by Valerie Kennan
Alert! This review contains spoilers!
Let’s pretend I’m eighteen again. Some teacher assigned our class to watch the film All The Kings Men (1949) and there’s a paper due in an hour. You forgot to watch the movie (again) and ask what it’s about. I say, “It seems like it’s about a guy turning on his values, but it’s actually about a different guy turning on his values.”
The movie starts with Willie Stark, our protagonist (turned antagonist), running for County Treasurer. We meet Stark through Jack Burden, a reporter who hates his job. He churns out pieces about Stark and other pathetic things at a pace he thinks will earn him a vacation. “They say he’s an honest man,” the editor claims. Stark preaches honesty and refuses beer in place of orange soda. The viewer sees Stark avoid questions about his honesty. He creates a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of his face. Despite not drinking beer, he’s drunk on praise and pride. It’s hard to wonder if, in the days of scrapbooking (I wish I was crafty), I would do the same.
A political organizer asks Stark to run for governor. Unbeknownst to Stark, he’s a pawn to split the opposing party’s rural, working-class voting base. Stark continues spieling on about leaving corruption behind. Burden watches like a parent at an out-of-tune elementary concert. When Stark discovers the truth, he becomes his evil alter ego, doing what any alter ego would do—get drunk and cheat on your wife. Stark runs for office again and wins, saying “I’ll make a deal with the devil if it’ll help my program.”
But back to Burden. He’s the real heartbreaker, because he actually is an honest man. His boss says, “You write these [pieces about Stark] like you really believe them.” He asserts, “I do.” When his newspaper supports the other candidate, Burden resigns. He values his integrity over money. Stark then hires him as the bribe scribe. At first, the corrupt deals are in favor of the people. Willie Stark is like Robin Hood if he kept the money after stealing it from the rich. Corruption rots into intimidation, a continuation of anything to help Willie’s program. But at this point Willie’s program has changed from benefiting the people to serving himself.
Burden ignores Stark’s corruption until he’s asked to dig up dirt on his childhood friend, the Judge. He tries protecting his integrity but is reminded that he’s now an accomplice. The party’s over, yet his cost is sunk. Why, I wondered, did Jack stay? There were so many moments where he pauses, looks away, and avoids questions, each of them seemingly small—those moments in my own life where I don’t stand up for what’s right. I tried finding the first time Burden betrayed his values. There are a few obvious instants later in the film, but the first pivot is when, moments after winning the election, Stark turns to an employee and asks them to “give this man anything he wants.” I suppose guilt by association works both ways.
The title, “All The Kings Men” answers the question “How does a dictatorship happen?” In the decisions that seem trivial. Power-hungry people ask us to abandon our integrity in small spurts and then raise the stakes. It happens in those little moments, when the liability is low and the dividends are high—when I discount minor injustices or rationalize substandard decisions, swallowing my words instead of speaking up. After overlooking a few infractions—brushing off that joke, tuning out that slur—what’s one more? And one more, and another, this time I’ll say something—never mind, next time. If I dump a frog into boiling water, it jumps out. If the water is lukewarm and I increase the temperature, you have a meal.
It’s easy to judge Stark or Burden and say, “My values are my values, and no amount of temptation could make me stray from them.” But when I’m put in a position where my integrity opposes my desire—that’s when I find out who I am.