All The King's Men
Director: Steven Zaillian
Cast: Sean Penn, Jude Law, James Gandolfini, Kate Winslett, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Anthony Hopkins
Re-make, re-imaging, re-interpretation, cover version – whatever you want to call them, shows Hollywood's fear of trying anything new, and yet it is the quirky and original indie flicks that are consistently "surprise" hits. They come as a surprise to the studios because they didn't have the foresight to recognise their merits and above all, their originality. What is even more surprising is how profitable they are, mainly because they are made on low budgets, free from studio excesses (and execs). But this isn't supposed to be about Hollywood politics, but Hollywood's view of politics.
All The King's Men was originally a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, written by Robert Penn Warren in 1946. Inspired by the story of Louisiana governor Huey P. Long, it was a complex tale of ambition, power and corruption - in much the same way that Citizen Kane was based on publishing tycoon Hearst. In 1949 the book was made into a film, starring Broderick Crawford, directed by Robert Rossen. It was nominated for seven Oscars and won three (best picture, best actor, best supporting actress). It also won five Golden Globes and a host of other awards. Over fifty years later and the story has been revived by Oscar-winning writer and director Steven Zaillian and features a heavyweight, award-winning ensemble cast. And it could well be nominated for plenty of Awards again this time around.
It is the story of the rise of a common man, Willie Stark (Sean Penn) as he battles the corrupt, established political and industrial powers by garnering the support of the common people by promising them the world, and for the most part delivering on his promise. However he does end up resorting to the methods he abhors in his opponents. The story is narrated from the perspective of a reporter, Jack Burden (Jude Law), who becomes one of Stark's aides. Despite being one man's view, the story is still multithreaded as characters from Burden's life become involved in Stark's quest for power and position.
Like the character he plays, Penn's performance oozes charisma. So much so that he overshadows the rest of the cast, which is no mean feat. Of course the fact that they are all supports, and foils, for the protagonist doesn't help. This in no way demeans the other performances; it's just that the characters never really get a chance to fully develop in Stark/Penn's shadow. The other problem is the accents. Now I'm no expert on US regional accents but none of them, apart from Penn, sounded convincing. The production went into great detail with the design, settings and locations to make it look as real as possible, but the voices didn't always convince. None of the Brits (Law, Winslett and Hopkins) had it down, and Gandolfini seemed to be struggling to shake off Tony Soprano's physical and vocal mannerisms.
Quality acting aside, the story felt a little to episodic and sometimes lacking any real cohesion. I was often left wondering how the scenes related, especially with the occasional jumps in the timeline.
On an interesting note, the film was shot in the New Orleans area before Katrina hit it, and the film's story of corruption and shifty deals between government officials and the consequences of those actions on the underprivileged had even more resonance.
It's a great looking film with some stellar performances, but telling us that politicians and big corporations are corrupt, and power can corrupt even the best-intentioned is hardly breaking new ground.
All The King's Men is on general release from October 27.
Cast: Sean Penn, Jude Law, James Gandolfini, Kate Winslett, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Anthony Hopkins
Re-make, re-imaging, re-interpretation, cover version – whatever you want to call them, shows Hollywood's fear of trying anything new, and yet it is the quirky and original indie flicks that are consistently "surprise" hits. They come as a surprise to the studios because they didn't have the foresight to recognise their merits and above all, their originality. What is even more surprising is how profitable they are, mainly because they are made on low budgets, free from studio excesses (and execs). But this isn't supposed to be about Hollywood politics, but Hollywood's view of politics.
All The King's Men was originally a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, written by Robert Penn Warren in 1946. Inspired by the story of Louisiana governor Huey P. Long, it was a complex tale of ambition, power and corruption - in much the same way that Citizen Kane was based on publishing tycoon Hearst. In 1949 the book was made into a film, starring Broderick Crawford, directed by Robert Rossen. It was nominated for seven Oscars and won three (best picture, best actor, best supporting actress). It also won five Golden Globes and a host of other awards. Over fifty years later and the story has been revived by Oscar-winning writer and director Steven Zaillian and features a heavyweight, award-winning ensemble cast. And it could well be nominated for plenty of Awards again this time around.
It is the story of the rise of a common man, Willie Stark (Sean Penn) as he battles the corrupt, established political and industrial powers by garnering the support of the common people by promising them the world, and for the most part delivering on his promise. However he does end up resorting to the methods he abhors in his opponents. The story is narrated from the perspective of a reporter, Jack Burden (Jude Law), who becomes one of Stark's aides. Despite being one man's view, the story is still multithreaded as characters from Burden's life become involved in Stark's quest for power and position.
Like the character he plays, Penn's performance oozes charisma. So much so that he overshadows the rest of the cast, which is no mean feat. Of course the fact that they are all supports, and foils, for the protagonist doesn't help. This in no way demeans the other performances; it's just that the characters never really get a chance to fully develop in Stark/Penn's shadow. The other problem is the accents. Now I'm no expert on US regional accents but none of them, apart from Penn, sounded convincing. The production went into great detail with the design, settings and locations to make it look as real as possible, but the voices didn't always convince. None of the Brits (Law, Winslett and Hopkins) had it down, and Gandolfini seemed to be struggling to shake off Tony Soprano's physical and vocal mannerisms.
Quality acting aside, the story felt a little to episodic and sometimes lacking any real cohesion. I was often left wondering how the scenes related, especially with the occasional jumps in the timeline.
On an interesting note, the film was shot in the New Orleans area before Katrina hit it, and the film's story of corruption and shifty deals between government officials and the consequences of those actions on the underprivileged had even more resonance.
It's a great looking film with some stellar performances, but telling us that politicians and big corporations are corrupt, and power can corrupt even the best-intentioned is hardly breaking new ground.
All The King's Men is on general release from October 27.
posted by Chris Patmore at 1:37 PM
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