Bibliofreakblog

All the Kings Men: the movie

If you recall, I said of the book All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren that it was “an epic, character-driven, beautifully-written, philosophical, sad, political, morally-ambiguous, expertly-foreshadowed, thematic,hard to get immersed in, dramatic, ironic, difficult, sweeping book.”  

Of those descriptions, I can say that it was epic, character-driven, philosophical, political, morally-ambiguous, thematic, hard to get immersed in, dramatic, sweeping…

I’d also say that it was boring, beautifully shot, and faithful to the book.

And in a way, it was beautifully written–it included some of the key passages from the book where Warren seemingly goes off on tangents, delving into the nature of childhood friendships and such.

But it wasn’t ironic.  It wasn’t sad.  And the foreshadowing didn’t come across if it was there at all.

And Anthony Hopkins can’t do a Louisiana accent to save his life.

The storyline was there.  The characters were kind of there.  But it was a bit of a struggle to sit through.  

However, after having read the book, it was interesting to watch the little documentary-type special features about Huey Long, the guy who inspired the character of Governor Stark in the book.  Apparently he knew Robert Penn Warren–even got him  a job (or appointed him or got him to come to) at LSU.

In the end, I remain unconvinced that this is the type of book that should be made into a movie.  Maybe some things should just stay on the page.

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