A bored, aimless reporter, Jack Burden (John Ireland), is commissioned to do a piece on a man running for government office, Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). Stark isn’t particularly well known, but he is known as a completely honest man due to his lack of skeletons in the closet and his strong policies on humanitarian causes such as healthcare, schools, and health and safety. Burden becomes embroiled in Stark’s rise to fame and election as governor. But Stark’s emphatic bank-hating oratory turns nasty, as even he must turn to corruption and dirty tricks to complete his objectives, and even his followers become torn between their alliance to Stark, and their own morality.
Doug says...
I was dreading watching this one because it describes itself as a political thriller, and I don’t normally view myself as a lover of political films. Usually they tend to be full of men in suits saying words I don’t quite understand like ‘filibuster’ and go on about an hour too long. So the fact that All The King’s Men comes in at under two hours and never really lets up the pace was more than welcome.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say this is the most modern feeling picture we’ve seen since the not-winner-but-still-reviewed-here Citizen Kaine. Reading about it, it was revealed the uncut version was considered too hefty and the decision was made to isolate the important moment of each scene, and then cut ten minutes from the beginning and ending around that moment - resulting in a film full of only necessary action, and a cracking pace quite unlike anything we’ve yet seen in this project.
It helps too that the study of the corrupt politician Willie Stark’s rise to power rings very true with Donald Trump farcically becoming President of the United States There’s a lot of similarities - both Willie and Donald succeed by appealing to the lower class masses, and by using visual imagery of brute strength and threatening violence against their enemies. It’s thoroughly believable, and the fact that the film frames it through the eyes of a reporter Jack, who is close to Stark from the beginning when Stark isn’t corrupt - just passionate - means we really do see a close rise and fall of a man seduced by darker forces.
I liked this film too for the fact it moves away from a lot of the 1940s film-making tropes. As I’ve said, the pace and plot moves a damn sight faster than anything else we’ve seen from this decade, but also there’s a real improvement in their writing of women. I wrote on this blog a couple of weeks ago how I’m really bored by the dewy-eyed heroines who all look the same, and almost in answer to that - Mercedes McCambridge as Stark’s secretary Sadie turns in a fiery, spiky and aggressive performance that fully deserved her Supporting Actress Win. It’s the first time we’ve seen a woman laugh in response to be slapped instead of collapsing weeping. It makes her co-star Joanne Dru’s over-acting in every scene even more conspicuous.
Overall, I really liked it. It packs a punch, and there’s no real dead air in it as a film. Even moments that could become more melodramatic are carefully led up to in a House-of-Cards way that makes you understand why and how the characters are acting under pressure as they do. An unexpected gem: definitely. Have I been converted to political thrillers? Let’s wait and see…
Highlight
There’s a lot that comes to mind here, but I’m torn between the rattlesnake-fast pace or Mercedes McCambridge delivering an addictively powerhouse performance.
Lowlight
Joanne Dru really did bring the house down accidentally with her gasping, feinting, and ‘turning-to-camera’ acting. It was out of place, if hilarious, and hopefully marked the end of this forced style of acting.
Mark
9/10
Paul says...
We’ve reached the end of the ’40’s, a decade rife with war, mass murder, genocide, and nuclear bombs. Not the jolliest of times. And with Hitler’s rise to power still fresh in the world’s memory, and McCarthyism taking American politics by storm, a tale of governmental corruption, dirty dealings, and idealism turning to cynicism seems hugely appropriate.
All the King’s Men is based heavily on the life of Huey Long, who became Governor of Louisiana in the late-20’s/early-30’s and, in a time fraught with bankruptcy and unemployment, used any means necessary to provide for his people. A populist and a demagogue, his career was taking a turn towards a rumoured dictatorship before he was assassinated by Dr Carl Weiss (the son-in-law of a Judge whom Long was trying to destroy). Willie Stark, in this film, goes through very similar life events. Starting as an idealistic, almost impossible do-gooder, his elevation to power transforms him into a furious rabble-rouser, and finally into a wheel-dealing manipulator determined to cover the illicit tracks he has made. The film covers all this thoroughly and clearly. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the turn it took - Stark is so disgustingly good to begin with that I was expecting something along the saccharine lines of a Frank Capra film. His descent into evil is convincing but very unexpected if you haven’t read the back of the DVD cover (or this blog).
Doug is enamoured of the pace and I agree that it was refreshing, and had that Citizen-Kane-feel of imagination and innovation on the part of the director. However, I wasn’t quite as taken in as he. For me, the film suffers from the same issue as the second half of Gone With the Wind, which throws big events and twists at its audience with such ferocity that I didn’t have time to digest or feel anything before the film moved on. The various characters (Jack Burden, his paramour Anne, her brother Adam, their Uncle, Jack’s family, Stark’s family and co-workers) are all intricately connected through affairs, secrets and machinations, and whilst I was keeping up with the pace of it, I was hoping for more time and effort on building up towards major encounters and turning-points. Game of Thrones can take 10 whole episodes before anything happens-but it’s far more gripping.
According to IMDB, (the source of all knowledge) the director would show his cast the script for each scene only once, and then film them in a state of semi-improvisation. Sometimes this works, but there were other times where I felt like the performers couldn’t give the script the punch it needed, and a scene would just fizzle out with an actor saying “yes” or “no” and/or wandering off. It’s hard to describe in words, but many scenes left me with a sense of “oh, is that it?”
Despite this, All the King’s Men boasts more creative cinematography than other films of the time, a charismatic central performance from Broderick Crawford and some brilliant feistiness from Mercedes McCambridge (both of whom won Oscars for their acting). It also competently illustrates how frighteningly easy it is for the most moral of men to fall from grace- and not even realise or care.
I will always assert, however, that Citizen Kane covered almost identical ground with far more power.
Highlight
Willie Stark’s first big speech to the “hick” crowds, riling them up against those awful evil rich people. It oozes charisma and it’s the moment in which Crawford asserts himself as the star.
Lowlight
The final half hour was so rife with events but with no where near enough build-up. I love a good melodrama, but this was verging on Spanish telenovela.
Mark
6/10
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