Political Corruption in All the Kings Men

All the Kings Men is a movie that brings the viewer closer to the world of political corruption. Directed by Robert Rossen in 1949, All the Kings Men focuses on the political life of Willie Stark, An up and comer in the Louisiana political scene, by running on the platform of reformations and the removal of corrupt political officials. This film won the best picture award in 1949. This movie was lightly based on the real life Louisiana governor, Huey Long.

Stark at the beginning of the film is a young country boy protesting against corruption and wanting to make a difference for his people.

It is important for the director to make Willie out to be an Honest and Trustworthy man. He is displayed as hard working because he’s going for a degree in law, doesn’t drink and lives at home with wife and son. The reporter jack Burden comes to cover Willie Stark when he first runs for Treasurer, but Willie loses by a land slide.

His wife playing an important role, because she was the one person that Willie depended on for his education and in turn gave him a chance to earn a law degree and practice law. And at first, no one wanted Willie as a lawyer.

Eventually, Willie gets some cases, helping out poor common people with legal issues. Then twelve children die when a faulty stair case crashes down at a local school. They look to Stark for justice, Stark they can view as one of their own because they can relate to his life.

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Willie is then nominated to run as a third party candidate, which is really meant to spit the unevenly and boost Stark to political recognition. Stark realizes what has happened and comes to find out that the people wanted one of their own to be in power. Stark to say the least becomes overwhelmed by his new found power as his rise to the top continues.

Willie starts to promise reform and justice for his common folk. He bribes the radio stations and the people were to afraid to speak up about it because Willie had promised them with new infrastructure projects (schools, hospitals), the people who helped Stark with his rise to power, along with his wife, Constituents which Willie will later fail in the movie. As the story progress’s so does the relationship with Jack, Willie hires Jack to cover the election. Jack sees Willie from beginning and realizes the downward spiral that Willie starts to take at the end of the movie. But Jack falls victim to the same curse that Willie suffers, growing increasingly worst at the end of the movie, and is best summed up when Willie says “Conceived of man, Born of corruption”.

The curse of power that Willie and those close to him felt during the rise to power is quite common place in modern politics. Everything from the bribes and sexual scandals, this movie covers all the bases when it comes to political satire. The movie overall starts out very slow and drawn out, but picks up when Willie becomes drunk with power. This movie is also very important because it displays timeless themes of politicians. My high school history teacher explained it best with this quote “absolute power corrupts, absolutely”. This movie also has a lot to do with ethics. The director wanted people to see this movie and its themes so that issues and people like those in the movie are better identified in real life situations.