All the King's Men (1949) This
film won the 22nd Academy Awards for Best Picture.
The film tells about the rise and fall of a man in politics. A reporter followed the instructions of his boss to interview the actor. The male protagonist is an ordinary farmer. Although he knows he has no strength, he still has to run for election. When the actor and the reporter were in the campaign, they were blocked by government forces. Later, the reporter came to the actor's home and saw the family who loved each other. After the reporter submitted the paper, he returned to his hometown and spent a happy time with an elderly friend, as well as his son and daughter. Some time later, there was an accident in the school where the actor was located. Many people knew that the actor was right and regretted not choosing him. Therefore, at this time, the actor who was already a lawyer went to justice on behalf of the citizens. For this reason, the reporter came to interview him again. At this time, the electoral forces asked the male lead to participate in the governor election in order to disrupt the situation. At first, the actor didn't know, but under the reminder of the female assistant, he started canvassing for himself and got many supporters. At the same time, the reporter lost his job for covering the protagonist. Although the actor worked hard, he still lost, but he learned how to win. Four years later, the actor used various methods to win votes, including using the support of elderly reporters and friends to easily become governor. Next, the male protagonist began to use various means to fulfill his pre-election commitments, and did a lot of engineering work, leaving his name everywhere. The dictatorship of the male protagonist is very unacceptable to the elderly friends. After resigning, they all told the media about the various behaviors of the male protagonist. Subsequently, the actor's son was in a car accident due to drunk driving, causing the girl in the same car to die in the hospital a few days later. After the girl's father came to the actor for justice, he disappeared. A few days later, the actor's son became disabled for life because of an injury in the game. After that, the actor wanted to run for re-election, but the dead girl’s father’s body was found, and people suspected that it was the actor. As a result, with the support of the elderly friends, the parliament prepared to impeach the actor. The protagonist immediately launched an action and threatened him with the wrong things of his old friend when he was young. After the old friend learned of this, he raised a gun and committed suicide. The reporter knew at this time that it was the daughter of the old friend who had an affair with the actor who had leaked the secret to the actor. In the end, the actor won the impeachment, but was shot and killed by the old friend's son after going out.
This film is based on a real-life event, and I have a lot of feelings after watching it. The main story of the film is about the success and failure of a man. It seems a very simple story, but it involves a lot of content. For example, the electoral system of American society, the darkness of American politics, the essence of the so-called "American democracy", the contradiction between the rule of man and the rule of law, etc., as well as the viewpoint put forward by the movie as a whole: good grows out of evil. It can be seen that this film is a movie worth thinking about, even if it was shot in the 1940s, even if it has been more than sixty years ago, these will still not make it out of date.
There are a lot of content in the film, and I will not go into details one by one, especially the issue of the rule of man and the rule of law. I am in "The Accused Uncle Shang Gang": Rule of Man and the Rule of Law [The Best Film of the 15th Golden Rooster Awards] Wrote a lot in it. What impressed me the most in this film was the phrase "good grows from evil" said by the protagonist. If you think about it carefully, this sentence makes some sense. Good and evil actually coexist. If there is only good, then there is no evil; if there is only evil, then there is no good. Therefore, good deeds can only be manifested when evil occurs. Therefore, the male protagonist did so many good deeds after he was elected after seeing too much evil and evil people. It can be seen from this that the male protagonist in the film only has too extreme means of doing things, but the purpose is good. However, has the actor ever thought about whether his process of doing these good deeds is "evil"? Therefore, the ultimate question arises in the end: Who will judge good and evil? On this point, there will be different answers from different positions. Therefore, the actor's behavior in this film cannot be judged. The director just showed a fact, which also shows the cleverness of the director.
As for other aspects of the film’s performance, such as political transactions, election fraud, political thugs, and so on. These are very normal in the "democratic" elections in those so-called "democratic" countries. It can be described as "not surprising", so I won't say more.
The filming is excellent. The time span of the film is very long, so the film uses dazzling shooting methods to express the plot, such as narration with newspaper titles, various fast-connected pictures to express location changes, and the use of multiple contrasting scenes, etc. What impressed me the most was that when the reporter first came to the actor’s house, the family of the actor was a family that loved each other; but after the actor was elected, the family was the same stranger when he returned to the same place again. The contrast between these two scenes clearly reflects the changes in the hero and the changes he brought to the family. In short, the film is impeccable in terms of shooting technology, and the director uses skilled imaging techniques to perfectly present the film's story.
The actors in this film are outstanding. The male protagonist Broderick Crawford perfectly interprets this role, whether it is the approachability of a civilian or the domineering and domineering after being in power, it feels very real. He deserves to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role. The reporter actor, John Ireland, looks ordinary, with a stubborn face that looks awkward, and he doesn't look like a star. But his acting skills are still good, but the scenes are too few. The only beauty in the film is Joanne Dru, which is not particularly beautiful, but in the film lacking femininity, she can also be counted as a beauty, at least much more beautiful than the female assistant actor Mercedes McCambridge.
in conclusion. This is a very good-looking movie with a deep theme and thought-provoking. Therefore, it is understandable that the film won the Oscar for Best Picture. It's just that the speed of the film is too fast and it seems to be very hard. It makes me feel the same when I watch "Long Dreams in the Night".
Joanne Dru
Joanne Dru
sequence: 0857
contemporary heroes.All.The.Kings.Men.1949.D5.MiniSD-TLF
2012-06-28
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