All the King's Men
Sean Penn, Jude Law

If you elect me I will do everything I can to protect what is left of the best in us from the selfish, the brutal, to make this world as close to paradise as we can. That might not be very close at all, but what better way to spend a life than crawling towards it.
-Fielding Pierce, Waking the Dead

It was one of those photo ops that politicians pray for like a teenage boy hoping the Swedish bikini team moves next door. Here was our President in blue jeans, a cowboy hat, work boots, and jacket cutting brush on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. There were photos of masculinity and power, a link to the spiritual father of conservatism, Ronald Reagan, an identification with the western mythos of our country’s past. There was one little problem that only the discerning eye would notice. One of the President’s handlers forgot to iron out the folding creases on the Commander-and-Chief’s “well worn” work jacket. It was a minor slip in an otherwise seamless web. The image tells us that our President is one of us. Never mind that the ranch was only bought for him by political patrons just before Bush came into office. All that matters is what the eyes see. John Kennedy understood it. So did Ronald Reagan. It is the reason that Franklin Roosevelt never let a photograph be taken of him in a wheelchair. Ever since Napoleon had a painting commissioned featuring him after every major victory his army achieved, leaders have recognized that style matters more than substance. Image is everything. When a politician is out in public, there is more choreography involved than a Janet Jackson video. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from Washington. Advance crews go out to make sure there is the perfect backdrop for whatever image they want to communicate. Image consultants are used to craft the perfect appearance. Polling is done to find out what buzzwords or issues to touch on and speech writers are employed to craft off-handed jokes and asides. Reporters act like gossip columnists passing along well placed information as to what the politician is reading, what is playing on his Ipod, and movie he or she caught the evening before, whether the facts are accurate or not.
It is all done to let people know that the man or woman we are voting for is one of us and the best of us, holds our ideals, and morals. It is the reason that John Kerry lost. While he might have looked Presidential, he acted more like a prince in public. Normal people drive old pickup trucks like George Bush. They don’t snow board like John Kerry. Normal people eat pretzels and pork rhinds like George. Not gourmet cuisine like John. It is the reason that Rush Limbaugh made such a big deal to his mindless drones that Kerry held a hot dog he was eating at a county fair like it was a stink bomb. Charles Grassley dusts off his old beater of a car and Tom Harken parades out his deaf brother when their elections roll around to show that they are one of us.
Here is the problem as old as time, with power and influence comes corruption and distance from those you represent. Long before George H.W. Bush looked on in amazement at a grocery store scanner, politicians, the longer they spend in Washington, the more out of touch with common people they get. Those with the cash get the time. When you fly on oil company jets, have young women fawning all over you, wine and dine with the elite, and vacation at those resorts most people in your state cannot get into, the seeds of contempt take root. You begin to think that you are more important than the office, more important than the people you represent. It is why the Gingrich Republicans who came into office with such high ideals and are now starting to trickle out in handcuffs. It is a rare human being who acts like Harold Hughes, the former Iowa governor, who had an open door policy for the people. An elderly widow without a dollar to her name was as likely to be the focus of his time as the rich and successful of the state.
Robert Penn Warren watched the rise of Huey Long in Louisiana. He witnessed a man come into the governor’s mansion with high ideals. It looked like Huey really cared about the people. The former traveling salesman ran for governor in 1928 on the slogan of “every man a king, but no one wears a crown.” In a state where politicians did very little for the poor, Long attacked corporations and utilities. He was swept into office in maybe the biggest electoral mandate in our nation’s history – 92,941 to just 3,733. Huey did a lot for the people of his state. He increased funding to schools, paved over 12,000 miles of roads, and increased taxes on the rich and big business before moving on to the Senate. Yet, corruption oozed in and within a few years he was as corrupt as the individuals he attacked. Long liked power and money and was accused of taking kickbacks and bribes. Even while in the Senate, he placed a pawn, Oscar K. Allen, as governor and effectively controlled Louisiana from Washington. President Roosevelt considered him one of the two most dangerous men in America. (Douglas MacArthur was the other.) In 1935, one month after announcing that he was challenging Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination, Huey was assassinated in the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge by a Carl Weiss.
Much like Upton Sinclair’s Elmer Gantry as a thinly veiled fictional account of Billy Sunday, All the King’s Men’s Willie Stark (Talos is the last name used in the restored novel.) is loosely based on Huey Long. Not only did the novel win a Pulitzer Prize in 1947, but the film made two years later won three Oscars including one for best picture. In the remake Sean Penn is Willie Stark, a weak gubernatorial candidate who becomes a champion of the people. His right-hand man is straight arrow Jack Burden (Jude Law). As Stark becomes more and more corrupt, more Machiavellian, Burden becomes more of a thorn in his boss’s side.  While the original is much better, this film is pretty good.  Buried in September because the studio is too afraid of the political content.  It won’t influence any elections, will pass in and out of the theater with little notice, and be on dvd by New Year’s.

Verdict: Watch the Original Black and White Version.