Abstract
When Steven Zaillian’s film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King’s Men was released in 2006, the reactions were reserved at best. Mostly regarded as a badly narrated and miscast remake of Robert Rossen’s Oscar-winning 1949 film version, it disappointed moviegoers and critics alike. With a high-budget production, an impressive cast (including Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, and Anthony Hopkins), and a director and scriptwriter (Zaillian) who had already received an Academy Award for his screenplay for Schindler’s List, expectations were admittedly high. But although the 2006 version of All the King’s Men was praised by some reviewers for its “earnestness” (Groucho) and its being “true to the essence of its source” (LA Times), Zaillian’s close adherence to the novel could not prevent the film from being mostly regarded as a failure, as Stanley Kauffmann’s assessment exemplifies: “The film isn’t dreadful: it is just generally disappointing” (22).
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© 2012 Birte Otten
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Otten, B. (2012). Of Political Visions and Visionary Politicians: Adapting All the King’s Men to the Big Screen. In: Loock, K., Verevis, C. (eds) Film Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137263353_5
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