1950’s Best Oscar Winner, All the King’s Men, was an engaging film with some outstanding acting. Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of the “anti-hero” but this movie zeroes straight in on one. His name is Willie Stark.
Willie is a self-proclaimed “hick” who decides that he is going to take on the corrupt local and state government. After working hard to get a law degree, he soon wins over the support of local constituents by seizing on his ability to empathize with them as a fellow common man. Before long he ends up the Governor of the State. However, in order to reach such political heights, the viewer watches him transform into the very corrupt type of politician that he initially set out to oust.
Broderick Crawford gave an outstanding Emmy-winning performance as Willie Stark. He balanced the portrayal of both the downtrodden common man and eventual mansion-residing cad with equal aplomb. And while the movie is centered on his character, it is actually told through the eyes of Jack Burden. Burden is a former writer who becomes enthralled with Willie’s drive and eventually joins his administration and is forced to reflect on his own changing moral compass. Jack is played by actor John Ireland who also turned in a superb performance.
The movie made great use of the several locals it was shot in, always reinforcing the economic status of each location. My one complaint was in the swift pace at which Willie’s descent from do-gooder to demagogue seems to occur. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It also featured some well-rounded supporting roles played by actors Mercedes McCambridge (who also won an Oscar for this film), Shepperd Strudwick, Joanne Dru, and Anne Seymour as Willie’s wife Lucy Stark.
Given that we are living in an election year, it was perhaps timely to watch a movie that reinforced the notion that the longer one stays in politics, the more likely it is that corruption could occur. Willie’s rise and eventual fall is a lesson to all that blind trust in any politician is most likely never a wise thing.
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