All the King’s Men – This is a good movie, an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel with Sean Penn as Willie Stark, Jude Law as the journalist Jack Burden, James Gandolfini as Tiny Duffy, Anthony Hopkins as Judge Irwin, Kate Winslet as Anne Stanton, and Mark Ruffalo as her brother Dr Adam Stanton. But the 1946 novel (awarded Pulitzer Prize) is one of my all-time favorites, and the 1949 Oscar-winning film with Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge was better (or at least I remember it as better).

While this version has its dark interiors, the time period has been shifted from the early 1930s of the Depression and Huey Long’s demagoguery (on whose political career the story took its inspiration) to the first half of the 1950s in Louisiana; it changes some characters and events and lacks in Jude Law’s character the intimate nuances of the novel’s narrative. In this ending Jack, while cynical and aloof throughout, doesn’t come to a full self-realization of what all that has happened means. 

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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