Not another movie review...

Yes, it is and since it's my blog, I'll review as many as I want!

Actually, I hope any and all readers (yes both of you!) do like my reviews and comments. I think the movies I review either are good or offer a springboard for other interesting ideas. So here goes...

Which movie today, boss? Why none other than "All the King's Men," the latest version, of course, staring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and the indomitable Anthony Hopkins as Judge Irwin.

Based, of course, on Robert Penn Warren's classic novel, it is a rework of an earlier version starring Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark, done somewhere in the 1950's is my guess. Willie is a takeoff on Louisiana governor and US senator Huey Long during the 1930's Depression years. Long, like Willie Stark in the movie, was assassinated on the steps of the LA capitol building. Long was actually quite a political threat to FDR while he was alive.

What appeal did Long/Stark have for the people of LA, you ask? They had the appeal of demagoguery, appealing to the common folk for their political base, but using underhanded methods, corruption and authoritarianism to stay in power.

The RP Warren book was much better than the S Penn movie; the movie took a lot of liberties with the plot of the book, particularly bashing bible-belt Baptist-type religion. The movie tried to portray fundamentalism is the same cynical way it portrayed Stark's politics, sex life and relations with those close to him that he bossed around - like Jack Burden, the guy who dug up mud on others for Stark.

The book had a surprising ending for me; unfortunately, this movie completely ignored that ending. Burden, in the book, ends up again with a tarnished Anne Stanton (Winslet in the movie) and comes to view the whole Stark story thru well-earned Christian glasses. He and Anne make something good come out of the whole muddy pigsty that Stark created, and that they bought into themselves. It's a hopeful, but very realistic ending.

I like happy endings.

The Sean Penn movie just ended with Willie Stark's funeral... no hope, nothing but cynicism, despair and the ever-present US alienation.

Who assassinated real-life Huey Long? They got the guy who pulled the trigger, but who had him do it? Who knows.

Ultimately, the Sean Penn movie was ok, but fell woefully short of being a good representation of RP Warren's magnificent book. The Broderick Crawford movie? I tried to watch it twice a long time ago, but was turned off by the acting and didn't get very far into the movie both times. It's hard to do justice to a good book with all its details and intricate plot in just two hours. But it's definitely worth the effort.