Dan's Papers - October 6, 2006 - Guy de Fraumeni's Hollywood In The Hamptons

Picture this: The terrific 1949 film All The King's Men, made from Robert Penn Warren's indelible novel, has been remade with tons of money. It has color, a heavyweight cast and 56 years of added movie know-how. So? What's wrong with this picture? Everything! How can all that powerful stuff teeter, topple and splat like Humpty Dumpty? Perhaps as Warren's book of political greed reiterates, power corrupts.

It's all patterned on the Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey P. Long, a poor "hick" who rose as a crusader for other "hicks," the poor and disenfranchised, of whom there was a multitude at that time. His hammy showboating was only matched by his own raging grit. For quite some time, the novel's Willie Stark became synonymous with demagoguery. Like Long, Stark attacked the gas and oil barons, convincing his folksy following that the state's resources belonged to them and that meant us. Taking a lot upon himself and for himself, he carried so-called Big Government to dangerous heights of corruption. And mounted glorious monuments to himself as he produced progress with schools, hospitals, highways and bridges, all tainted by fat fingers, sticky with graft. As with Willie Stark, this current King's Men film's own over-ambitious, overwrought presumptions wring out the good it attempts to achieve.

Odd is the Clinton administration's James Carville's initiating this movie. Odd also, is the penchant of producers for casting Brits as U.S. southerners. The Royals here are Kate Winslet, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law who are miscast, misused and, more awfully, mistaken for dopes. They drawl, they mewl, they scream, and they diminish as they flounder. Only Hopkins manages to skip over the mire of a dreary "Peyton Place in the Bayou Swamps."

Oh, Lord-ee! Now, we come to the casting of Sean Penn as Willie. This excellent actor has taken on a role totally out of his ken. One of the best of the "internal" actors, he rants and raves in a dictatorial manner but who cares? The 1949 Stark, Broderick Crawford, was the big blowhard blusterer that won an Oscar. This adaptation portrays him more as a po' rube whose guile propels him to high exalted Kingfish. Penn's Willie Stark hasn't convinced himself that he is the monstrous tyrant we're told he is. How can he convince us? But let's give Mr. Penn a round of applause for taking another risk. Let us now give a loud raspberry denunciation to the director/producer Steve Zaillian. He also wrote the screenplay, a field where he has excelled (Schindler's List), but as a director? This story required a director with a fire down below such as a youthful Oliver Stone. Zaillian uses a heavy, heavy hand, but it's as unbelievable as Penn's shouting, it doesn't have a guts-based platform to denounce power-at-any-cost politicians who put private interests above honor. "Hardball" is a cute euphemism for a sports-loving constituency, but it is not a valid substitute for intelligent statesmanship or moviemaking.

This epic-obsessed movie has been delayed for close to a year before release for "tweaking." Oh, m'gosh! What must it have been like? The story meanders shapelessly and sags like a sleazy motel bed. Jude Law also sags as a dissolute news reporter and is the first to come on to Stark's staff. He also narrates. Taking up a lot of cubic feet in the staff offices is the new, industrial-size James Gandolfini as a back room politico. Patricia Clarkson is the Mary Matalin-like spin doctor. Jude Law's reporter's fine aristocratic lineage includes Gulf swimming with Ms. Winslet's lovin' vamp, while her principled brother, Mark Ruffalo, broods (throughout the pic). Important, in Law's past, is the righteously correct (he is a judge) Anthony Hopkins who's been like a father to Jude and will again rise to importance.

You will hear a lot of yakking about morals, but on-screen it's as nebulous as character dimension and the "girls" Stark visits. The writer/director drapes a heavy sentimental veil over anything that might shock either side of the political divide - a big mistake for a movie so obviously made for Oscar time. Just because the 1949 King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, it's not catching like measles. One has to get it the old fashioned way - by earning it. Robert Rossen's '49 film had the depth of intellect. It didn't rely on the jingoism of theatrical schtick and power plays used by political leaders to clobber the public into submission. I can't see Academy members bowing - except for accolades.

Guy-Jean de Fraumeni is the producer/writer/director of award-winning European and American feature films. He has been a judge at major film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, the Emmys and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.