All the King's Men Reviews
Top CriticA poisonous political process from our not-so-distant past dominates Robert Rossen's classic film about the rise of a Southern demagogue.
Common Sense Media
Details the rise and fall of a Southern politician
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
It is a film that vividly impresses, with dramatic sureness the chicanery of politics as have been practiced in the past and may crop up again.
Film4
The rather heavy-handed movie, which also gained the Best Picture Oscar, benefited from bull-necked Crawford's hard-hitting performance and the effective blend of location photography and studio work.
A fine adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer novel.
Apollo Guide
Smart, fascinating and horrifying, All the King's Men is an example of late 1940s filmmaking at its best.
Full Review
| Original Score: 84/100
Empire Magazine
A savage indictment of the system.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Lessons of Darkness
While [Crawford's] full-bodied performance still holds up nearly six decades later, the rest of Robert Rossen's Best Picture winner has lost a good deal of its fierce luster.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Cinema Sight
Broderick Crawford gives an outstanding performance as the corrupt politician Willie Stark.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's inspired by the career of populist Louisiana governor (1928-32) and Democratic U.S. Senator (1932-35) Huey Long.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
Arizona Daily Star
Stark is a work of art; a walking id whose momentum surges like the adrenaline that busts through his veins as he delivers his fist-pumping speeches.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
EmanuelLevy.Com
Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel, Robert Rossen's film is a grimly realistic study of the corrutive nature of personal and poltical power via the tumultuous career of Senator Hughey Stark.
| Original Score: A
Atlantic City Weekly
A classic tale of power corrupting absolutely
| Original Score: 5/5
eFilmCritic.com
It features one of the great performances in movie history.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
eCinemaCenter.com
Outstanding poltical commentary, rife with tension.
| Original Score: 4/5
Filmcritic.com
Broderick Crawford is no Orson Welles, but this meditation on the underbelly of American politics is at least in the same league as Citizen Kane.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Splendid portrait of political corruption. More timely than ever.
| Original Score: 5/5
