I recently watched the film All the Kings Men, which is based on the novel written by Robert Penn Warren. The movie is directed and produced by Robert Rossen. While watching the movie i couldn't help but notice a remarkable amount of connections between All the Kings Men and Citizen Kane. Both movies are about men who say they want the best for the people but actually only look out for themselves.
All the Kings Men is the story of a corrupt politician named Willie Stark. Willie was not always corrupt, he actually wasn't always a politician. In the beginning of the film Willie is a man on a mission. But somewhere along the road he became as corrupt as the people he was fighting against. Willie says he wants to help the people. He promises new schools, new roads, new football stadiums, and a brand spanking new, top of the line Hospital. He follows through with all the deals, but the people don't understand why they need all of this. People still ride around in horse drawn carriages. Also people cant understand who Willie gets all of his money. He was never a rich guy but somehow he has all the money in the world to finance a huge camping. The film follows not only Stark but a reporter named Jack Burden. Jack is assigned by his paper to learn about Mr. Willie Stark. Jack meets Willie before he becomes a big shot politician and is with him for the whole ride. Jack is in charge of Willies black book. Willie looks at Jack as a friend and ally but during the course of the film the two grow further and further apart. The corruption of Willie Stark eventually leads to his impeachment and fall as the man of the people.
Citizen Kane I believe is a closely related story to All the Kings Men. Citizen Kane follows the life Charles Foster Kane. Kane is a boy when he gets a mine full of gold dropped on his lap. The money is left to him and only him so his parents decide to give him away to a Mr. Thatcher. Mr. Thatcher molds Charles into a money maker. At the age of twenty five Charles gets control of all of his fortune and decides to have some fun. Kane uses the money to take over a newspaper. The newspaper he takes over becomes the most read one in the state. This makes Kane very happy, but also makes him want more. He starts to buy other newspapers and radio stations making one huge Kane empire. What Kane says, goes into the paper. He makes every headline, every story and talks about all the gossip he wants. Kane figures that since everyone reads his paper that everyone likes him. S0 he decides to run for office. Kane tells his fans that he will work for them. That he will fight for them. His plan starts to work and everyone thinks he is going to win. But all the while Kane has been bad mouthing his opponent. The opponent doesn't like that and decides to let the world know about Kane's extramarital affair. This ruins Kane. He loses his wife, his kid, his best friend and gets stomped at the polls. Kane believes if he makes the women he cheated with into an opera star that will change how people look at him. His attempt doesn't work, people don't like his new opera singing wife. They think she is terrible. This puts a ton of strain on his new marriage. That strain eventually causes his second marriage to end leaving Kane a lonely old man.
All the Kings Men is the story of a corrupt politician named Willie Stark. Willie was not always corrupt, he actually wasn't always a politician. In the beginning of the film Willie is a man on a mission. But somewhere along the road he became as corrupt as the people he was fighting against. Willie says he wants to help the people. He promises new schools, new roads, new football stadiums, and a brand spanking new, top of the line Hospital. He follows through with all the deals, but the people don't understand why they need all of this. People still ride around in horse drawn carriages. Also people cant understand who Willie gets all of his money. He was never a rich guy but somehow he has all the money in the world to finance a huge camping. The film follows not only Stark but a reporter named Jack Burden. Jack is assigned by his paper to learn about Mr. Willie Stark. Jack meets Willie before he becomes a big shot politician and is with him for the whole ride. Jack is in charge of Willies black book. Willie looks at Jack as a friend and ally but during the course of the film the two grow further and further apart. The corruption of Willie Stark eventually leads to his impeachment and fall as the man of the people.
Citizen Kane I believe is a closely related story to All the Kings Men. Citizen Kane follows the life Charles Foster Kane. Kane is a boy when he gets a mine full of gold dropped on his lap. The money is left to him and only him so his parents decide to give him away to a Mr. Thatcher. Mr. Thatcher molds Charles into a money maker. At the age of twenty five Charles gets control of all of his fortune and decides to have some fun. Kane uses the money to take over a newspaper. The newspaper he takes over becomes the most read one in the state. This makes Kane very happy, but also makes him want more. He starts to buy other newspapers and radio stations making one huge Kane empire. What Kane says, goes into the paper. He makes every headline, every story and talks about all the gossip he wants. Kane figures that since everyone reads his paper that everyone likes him. S0 he decides to run for office. Kane tells his fans that he will work for them. That he will fight for them. His plan starts to work and everyone thinks he is going to win. But all the while Kane has been bad mouthing his opponent. The opponent doesn't like that and decides to let the world know about Kane's extramarital affair. This ruins Kane. He loses his wife, his kid, his best friend and gets stomped at the polls. Kane believes if he makes the women he cheated with into an opera star that will change how people look at him. His attempt doesn't work, people don't like his new opera singing wife. They think she is terrible. This puts a ton of strain on his new marriage. That strain eventually causes his second marriage to end leaving Kane a lonely old man.
I think there are a lot of similarities between Charles Foster Kane and Willie Stark. The most notable one i believe is their relationships with the people. Both care a lot about what people think about them. Kane wants people to vote for him so he feels loved. Stark wants people to vote for him because he believes he can help them. Both are so obsessed with pleasing the people that they lose sight of what they wanted in the first place.
In the beginning of All the Kings Men Willie Stark wants nothing more then to help the people. He wants to fight for them, to make their lives better. He does fulfil a lot of his promises and the hicks still love him but he also turns into someone a lot of people hate. The hatred of a few individuals lead to his down fall and his eventually gloomy fate.
In Citizen Kane, all Charles Foster Kane wants is for people to like him. He is willing to do anything to make people like him. In his election he promises a lot of things even if he didn't plan on following through with them. When he loses the election because of the cheating scandal he builds an opera house for his girlfriend so people will love his girl friend and in turn love him.
I think there are a lot of similarities and differences between the characters of Willie Stark and Charles Foster Kane. In the end, both men aren't looked at by the people as the way they wanted to be seen. All of that is because they cared to much about themselves to remember that they were fighting for someone else.
