All the King's Men

Starring: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek, Mercedes McCambridge
Directed by: Robert Rossen
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
1949

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An ambitious politician (Broderick Crawford) rises to great heights but is corrupted by fame and power.

Review:

Tim: I really struggle with All the King's Men. There are aspects of the movie that I really like, but there's a few flaws with it that really hold the movie back. This is a film that shows flashes of brilliance, but a movie I really struggled to enjoy. As a whole, I thought this was a good movie, but a far cry from a great one.

The story is one that should be very powerful. We have a man who decides to take a stand- to fight for what is right and true, in the face of corruption and evil. As he rises to fame and power, he quickly becomes corrupted himself. The rise and fall of a larger-than-life character is exactly the story that makes great movies, but it didn't exactly all work here. I really wanted to see how the rise to Governor corrupted Willie Stark. This should have been the focus of the film, and it could have been so powerful and so memorable. I was surprised to find that the movie glossed over this aspect of the story- Willie Stark is a man who fights for truth, and then moments later, we see him in the Governor's chair, corrupted beyond belief. There was no progression towards this, and I think the film lost out because of this.

The other problem I had is that there wasn't a single likable character in this entire film. We learn early on not to respect or care about Willie Stark. Jack Burden is arguably the protagonist for the film, but he is a pretty pathetic character. While he has some sliver of conscience, he's certainly not someone we can root for. All of the characters in this film are either corrupt or corrupted as the movie goes on. There is absolutely no one we can truly care about or root for- that's a major flaw of this film.

Now, there's definitely some big positives here. The most apparent has to be the casting of Broderick Crawford. Crawford isn't the most famous or recognizable actor, but he was truly the right man for this part. He embodies the rural, "hick" who makes good. He has such a fire and passion in everything he does. He truly is a character who is larger-than-life. His speeches are mesmerizing, and it's interesting to see his corrupt side. Crawford is the biggest reason to see this movie, and it's not a surprise that he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. He is very, very good.

John Ireland was fairly good as Jack Burden, although I did not care for his character at all. I thought he was good, but not exactly great. I wouldn't push too much on his Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but I am glad he did not win. Mercedes McCambridge was pretty good as Sadie Burke. She perfectly embodies that spitfire, stubborn, tough-as-nails woman. She was very good in the role, but I have to say I'm a bit surprised she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is better than Ireland, and she is memorable in the role, but I didn't truly love her performance.

When I first started watching this movie, I really expected to like it quite a bit. I am a big fan of politically-oriented movies, and this one sounded fascinating- a regular guy gets into politics, catches fire, and becomes Governor of his state. He transforms the state, but along the way, becomes incredibly corrupted, and in fact, turns into the type of person he ran against originally. That sounds fascinating and powerful to me. Unfortunately, All the King's Men just doesn't hit enough right notes, and it is not nearly as memorable or powerful as it should have been. I liked the movie, certainly, but I was underwhelmed a bit. I'm surprised that this win won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I thought it was good, but not great. That is fine, but it is a little disappointing. I wanted this movie to be better than it was.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



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