Politics has never been something that really sparks my interest very often (if at all), so to make something that involves politics in a big way that gets my The Long stand in is Willie Stark who is a pure populist through and through. He fights for the little guy in an honest way, and the film follows the typical
rise and fall story. It might be about Willie, but, much like The Great Gatsby (among others) the story is told from the perspective of someone else. In this case, that someone is Jack Burden- a journalist turned Willie's right hand man. The film also follows his life, but is primarily about Willie's and the impact Willie has on others. I'm fine with the story following a typical formula, and I kinda expected it, really. My gripes about it though are that the scenes showing the rise from nothing to success happen way to quick, as does Willie's change from great honest guy to the corrupt scum that he once opposed before his own personal downfall. The film is a basic story of power and corruption, and, at one time (mostly when it was released), this sort of thing came off as a revelation. Nowadays it seems almost quaint and unoriginal, but the treatment here is still pretty decent and passable enough, though it wouldn't probably win the Oscars now that it did back in the day,The performances arte quite good, and the film has a fairly good pace (the aforementioned issues being the exception), and the direction's not bad either. It's also shot pretty well, though nothing about the cinematography is really all that amazing. All in all, an okay enough movie, though far from an amazing classic. See it if you want, but don't expect to be blown away or anything.
November 14, 2011
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