The man who wanted to rule
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The man who wanted to rule |
| Original title | All the King's Men |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1949 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Rossen |
| script | Robert Rossen |
| production | Robert Rossen |
| music | Louis Gruenberg |
| camera | Burnett Guffey |
| cut | Al Clark |
| occupation | |
| |
The man who wanted to rule (Original title: All the King's Men ) is in black and white twisted American film directed by Robert Rossen from 1949. The film was based on the novel All the King's of Robert Penn Warren , who for the Pulitzer -Award received.
action
Jack Burden is the son of a wealthy family from Burden's Landing, who cannot really decide which job to pursue. After dropping out of law school, he worked as a journalist and was sent to the provinces by his editor-in-chief to write about a would-be politician who is described as an honest person and thus rebels against the powerful in the area. Willie Stark is actually a farmer, but ambitious. During the day he gives political speeches in which he promises to invest in public infrastructure as governor, at night he studies law. But his political skills leave a lot to be desired. Jack finds the man and his family sympathetic and continues his career. When the stairwell in a school collapsed one day and several children died, the tide turned for Stark, as he had previously pointed out the ailing public infrastructure, while those in power showed no interest in it. Through this scandal and his committed speeches, he is becoming increasingly popular with the rural population. At the same time, shortly before the election, it becomes clear that the current governor threatens to lose the election against another candidate. He therefore decides to send Stark into the race to draw votes from his competitor and gives him his election assistant Sadie Burke to his side.
Stark just lost the election to the old governor. He realizes that he must not bend and not be a puppet for those in power in order to achieve his goal. Four years later he is a powerful populist who cannot be denied victory in the election. As governor, he not only builds roads, hospitals and schools for the people, but also enriches himself with every single project.
Jack and Sadie Burke become his closest collaborators. Sadie feels more than a sense of duty for her boss and is jealous because of his various affairs. However, Willie Stark also cheats on his wife Lucy with Anne Stanton, Jack's longtime friend. Jack doesn't want to admit it. Anne is the niece of the respected prosecutor Stanton, a neighbor of the Burden family. When Stanton resigns from his position on the discovery of Stark's machinations and becomes opposition leader against Stark, Stark assigns Jack to look for misconduct in the past of the prosecutor Stanton. Jack finds it, but wants to keep the discovery to himself. Of all people, Anne passes the files to Stark, driving her uncle to suicide. Stark previously offered her brother Adam to take over the management of a modern hospital that he wants to build. Adam does not want to be corrupted, however, and shoots Governor Stark down in the court in which Stark has just escaped impeachment. Adam is then shot by Stark's bodyguard. Willie Stark also dies from his injuries while he is still mumbling: "The whole world could have been Willi Stark."
background
Like Warren's novel , the man who wanted to rule was based on the biography of the American governor Huey Pierce Long (1893–1935). Robert Rossen produced the film with his own production company for Columbia Pictures and thus had the freedom to shoot exclusively on location instead of in the film studio . Many of the filmed scenes were not used in the final version: The length of the cut material was one hour. Production costs were less than $ 1 million , but despite numerous awards, the film only grossed a disappointing $ 2.4 million at the box office. On the part of the American political left , Rossen, who was a member of the Communist Party of the USA until 1947 , was criticized for pointing out the dangers rather than the possibilities of a mass political movement .
The man who wanted to rule celebrated its premiere in New York on November 8, 1949 . On 23 July 1951, the film opened in the cinemas of Germany .
In 2006 a remake was released under the title The Game of Power by Steven Zaillian with Sean Penn as Willie Stark.
Reviews
“Political drama based on a novel based on the infamous Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who was shot in 1935 . The startling film is designed like a timeless, current report; a convincingly presented, impressive plea against dictatorship and terror. "
"A not entirely convincing attempt to denounce the dictatorial and demagogic abuse of power."
Awards
The film ran in 1950 in competition at the Venice International Film Festival . That same year, The Man Who Wished To Rule received five Golden Globe Awards , including Best Picture and Director . At the Oscar ceremony in 1950 Broderick Crawford received as Best Actor , Mercedes McCambridge as Best Supporting Actress and Robert Rossen as producer for Best Picture an Oscar . In 2001 she was accepted into the National Film Registry .
literature
- Robert Penn Warren: All the King's Men. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York 1946
- Robert Penn Warren: The Governor. German: Ilse Krämer . Goldmann, Munich 1956. The game of power. German: Ilse Krämer. Completely revised and supplemented by Philip Laubach-Kiani. Heyne, Munich 2007
Web links
- The man who wanted to reign in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian Neve: Film and Politics in America. A social tradition. Routledge, Oxon, 1992, pp. 142-144.
- ↑ All the King's Men (1950) - Original Print Info. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved November 11, 2019 .
- ↑ a b The man who wanted to rule. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 11, 2019 . .
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 228/1951