All the King's Men

[saavedra77]

Most reviewers seem to dislike Steve Zaillian's adaption of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men (perhaps the best political novel I've ever read, despite Warren's penchant for obvious allegorical names).

For some obscure reason, I still feel drawn to see the movie, though.

I suppose that part of the reason is that I think the novel has cinematic possibilities that Robert Rossen's 1949  version didn't satisfactorily exploit: Broderick Crawford deserved the Oscar he won for his meaty, rabble-rousing portrayal of Willie Stark, but many of the other characters seemed to fall flat.

By contrast, Zaillian's film seems promising in precisely the areas that Rossen's was weak--interesting, plausible actors in all of the supporting roles: Jude Law has just watchful, troubled quality you'd want in a Jack Burden; it's easy to picture James Gandolfini as the cigar-chomping political boss Tiny Duffy; Patricia Clarkson is at least an intriguing choice as Sadie Burke (although I've never seen her play anyone nearly that tough ...).

Alas, Sean Penn in the central role is the wild card--and the critics don't seem that impressed.  Except, I note, for Kenneth Turan on NPR and John Meacham of Newsweek--who aren't exactly Gene Shallit-style yes-men, so I guess there's room for hope, there.

At any rate, I know there are some Seattle-area fans of the novel on my flist; is anyone curious to see Zaillian's picture while it's still in theaters?  I'd especially love to see it with folks who know the novel (although others are welcome, too, of course).

Comments

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

But I loved the book. As someone who grew up in the south, I thought it was the most honest portrayal of southerners I had seen. It was a breath of fresh air after having been forced to read a bunch of Faulkner and hating, hating, hating his depiction of the south.

You know, I'm a lifelong Yanqui and the closest I've ever come to Dixie have been a few vacations on North Carolina's Outer Banks, but I went through a Southern Lit phase in my late teens and early twenties: William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Wolfe, Jean Toomer, John Crowe Ransom, Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren, even Walker Percy. Of course, the only frames of reference I had for the region were history and pop culture. (In fact, I tended to think about these authors more in relation to their contemporaries outside of the region: comparing Faulkner to Joyce, etc.)

So I'm curious: as someone from the South, what was it about Warren's portrayal that rang so much truer than Faulkner's? What in particular turned you off to Faulkner? (Like I said, just curious: I'm not really a Faulkner fan or detractor, really.)