movie minute

Down with the Kings

Yes, it’s another remake and this time it’s not only a remake of an Academy award winning film but of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. All The Kings Men is the story of Willie Stark, a man raised in rural Louisiana who goes on to become governor of that state. The fictional Stark is actually based on Huey P. Long who was governor of the state of Louisiana from 1928-1932 and a U.S. Senator from 1932-1935. Stark starts out as a working man’s man, someone willing to stand up for the poor farmers of the state. As he rises to power with his raucous speeches declaring he is for the little people, the power begins to change him and corrupt him. He also goes through women like most people go through underwear. Sean Penn plays Willie in the 2006 version and one of the reasons I went to see this movie is because of Sean Penn. His performance as Willie has been getting very good reviews; that’s about the only thing in the movie getting good reviews. The other reason I went to see it is for the rest of the cast: Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo, Kathy Baker, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and James Gandolfini also star in the movie. Ninety percent of the movie’s dialogue is in hushed tones as if the characters were in a huge library and the rest of the dialogue is Penn giving one of his heart pounding-epileptic seizure speeches. Seriously, his hand gestures were very limited and they became a distraction very quickly. And the editors did a truly crappy job of editing the movie. Scenes that were left in should not have been and scenes that were cut out (believe me, it was obvious) should have been in. If I had not read the book and seen the original, I would not have known what in the hell was going on. The film also played with the decades in which events took place. Long actually died in 1935 but in the movie it shows him dying in 1954. Penn does give it a nice shot (in the speeches anyway) but he lacks the presence, not to mention the bluster, in the ordinary scenes that Broderick Crawford had tenfold in the original movie. Crawford won a much deserved Oscar for his role as Willie. Clarkson also lacks the punch and is not as feisty as Mercedes McCambridge had in the original. McCambridge also won an Oscar for the role of Sadie Burke. This film won’t be winning the big prize and it will be a surprise if it is even nominated. Most of the film is a snoozefest and the actors should all keep this film off their resumes. Read the book by Robert Penn Warren then watch Robert Rosen’s thrilling 1949 adaptation but forget about the extremely enervated 2006 version.

Bags of popcorn: 1/2

peace,

paul