Dir: Steve Zaillian, 2006, Germany/USA, 128 mins
Cast: Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo.
Review by Samantha Hamilton
“Nearly all men can withstand adversity, if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”
So said Abraham Lincoln, and never a truer word was spoken. Within minutes of the merest sniff of power most of us start to display our most un-endearing Stalinist tendencies, some of us even resort to rigging elections and invading vulnerable countries. All the King’s Men gets its teeth stuck into the dense material contained in any exploration of human nature and the body politic. Based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Robert Penn Warren , it tells the story of Willie Stark, a radical populist politician who rises from the under classes to take on the American elitist political establishment. Morality, idealism, corruption, human desire and the search for meaning are all explored within a framework of power and politics. These are universal themes which also resonate with analogy for contemporary political concerns. Such ‘serious’ material screams ‘Oscar’ and indeed the good and the great of Hollywood queued up to get their manicured little mitts on this one, resulting in an all star cast and high expectations from this reviewer.
Taking a sabbatical from saving the world, Sean Penn is cast in the role of Willie Stark. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of My Name is Sam he gives a virtuoso performance as a complex character that is in turn enigmatic, inspiring and passionate, yet morally dubious, unscrupulous and dislikeable. In his rise to power Stark battles against those who seek to exploit and manipulate the underclass, fighting to give voice to his ‘hicks’’. Yet as he rises through the echelons he uses the very tools of corruption that he once sought to overturn. Is fighting dirty innately wrong if your goal is ultimately for good? Stark is unwavering in his belief that the egalitarian goals he seeks to achieve transcend what he sees as the minutia of his own corruption, ruthless ambition and personal weakness.
The pace of the film is slow and methodical with time invested in establishing the central character. Unfortunately this ultimately comes at the expense of the remaining characters and is where the film starts to unravel. The characters that populate the world of Stark are a mix of political opportunists and the old world southern elite, with neither being well developed. Jude Law is the cynical Jack Burden a jaded southern hack who has lived his privileged life as a distanced observer. Seemingly lacking even the smallest ounce of passion for anything, his obsession with Willy forces him to break away from his lethargy. Caught in-between Stark and his uncle, a respected Southern judge (Hopkins), he sees first hand the beginnings of the erosion of the foundations of traditional power structures, usurped by a new order, but one that has its own ambiguous foundations.
Yet in comparison with Stark the other characters seem one dimensional. This is most unforgiving in the representation of Adam Stanton (Mark Ruffalo). Stanton should be a pivotal driving force in the films narrative symbolism, yet he seems to have been sketched on the back of a fag packet. As the film culminates this imbalance results in All the king’s Men parodying one of the very disintegrations it seeks to depict, as the aesthetic of the crumbling south actually penetrates the veneer of the film, which itself starts to crack. By the time the climax of the film arrives you are left sensing only what could have been, as the dramatic momentum is never fully realized.
All the King’s Men has previously been adapted for film. The 1949 Oscar winning original was also selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for its ‘cultural significance’. Director Steve Zallian sought to remake the film, wanting to authentically re create the novel. This is a man who should know a thing or two about novel adaptations, having penned the screenplay for Schindlers List. Yet one is left with the feeling that this has only succeeded in scratching the surface of what must be a truly great novel. I for one have now been inspired to read it, unfortunately not really the ultimate aim of the film.
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