Listomania Sunday: US Politicians in Movies

I was having a hard time trying to decide what list to make this week. Living in Wisconsin the news this week has been filled with politics and protests.  It has distracted me from focusing on movies which I would rather debate then politics. I found myself being very frustrated by the no compromising attitude's of both sides.  Anyway, I was thinking of doing lists of union movies or teachers since they have been in the news all week. But finally occurred to me that I should just do a list of the best movies with politicians.  So here it is.

1.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-A movie about a naive guy who ends up a senator and stands up for what he believes in the face of a political atmosphere that just wants him to go along with the establishment.  This is a great movie about the ideal politician that only exists in a Frank Capra movie. Wish there were some politicians that were like this.

2.  The Distinguished Gentleman-The exact opposite of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington about a guy who uses wacky tactics to get elected just so he can get money and gifts from the corporations and lobbyists. My Government and Politics teacher actually showed this movie in class.

3.  Air Force One-An action movie that doesn't quite fit with the rest of the movies but it fits on the list. Harrison Ford as a kick ass President awesome. 

4.  All the Kings Men- A great movie about how a guy who starts off with good intentions and discovers the only way to get things accomplished is through intimidation and corruption. Eventually it catches up to him and he is brought down. Loosely based on the true story of Huey Long you get to see how power corrupts and can get into peoples heads.

5.  The American President-A romantic comedy about a widowed president who starts dating a lobbyist which starts a media frenzy. Written by recent Academy Awards winner Aaron Sorkin the movie is funny and sweet. 

Movies that just missed the list. My Fellow Americans, Bullworth, The Contender, Frost/Nixon, Milk

All The King's Men 1949

Again a little late as I usually try to post on Thursday's but had a Wedding to go to out of town and didn't get this written on time. But I did get to watch it before I left.
All the King's Men is a political drama about power and corruption. It fits with the late 40's theme of socially conscience Best Picture winners. It follows the political career of Willie Stark from small town backwoods man to Governor of the state. It is based on the book by Robert Penn Warren which is loosely based on the life of Louisiana politician Senator Huey Long. Willie starts out as a man who is fighting the injustice he sees in his home town. Unable to do anything about it he attends law school and becomes a powerful lawyer prosecuting large companies for taking advantage of the people. He eventually catches the eye of some big politicians who think they can use him for their own advantage. During the process Willie learns the tricks of getting elected and getting things done. He becomes very corrupt very fast. He gets a lot done for the state but all of it is done using black mail and payoffs. But because of all he does he becomes very popular with the common people.  Eventually he corruption starts to unravel and he begins to feel the pressure of all he has done and leads to his downfall.

The rise and fall of Willie Stark is a great story. It is amazing to see how people can change and how power goes to some people head even when they start out with the best of intentions. We see the humble beginnings of Willie dedicated husband, good father, looking out for the little people. Then he turns into a political machine only thinking about himself, cheating with multiple women, and making sure anything his son does makes him look good. While the story is good and interesting the movie it's self is kind of clunky. I don't know what it is about how the movie was edited or what but I feel it kind of leaves a lot off. They skip from one phase in Willies life to the next without giving much detail about what happens in between. He loses one election then the movie jumps to 4 years later and all of sudden he is the most corrupt politician. If it wasn't for the great story and the great acting the movie would just fall apart. The movie earned two deserving acting awards one for Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark and one for Mercedes McCambridge(who later in life became the voice of  possessed Linda Blair in the Exorcist) for Best Supporting Actress as Wilie's political aide, secretary, and mistress.  The movie lost best Director and Best Screenplay to Joseph Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives. Mankiewicz would win the same to awards the following year for All About Eve. Making him the second director to repeat winning.  There was a remake of the movie in 2006 starring Sean Penn as Willie Start. I never saw that version but am going to check it out to see how it compares to the original because if done right it could be even better. But seeing as it didn't get that many good reviews I am guessing it wasn't done right.

What I most got out of the movie is that nothing really changes. This movie is from 1949 and talking about political corruption. How has things changed? Power still corrupts, politicians still look for the easy way to get elected, and they will always tell the people what they want to hear. Makes me wonder when the good old days were that all these people talk about today. It seems to me that things have always been this way and there really is no way to change it. It reminds me of the Billy Joel song lyric "The good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems".