VividSimon Simply Perfect

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

JohnHowardReid It's sad to find that aside from TCM, this film is not being aired on present day TV. The reason, of course, is that it was made in black and white. Yet it hasn't dated in the slightest. Nor has it outworn its power and fascination through repeated viewings. In fact it's such a richly textured movie that the more you see it, the more you appreciate its many subtleties of character and dialogue. For example, it wasn't until this time around that I realized the king's men of the Humpty Dumpty title were not just the voting hicks but the inner echelon. "He had us all now," Ireland comments off-camera, "we were all working for him." All the main characters! Great performances abound in this picture. Certainly Crawford reveals a range far beyond his usual blustering stereotype. Ireland gives the best account of his entire career. So does Mercedes McCambridge. (This was her film debut). All three were to coast on their King's Men reputations for the rest of their professional lives. In the support cast, those players who never bettered their characterizations here include Will Wright ("You have to understand that Pillsbury's not a man. He's a thing. When a thing gets busted, you fix it"), Ralph Dumke ("Pillsbury's the head man. He uses my head"), Raymond Greenleaf ("Pillsbury has to be prosecuted"), Anne Seymour, Grandon Rhodes, and Walter Burke.

grantss The story of Willie Stark, an unassuming, unsophisticated idealistic farmer who becomes Governor of his state, and Jack Burden, reporter and Stark ally. We see how Stark fights his way up from lowly beginnings, initially failing at politics but then succeeding. However, once in office, the ideals slip, the standards fall and the power leads to corruption. Burden should be his conscience, but he finds himself going along for the ride...Powerful film. The change in Willie Stark from hero to villain makes for a great story. We are immediately drawn in, rooting for Stark. He represents the guy we all want to see succeed - the innocent underdog with good intentions. However, this is not a Disney movie or West Wing. What happens next is gritty and a pretty accurate description of politics and how it corrupts even the noblest of souls. The fact that Stark becomes the embodiment of everything he was initially railing against, and of the reason he got into politics, is delicious irony and provides a wonderful cycle to the plot.Almost as impactful is Jack Burden's story. One thinks that he would be the one person to some degree of ethics and integrity, but he is happy to sell his soul to the highest bidder. We also see how the corruption spreads like a virus, affecting even Jack's friends.Not a perfect movie though. It would have been more dramatic if Stark's slide into fascism and corruption was more subtle and slow, and we had an even spread between Good Stark and Bad Stark. Instead, Stark's transformation is almost cliff-like and the majority of the film features Bad Stark. Also, a Bob Roberts-type ending would have been superb... (can't say anything more than that for fear of spoiling it).Won the 1950 Best Picture Oscar.

LeonLouisRicci Blustery Oscar Winning Performance from Broderick Crawford with support from John Ireland and Mercedes Cambridge (also an Oscar), and garnering the Best Oscar of all, the Best Picture winner, Robert Rossen's Cutting-Edge Political Expose still Cuts it Today.It's a definitive Classic that Transcends Time and its Message is the same, only the Suits have Changed, and the Media. The Movie is Powerful in its display of the Human Condition with the Emphasis on a Flawed System with Flawed People who seem Powerless by the Corrupting Influence.It's Arguable whether this is the Norm or the Acception to the rule, and History can make a Case for both. What is given here is the Dark Side and it is so Dark that some have called this a Film-Noir.The Pace is Frantic and the Characters are Engrossing. The Seedy and Sleazy Story pulls few Punches and Stretches the Limits of the Motion Picture Code. It's Mesmerizing the way the Film Crams the Frame with many People with much Loud and Searing Dialog. The Viewer is Caught Up in the Whirlwind of Leadership Shenanigans, shining the People on while delivering Roads, Hospitals (with free health care, "Not Charity but a Right"), Schools and other Governmental "Gifts" to the People."I'm going to soak the Rich and spread it thin.", says Willie Stark. Overall, a Movie Ahead of its Time and an Acclaimed Picture all around. Disturbing, Downbeat, and all too Real. The few Dated aspects might be hard to Overlook, but Not that hard Considering.

gbabbitt30 I've watched this movie many times over the past forty years and with changing opinion each time. There are some wonderful scenes that are tightly written, well-staged, and wonderfully acted, and they add tremendous color and life to the cinematization of a Great American Novel, but as years go by, my respect for the movie as art has diminished. Perhaps in its day, ATKM was a spectacular accomplishment, but I find it nowadays stiff and somewhat disjointed. The problem with trying to make a great book into a movie is that just cobbling the great parts out of the book together doesn't make the movie great. The Robert Penn Warren novel was extraordinarily complex and carefully paced to followed a dumb hick from the cotton fields to the pinnacle (and abuse) of power, but the movie tries to cram the entire story into the standard Hollywood two hours, and to do that, it has to lurch from high point to high point, like climbing all the Colorado Rocky Mountains by trying to hop from one fourteener to another. It just doesn't work. It's tough making a movie from a great book because lovers of the book like me will criticize it because it doesn't meet our expectations of the novel. "All The King's Men" as a book has aged like oak-casked whiskey; as a movie, the cork has leaked.