Sean Penn, one of the best actors of his generation, has confirmed that status once again with his superb performance as Willie Stark, the flamboyant, well-meaning, but ultimately corrupted politician in Steve Zaillian’s All the King’s Men.

Set in the late 1920s and early ’30s, All the King’s Men tells the story of Willie Stark, a country hick who rails against the corruption of the Standard Oil Company and the Louisiana aristocracy and, in a fiery grassroots campaign, galvanizes the poor and disenfranchised into electing him governor of Louisiana. Once in power, and true to his word, he builds schools, universities, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure -- all at the expense of Standard Oil and their supporters. But in getting things done, Stark uses the same immoral and illegal tactics his predecessors had used to maintain the status quo, and eventually becomes the target of an impeachment process by his own government.

Writer-director Zaillian’s script is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Robert Penn Warren, who based his flawed hero on the colorful Louisiana politician Huey Long, who rose from poverty to become governor, and eventually a US senator, before being assassinated on the steps of the Louisiana Legislature in 1935. Like the fictional Stark, Long had taken on Standard Oil, had built hospitals and schools, thousands of miles of roads, etc., before being subjected to a failed impeachment by his opponents. But Zaillian’s script does not take us on Stark’s journey from honesty to corruption, or even attempt to explain Stark’s slide. Rather, it focuses on the effects of Stark’s corruption on his close supporters, and it is Stark’s betrayal of them that leads to his inevitable downfall.

All the King’s Men is narrated by Jack Burden (Jude Law), a journalist who was smitten with Stark’s naïveté and honesty in their first encounters. Burden joins the now-corrupt politician several years later, becomes Stark’s closest confidant, and is then willingly used by him to help thwart Stark’s impeachment. Sadie Burke (Patricia Clarkson), one of Stark’s advisors and also one of his lovers, ultimately becomes another of his victims, as does Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), a childhood sweetheart of Burden’s who becomes another of Stark’s bedroom conquests.

I have only a few gripes with the film. I was more interested in the cause of Willie Stark’s slide than in the ultimate result: How did he go from being "honest" Stark to "the-ends-justify-the-means" Stark? I was also bothered by Burden’s pseudo-philosophical narration, which fails to add any clarity to the story. Whenever Burden gave some silly explanation of his own thoughts and actions, I began to tune out.

But All the King’s Men is a fine film, and the role of Willie Stark is a tour de force for Penn -- as it was 57 years ago for Broderick Crawford, who won an Academy Award for his performance in Robert Rossen’s film version (1949). Like Zaillian, Rossen wrote his own script and based it on Warren’s novel. In addition to Broderick’s Best Actor Oscar, Rossen’s film also won Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (for Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke).

It would be enjoyable to see both films back to back.

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