In 1950, All The King's Men (1949) won the best picture category at the Academy Awards. The movie details the rise of a man from country nobody to the governor. Quickly he seems to be corrupted and although he gets things done, the ways in which he goes about it are in no way laudable. Eventually the indecent things he has done to maintain power begin to snowball and he does more and more virtue-less things. Countless reviews comment on how its a film about how politics can corrupt even the noblest person.
These reviewers couldn't be more wrong. From the start, one can see the true nature of Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). He speaks truth about corruption in politics, but in the first interview he has with Jack Burden (John Ireland), when Stark's adopted son comes in beaten up, the manner in which Stark addresses the boy and treats the situation is a little to callous. While his wife is concerned, for Stark it is only fuel to the fire. He loses his first campaign in politics but tragedy forges another chance for him.
A poorly built fire escape breaks off a building killing several children, which inspires people to get behind what Stark has been saying. It is at the funeral that we get our second look into what is in reality a very dark soul. A mourner grabs his hand and invoking God (an inauspicious start if ever there was one) claims he should have voted for Stark. The look on Stark's face says it all. He likes being idolized, he likes power. Thus a demagogue is born. Demagogues rarely a good thing. A bumbling aristocracy fuels the power of the demagogue and Stark becomes governor.
Campaign promises are kept but at what cost? The corruption is worse than before. The politics dirty. Stark becomes more of a monster than he was before. And Jack helps him along the way. Jack, who has been established as a lost character but with principles, gets dragged deeper and deeper into the world of dirty politics and although he has qualms about what he is doing at times, it never stops him from continuing to do the dirty work.
It is only after the suicide of his childhood idol, that he finally breaks from Stark completely. Forced to live with a monster he helped not create (for Stark was already a corrupt man waiting for his chance) but he did help him attain the office. So it is Jack's penance to live with what he had done, not a very promising life for someone who believes he has principles.
Apparently this movie has been remade and will come out this year. Sean Penn in the Willie Stark role. In our political climate, I'm not surprised that a movie about political corruption would be made, but that this movie would be does make me wonder. Since it seems to me that the message is not that politics corrupt, but that politics draws in the corrupt, it is a cautionary tale we can't actually heed. It could warn about demagoguery, but again they don't call it mob mentality for no reason. I wonder what angle the new film will take and if the true character of Willie Stark will be lost.
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