GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

JohnnyLee1 Memorable for Broderick Crawford's central performance as the demagogue who manipulates his way to the top. But even though the expose is still as relevant as ever the movie is underwhelming in so many ways. Violence and sex are important to the story but are toned right down. Emotions are more seething than real. The women's roles are especially unconvincing. Joanne Dru is often just ludicrous. The voice-over narration is just irritating. Overall, the movie hasn't aged well but is still watchable for its depiction of all the tricks in the politician's playbook.

SeamusMacDuff A great story about how power corrupts. Broderick Crawford gives a powerhouse performance of a bully politician whose ends always justify the means. He calls upon the 'power of the people" as his justifier, all the while caring only of himself.Another review here notes the raggedness of the film. It jumps around in time and space, person to person, event to event. Perhaps that's intentional, but it does give the feeling a lot was given out.I was particularly struck with parallels to the man in the White House today, rallying "the people" then promising them everything. The huge hospital where "the best care free as a right" echoes with Obamacare, particularly when it is noted that the people's health didn't improve once it was built. Sorry, but it couldn't be missed.Two other main actors though really detracted from the story. John Ireland was far too wimpy to be Willy Stark's "hatchet man". Maybe he was another good guy gone bad, but he was simply too passive - particularly when it came to actor (actress) #2 Joanne Dru as his girlfriend and then later Willy's mistress. How she fell for Willy and her boyfriend just letting it happen was a WTH moment. She simply wasn't believable when it all fell apart in the end. (And Ireland's suits never fit him. What's up with that?)

gavin6942 The rise and fall of a corrupt politician (Broderick Crawford), who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.So this was based on a novel that was inspired by Huey Long... but keep in mind it is not the story of Huey Long. No matter how much you want to say it is, and how many links you want to draw, it is not. (Because if it is, they told a completely different story from the reality.)What this actually is, is a story about corruption and power, plain and simple. It may not be true that "everybody wants to rule the world", but many people do. And many are willing to cut corners, take bribes and other dastardly things to help them succeed. Granted, as much as we dislike it, there is a certain amount of this that is politics as usual and may not ever be cleaned up. But then you have guys like Willie Stark who take it beyond the boundaries of good sense...

secondtake All the King's Men (1949)The reference to Humpty Dumpty isn't lost here--the hero, a likable protagonist headed for a fall, is the egg, the egg who would be king. We, the people, are the king's men. And all of this is not fantasy, but a fantastical version of the real Huey Long story, the governor and then senator who didn't exactly fall to pieces, but who became a troubling despot of a democratic sort.Long was a come-from-nowhere governor of Louisiana just as the Depression began. His motto: every man a king. Widely admired and hated to this day, he makes natural movie material, and this 1949 version focuses on just that main thread of gutsy idealism and bald powermongering. And the connection between the two, which is a kind of megalomaniacal ego, a charisma borne of blindness (which people admire because it seems so honest), and raw energy. The later movie (2006) is painfully strained and full of itself, and I'd avoid it completely. This one is not a masterpiece, but it has a fast pace, a lot of great acting, and a slightly better sense of authenticity, enough to succeed.Key to its success is Broderick Crawford, whose acting lifts a mundane (if smart) kind of filming to a higher pitch. Director Robert Rossen is totally in control, however, and if there is little magic to the writing or the construction of the film, in film-making terms, the story is told with such compact force, all you notice is Crawford and the twisting turns of events.