Corruption of power and an assignation both of these things seem to go hand in hand. At least when it comes to be the Best Picture winner of 1949 Columbia's All the King's Men. This noir film gives us a glimpse into the lives of government and money. It shows us that it may look glamourous and, sometimes, a clean cut business but it shows how much greed can take control.
This is the story of a man named Willie Stark who wanted to run for the office of county treasurer. He was running, and ultimately lost, the race against the candidate of a major corporation in the local area. When the cheap bricks that the company was using to build the school cause the death of a bunch of kids during the fire drill, a lot of the people started to rally behind Stark to run in the next election so they could get an honest man in office. When he wins the election he starts his way up the political ladder. When he gets the governorship he starts using all of the blackmail that he had learned about over the years to keep the office. When this happens everyone around him either becomes a friend or an enemy.
This film nominated for seven awards that night and it won three of them. It beat out MGM's Battleground, Paramount's The Heiress, and 20th Century Fox's A Letter to Three Wives and Twelve O'clock High. It was also selected to for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2001.
I have to say that I was really shocked by how much I enjoyed this movie. It was a little long and slow in some parts but it was a really interesting story of how this man went from literally the bottom of the barrel to on the verge of running for president. The story was interesting from the very start and it never stopped until the end. I thought that this would have been a lackluster drama but it was far from. I would have to say I would give this film another go someday and I would enjoy it all the more the next time around.
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