All the King's Men (2006) - PG-13

Watch All the King's Men (2006) Video Movie Review

Ambitious, slow-moving, trite political drama.

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Rating: PG-13 for an intense sequence of violence, sexual content and partial nudity. Studio: Sony Pictures Directed By: Steven Zaillian Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Sean Penn Running Time: 128 minutes Release Date: 09/22/2006 Genre: Drama

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this intense political drama will probably be of little interest to their kids. If they do go, they'll see women as sexual objects for men. Some women dance onstage wearing scant clothing and striking provocative poses, while another young woman, romanticized in soft light, appears both naked in a river and undressing for sex with her partner. A politician travels with a bodyguard who carries and shoots a pistol. Two bloody shootings, one of which is a suicide. Characters frequently smoke cigars and cigarettes, and a couple of them are alcoholics.

Families who see this movie can discuss the political process. Candidates are often elected based on promises to voters -- what happens after they're elected, when their efforts to fulfill those promises encounter roadblocks like lack of funding or loss of idealism? Do voters really believe that campaign promises will be kept? Should politicians be more accountable to their constituents? What are the strengths and weaknesses of America's political system?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs

Ambitious but slow-moving and trite, ALL THE KING'S MEN features a strong performance by Sean Penn as Willie Stark. An ambitious, teetotaling Louisiana politician who promises his poor constituents that he'll fight the smug, rich upstate powerbrokers, Willie (who's loosely based on real-life politician Huey Long) loses his way after getting distracted by the conventional emblems of corruption -- women and alcohol. His downfall is at once romanticized and inevitable, as the movie, based on Robert Penn Warren's 1946 novel, winds down to an overwrought finale.

In his first moments on screen, Willie reveals his naiveté by drinking his orange soda with two straws. While professional politicians make fun of Willie's country-bumpkinish predilections, reporter Jack Burden (Jude Law) sees in Willie an essential decency. As Jack narrates Willie's story, it intersects with his own.

From the start, Jack takes a complicated sort of high road: The camera looks down on him as he lies in bed, describing the pursuit of "truth" in terms both ethical and professional. He pronounces that such pursuit must be premised on a belief in its potential benefit, already alluding to the great harm that befalls almost everyone in the film who uncovers secrets. What Jack leaves out is the film's more compelling lesson -- that this so-called truth is actually a fiction.

Willie's own storytelling is relentlessly public; he has a natural gift for rousing audiences. Encouraged to run for governor by political power wrangler Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), it's when Willie learns that he's being used by the professionals to engineer another candidate's victory than he discovers his brilliant oratorical voice. He tells his constituency -- the poor folks he refers to as "hicks" -- that he'll be their champion.

Once Willie is installed as governor, he's accused of graft. Though the film doesn't delve into whether he really is corrupt to the degree that his detractors claim, it makes it very clear that he lapses into personal debasement in the form of women and whiskey. Jack, who carries a very romantic torch for the lovely Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), is especially dismayed by Willie's fall.

Jack's infatuation with Anne and friendship with her excruciatingly idealistic brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo) leads him to imagine a more just world than the one he inhabits. His disenchantment will involve Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), who is Jack's godfather and Willie's sworn enemy. As much as Jack wants to remember his youth -- and Anne -- as a hazy flashback, the repetition of this theme becomes excessive. In the end, All the King's Men finally feels more like a burden than a revelation.

Families who enjoy this movie might also like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Citizen Kane, or Robert Rossen's original 1949 movie adaptation of Penn Warren's novel.

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Content		CS	adults	kids
Content
Sexual Content Many images of women in the movie seem based solely on men's fantasies. Dancers on stage reveal cleavage, legs, and bottoms to Willie, who selects each night's sex partner from these semi-private auditions. In repeated flashbacks, Jack watches Anne naked in a river (from the back, in the moonlight) and remembers her undressing for bed, only to be disappointed at his own inaction (all of this is shown from his point of view, and the footage is "romantically" blurry).
Violence Characters fight, awkwardly; there's talk of a school fire that kills children (but only the funeral is shown on screen); after a suicide by shooting, there's blood on the wall; two men are shot to death, with blood on the bodies and oozing onto the floor around them.
Language Variation of n-word used by white men; other mild language ("hell").
Message
	Social Behavior Politicians, lawmen, and reporters engage in corrupt activities (including graft, blackmail, and exchanges of favors).
	Commercialism
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco Frequent cigarette and cigar smoking; a couple of characters are alcoholics, and they and others drink to the point of drunkenness (including passing out).