All the King's Men (2006) [Blu-ray]

If you read the magnificent novel upon which this film is based, then you see that the movie does a pretty good job of bringing the story to the screen. Also, I am familiar with hicks in Louisiana, and a lot of them DO have the same accent Sean Penn assumed in his role.

The only improvement I could suggest would have been more frequent use of Robert Penn Warren's own dialogue. For instance, when Burden criticized Stark for boring his listeners, for showing them pie graphs and talking statistics and finances, he was brief and low-key. In the book, Burden railed at Stark -- "Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, pinch them in a soft spot, but for God's sake don't try to improve their minds." Several other instances occurred where the author's exact wording would have worked better.

Also, two interesting book story points were omitted: Stark's boy, the football player, toward the end was injured during a play and paralyzed from the neck down; Lucy resigned the rest of her life to caring for him. Also, in the end, Jack Burden and Anne Stanton finally married, fulfilling their destiny from youth. It made a good wrap-up.

"All the King's Men" is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Robert Penn Warren. Warren, who shifted from poetry to prose to write this novel, got his inspiration from the Populist Louisiana politician, Huey Long.

The film, based on a screenplay by Steve Zaillian, is also based in Louisiana. The politician, Willie Stark (Penn), runs a parallel course to Long's illustrious career. He started out meaning well and his interest was always in the common man, 'hicks' like him. The story is narrated by newspaper reporter, Jack Burden (Law) who works for Sparks.

There's a lot of strong messages in "All the King's Men." You can watch it from the perspective of a soap opera, a parallel to contemporary politics (the discussion of the oil companies' influence, for example) or an Ivory Tower comparison to Machiavelli.

This film could have been great, had they decided a few aspects differently. To quote the film itself: "You only get a couple of moments that determine your life. Sometimes only one. And then it's gone. Forever." Probably the worst decision the directors made was changing the timeframe the film is set in. If you ignore that the film's set twenty years past Long's time, it works a lot better. I don't agree with the decision that the 50's are interchangeable historically with the 30's.

What do Sean Penn,Jude Law and James Gandolfini have in common? Answer:they are all decent actors who to a man could not effect a Southern accent to save their lives (or this film).

ATKM is based on the much better, much older film of the same name that told a fictionalized account of a Louisiana politician based on Governor and later U.S Senator Huey Long. Long was an interesting figure, and while many still disagree on whether his poliices were salvation or destruction, his short career was undeniably very interesting. Long's corrruption is not disputed however, and ATKM follows Long ("Willie Stark" here) as he rises to power, abuses power and ultimately falls.

James Carville, who is a decent speaker, co-produced this mess. He would have been so better suited himself for the title role, because to listen to Sean Penn painfully abuse the Southern dialect, or Gandolfini who most of us still relate to as a Soprano lean forward and confide in an Amos and Andy patois, it's absolutely unwatchable. I don't know why it'd be so hard to recruit say Billy Bob Thornton, Tommy Lee Jones or any other player who could have been natural in this role instead of so obviously out of place as the cast of ATKM.The casting here is comparable to putting Jackie Chan in the Don Corleone role of "The Godfather".

Huey Long was, absent his faults, a great orator and a very charismatic personality. Even with the help of a bombastic soundtrack, Sean Penn sounds like- well an actor. Like DeNiro and many other great performers, Penn cannot in deliver a speech effectively in public out of role and brings no inspiration here. Penns speeches lack charm and radiate nothing but anger as if he has projected his own beliefs of what the working class wants into his role.

THis film really deserves 1 star because of how bad it fails, and I'd send anyone looking into the story toward the original. It's a great tale that could use repeating in this time of "promise-the-world" phony populists like Hugo Chavez (curiously a Penn ally) as well as a few presidential candidates stateside I won't name here. Though we are certainly not in the Great Depression, the notion of politician as "man-of-the-people" who is an economic saviour is still a popular theme that consistently leads to more gov't and as always with more gov't- more corruption and LESS FREEDOM.

Find a youtube video of Huey Long or see the original.