Jack Burden, a Louisiana news reporter, takes a personal interest in Willie Stark, an idealistic small-town lawyer and parish treasurer. Circumstances develop that result in Tiny Duffy, a local political leader Burden knows, urging Stark to run for governor. Burden's upbringing makes him familiar with the undercurrent of politics – he was raised by his loving godfather Judge Irwin, a former state attorney general, while his good friend, Dr. Adam Stanton, and his sister Anne Stanton—also Burden's former lover—are the children of a former governor. Burden therefore decides to take Duffy's advice and travels as a reporter on Stark's campaign for governor.
The politically astute Burden soon deduces, and Duffy strategist (and Stark mistress) Sadie Burke confirms, that Duffy is using Stark to split his party's vote and thus allow the opposing party to win. They tell Stark, who begins to give speeches in a straightforward manner to appeal to the public, in defiance of the advice given to him by Duffy. His vigorous strategy attacks the corruption of the existing players and promises schools and roads for his "fellow ignorant hicks", resulting in Stark winning the election. He manages Duffy by making him his lieutenant governor. Stark recruits Burden to work for him as an adviser.
Stark proves to be a very persuasive governor, delivering on many of his new projects. Irwin disapproves of Stark and publicly supports an investigation of possible graft in the new spending. Burden points out that graft is the elite's word for what the previous politicians had always done, while Stark openly tells his crowds that his "crooks, unlike theirs, are itty bitty" compared to the elite's. Stark convinces Stanton to head a new public hospital while he begins having an affair with Anne, provoking Burke's jealousy and Burden's disappointment.
Irwin continues criticizing Stark as political controversies begin to unfold. Stark demands that Burden seek information on the judge to be used against him. Jack insists that there is no such information, but eventually discovers evidence of a bribe that Irwin used to get his appointment many years prior, leading an opponent to commit suicide. Following this revelation, Irwin himself commits suicide. Burden's mother then tells him that Irwin treated him with such love because he was his biological father, which causes a great amount of guilt for Burden.
Stark utilizes many methods of corruption to consolidate his power, including patronage and intimidation. Adam is told that Stark is using the hospital project to rob the state and is framing him in the process. Burden and Anne both assure Adam that this is false. Adam also becomes enraged when he learns of Stark's affair with his sister. Adam waits at the state capitol and assassinates Stark, only to be immediately killed by the governor's bodyguard. It is later revealed that Adam was influenced by Duffy and Burke to murder Stark, allowing Duffy to succeed Stark as governor.
The film garnered strong Oscar "buzz" and was considered a contender by Entertainment Weekly even before its initial opening.[2][3]
The world premiere was held at the Toronto International Film Festival[4] on September 11, 2006, where the film was first screened to the press. A special screening was held at the Tulane University in New Orleans on September 16, 2006.
Reception
Box office
All the King's Men grossed $7.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $2.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $9.5 million, against a production budget of $50 million.[1]
In the film's opening weekend it made $3.7 million from 1,514 theaters, finishing seventh. It then dropped to 11th place with a gross of $1.5 million in its second weekend, and by its third weekend fell to 27th place with $285,993.[5]
Critical response
James Carville, executive producer, at the film's premiere.
In spite of its high-profile cast, direction and production team, All the King's Men was a massive failure, both with critics and at the box office.[6] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds approval rating of 12% based on 158 reviews, with an average rating of 4.30/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "With a scenery-chewing performance from Sean Penn, an absence of political insight, and an overall lack of narrative cohesiveness, these Men give Oscar bait a bad name."[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times expressed disappointment with the film: "Nothing in the picture works. It is both overwrought and tedious, its complicated narrative bogging down in lyrical voiceover, long flashbacks and endless expository conversations between people speaking radically incompatible accents."[8]Michael Medved gave All the King's Men two stars (out of four) calling it "depressing and disappointing", a "stodgy melodrama" and a "pointless, pretentious, plodding period-piece".[9]
Some reviews were positive. Richard Schickel of Time magazine liked the movie, arguing that "it's much more faithful to the tone of the novel" than the original.[12]Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times) praised the film's "undeniable moral seriousness" and the actors' "exceptional ensemble work." He argued that Zaillian's script and direction "expertly extracted the core of this greatest of American political novels, a work that is both of its time and outside it."[13]
Aftermath
The film was featured in Nathan Rabin's feature for The Onion'sA.V. Club, My Year of Flops. Of three categories (failure, fiasco, or secret success), he labeled All the King's Men as a failure and said of the film: "Zaillian’s dud manages the formidable feat of being at once histrionic and agonizingly dull, hysterically over-the-top yet strangely lifeless."[14]
Zaillian was stunned by the poor critical and box-office results of this film, which opened with only $3.8 million and barely made $7.2 million at the end of its run in US theaters. Another new wide release from the same weekend, the $11.5 million sequel Jackass Number Two, made $28.1 million. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Zaillian said that the film's poor performance was "like getting hit by a truck. ... I don't know what to make of it. ... We're all a bit shellshocked. I feel like Huey Long must have felt -- you try to do good and they shoot you for it."[15]
