Blah blah blah. This was one of those, “Is it over yet?” movies. Unlike Eitan, I actually didn’t know the story at all, which I consider a benefit; if I had, I would have been expecting the ending to come throughout the movie and been even more antsy about it all.
Basically, the movie started out kind of like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington but not as good, and it ended up kind of like Citizen Kane but not as good. I cared so little about every character including the protagonist, Jack Burden (John Ireland), and the at-times-empathetic villain Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). Willie Stark is a small-town man in the south who just wants the government to become corruption-free (James Stewart in Mr. Smith played the role much more charmingly). Eventually, through a way-too-long turn of events, he gets elected governor. Then, in about ten minutes that are extremely hard to follow (note: what is this Pillsbury thing?), he suddenly becomes the corrupt government official he claimed to hate. This downward spiral continues as his family grows to hate him, his advisors become too scared to quit, and he becomes very dictator-like (Orson Welles is more complex an actor, and Charles Foster Kane is more epic a role). Plot-wise, the frustrating part was how suddenly Stark went from this nice guy from the rural south to a governor at times reminiscent of Joseph Stalin (and with the cult of personality to boot). I just found it extremely hard to believe that corruption and power-hunger happen this quickly.
In the climactic act (probably halfway through the movie), Stark’s son Tom (John Derek) drives drunk and kills a girl. Tom is completely willing to deal with the repercussions of this matter, but his father just won’t let him. And when the dead girl’s father won’t accept a bribe, he suddenly goes missing (and is found dead later, a turn of events we assume to be executed by Stark). I am completely serious when I say that this was the only portion of the movie I found remotely interesting. Note to myself: Joanne Dru looked like Ingrid Bergman! 5/10
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