I may be in the minority but I found this to be a very good picture, was it as great as the casting implies it should be, probably not, but it was extremely well written. Sean Penn made a great Willie Stark, not what you would expect if you had seen the earlier versions, but he brought his usual passion and emotion to the role. Jude Law did a very good job, torn between two worlds with his reserved demeanor, you could almost see him cry out from the torture. All of the other characters were simply props and support for the two main characters of Willie Stark and Jack Burden. Even though the movie is not fact based it captures the time it represents very well. Huey Long (whom Willie Stark) is based on, was what some called a madman and some called a great leader of the common man. It is now out on video and worth watching

As a foreigner with not much ideas about U.S. history and politics, I have watched this movie with no bias and quite some problems to understand many phrases of Southern accents (which are quite fascinating on their own). However, it appeared to me as an interesting and pretty complex political story of the usual fight between rich and poor, honesty and false promises, racism, corruption... you name it. Even though the movie can catch one's attention for its full running time, some of the desired tension and drama are missing, and much of the final outcome is quite predictable. Overall, it's certainly no Oscar candidate, but also doesn't deserve low ratings as some (politically motivated) users distribute.

Steven Zaillian won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Schindler's List.

He adapted Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men and directed it.

The book was previously adapted in 1949 and went on win the Best Picture Oscar.

The new version despite an all star cast was a contender for the worse film of the year lists.

Willie Stark (Sean Penn) is an idealistic small town lawyer who becomes a populist and corrupt governor of a southern state.

Jack Burden (Jade Law) is a news reporter who goes to work for Stark.

When Stark is investigated for his corruption on the behest of his opponents such as Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins.) Burden feels conflicted as Irwin is like a father to him.

Before the film was released it had an Oscar buzz. It was stillborn on delivery.

This is such a poor film and it has a terrible screenplay. There is not story to it or if there is one, it is lost in the strong southern accents. Luckily I had seen the original movie a few months earlier so I knew the basic plot.

All I can see was Sean Penn delivering lots of excruciating speeches where the work hick was used a lot.

Zaillian forgot the phrase, 'show don't tell.'