges the insights about corruption offered by this tale, but he concludes with some disappointment that the film is so unrelentingly bleak. "All the King's Men isn't trying to score any religious points. It's certainly not trying to tell us who has the ability to turn our darkness into light, our bad into good, our soil into flesh. It won't even acknowledge that such supernatural hope exists. It's dedicated to preaching, as Time's Richard Schickel notes, unrelenting and unavoidable blackness and bleakness.

Christian Hamaker (Crosswalk) stands up for the film. "[All the King's Men] vividly illustrates the adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. … [T]he film sneaks up on us and delivers a vivid, powerful conclusion, ending with a final image that reveals the wages of sin. Whatever its drawbacks … All the King's Men is, in the end, a memorable story that sticks to your soul."

Mainstream critics are not giving the film any points for the potential it fails to fulfill.

All the King's Men
Our Rating
1½ Stars - Weak
Average Rating
 
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Mpaa Rating
PG-13 (for an intense sequence of violence, sexual content and partial nudity)
Directed By
Steven Zaillian
Run Time
2 hours 8 minutes
Cast
Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet
Theatre Release
September 22, 2006 by Sony Pictures
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