Couldn't understand it...


I watched about 45 minutes of this and then I had to turn it off because I could barely make out what they were saying. Theres was always background noise and Sean Penn sounded muddy. Anyone agree?

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I agree, I couldn't understand Sean Penn. Didn't do a very good job on the accent. His sentences sounded jumbled. Otherwise, I couldn't even understand the story. Had no idea where it was going. I turned it off. Too bad because I like all those actors and actresses. Hope this dosn't discourage me from watching Sean Penn again.

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I had the same problem so i turned on the closed caption on the t.v.

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I liked the movie better the second time I watched it. But I think that Sean Penn wasn't right for the character he portrayed. Plus, I heard from someone who read the book that his character was not that dominant in it. As someone else said, I love all the actors in this movie, but something didn't gel well. It won't keep me from watching them in the future, though...every movie is it's own entity.

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I could barely hear it as well. I seriously considered turning on the CC, but I find that even more distracting.

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Sean Penn probably worked harder and more authentically than most actors do to master the accent. When you combine an authentic Louisiana or Mississippi accent with technically crappy sound quality, your end up with a lot of garbling and inaudibility. Some accents are just not easily comprehensible to most people who don't have them. I like Monarch of the Glen, but between the heavy (and perfectly authentic) Scot accents, and the poor sound quality, most of the time I am saying to myself "what the hell did he say?". If you're interested in the story of Huey Long/Willy Stark, the TV movie from the late 90s with John Goodman in the title role is probably a lot more succinct and satisfying. Goodman deosn't lay the accent on quite as thickly, and the plotline sticks to the important stuff. In this new movie, the whole subplot of the emotional interaction between the Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Mark Ruffalo characters was simply overdone and unnecessary. We saw Kate reclining naked on a divan in Titanic, we did not really need her reclining naked, for no apparent reason, on a bed in this movie. Why was Jude Law sitting fully dressed off to the side, in the dark? I'm sorry he is apparently impotent but what the hell has that to do with the rise and fall of a Southern populist demagogue? An unfocused, wandering movie but I liked it anyway because of the acting power of the cast and my enjoyment of politics.

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From what I've read from other posters, the book was primarily about the Jack/Anne story, and Willie Stark was a subplot, so I guess that's why there is so much of their story in it. I haven't read the book, but I guess we would have to go to that to find out what the author had to say about why Jack and Anne didn't "do it."

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I have not read the book or saw the 1949 "version story" I thought this was a very good story, but it have the potential to be a classic. From what i got from the movie and from other people, this is Jack's version of the story not Willie's. You cant really compare the two movies cause they are actually different stories or someone else's version of the story. They should have gave it another name but I guess then people wouldn't have realized it was about the same people. I thought Sean gave a great performance one of his bests. In these past few years he has really developed into a well "seasoned actor". I didn't have a hard time understanding his accent either and I'm from NY. Maybe you should have turned up the volume. The biggest problem I had was that I was missing some of what Jude was saying. I kept on concentrating on his accent so much. Every-time, I thought I heard a British word come out, I'd say damn he did it again. I had to watch it again but this was my fault. Jude is one of my favorite actors of all times and I just love his British accent. I think he did do a good job with his southern accent, but, in Cold Mountain was much better. The same goes for Anthony Hopkins also. As far as James Gandolfini even with the southern accent all I could see was Tony Soprano. What I don't understand is why they didn't have more of a romance with Jude & Kate thats the reason cause he was impotent? Im glad I saw this instead of the other stories first. It probably would have done the same for me meaning make me feel the same way.

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I couldn't understand it, either. The accents, story...

It was just annoying and boring.

i wish the ring had never come to me.

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[deleted]

I too thought the sound was terrible. Spent the whole time turning the volume up when they were talking and then turning it down when the booming music and background noise came on. It made it very difficult to follow the story.
To be honest I lost interest in the whole thing and gave up half way through. Shame,as it promised so much with such a good cast...

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I could not understand it either, but I was too lazy to to turn on the subtitles. However, his accent should have been more intelligible, which would have probably made it a less *beep* movie. I lost interest halfway through, because I could not follow what was going on.

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That is the problem with any accent that is TRULY derived from southern Louisiana...you can barely understand what they said without a translator. *grin*
I only know this because I grew up in a household full of Sicilians immigrants. I could barely understand my cousins (from Robert, LA) even when they TRIED to speak English.
I learned English from the start but my family primarily spoke Sicilian as I was growing up. To make matters worse, I had a deaf cousin (raised in Louisiana) and since she was my favorite, I learned American Sign Language so she and I could communicate.
The short message is...um, if you can actually understand someone with a TRUE accent from southern Louisiana, they aren't replicating the accent well. It sounds NOTHING like my other family members that settled in east Texas, Alabama or Galveston, for that matter.
Sean Penn portrayed the accent well...now, hearing him and understanding what he said is another story...*smile*
I know I struggled at times and yet his accent sounded VERY familiar.

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Huey P Long was from northern Louisiana.

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I couldn't agree more. How can you enjoy an actor's performance or follow the thread of a narrative, when you simply can't understand the dialogue. I looked to this message board primarily to see if anyone else had the same problem with soundtrack/interpretation of accent. What good is an authentic accent if it renders a film unintelligible?
Good to hear that others feel the same way. In fact after watching 'All the King's Men', it's good to hear anything!

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You - as well as others who have posted here - really ought to see the 1949 version with Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark. No Louisiana accents here, but Crawford's intensity and staccato delivery sell evey word. Everything is clear, which applies to the story as well as the dialogue. John Ireland as Jack Burden so outclasses the mumbling Jude Law as to place his performance in an altogether different league. Definately worth the rent.

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NO! nobody has read the book..yes in the book jack is the protagonist but he doesn't have his epiphany or change without willie--their stories are essentially one. they both change

this movie is NOTHING like the book.. you guys need to read it

Get with your rhythm, get with your nature

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[deleted]

i wrote a paper on this book.. theres a quote where jack is talking and he's like "to know jack's story is to know willie's story..[and vice versa]...their stories are one" .. that was a huge paraphrase but i promise you it says that in the book

Get with your rhythm, get with your nature

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[deleted]

Here's the thing...
I grew up in the south, my entire family is from the south. My aunts and uncles live on farms, my great-grandmother lives in a town that there is only one traffic light. My entire family and a good deal of my friends have some pretty thick accents. I have no problem understanding them. My husband has a similar family background, also with no trouble understanding the accents. Sean Penn in this movie was unintelligible. He sounded like he had been out all night drinking and was }this{ close to vomiting on himself. Half the time he looked like he was at that point as well. I loathe how actors take these parts, screw them up, and make it appear that everyone that lives in this area of the country is crooked and/or imbecilic. That ruined The Gift for me as well. *sigh*

Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent: Jacqueline, dear, do not speak unless you can improve the silence.

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I didn't get the impression that Jack Burden was impotent. It seemed more to me like a conscious decision that he decided he did not want to have sex with her. They were young and I think he cherished his longtime friendship with her and did not want the relationship they shared to transform into one of a sexual nature. She couldn't understand, though, so she took offense and held a grudge against him.

Does that make sense? Did anyone else interpret it that way?

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[deleted]

[deleted]

I just watched the whole thing with subtitles. I know it's distracting but it works and you catch everything.

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Thank god I'm not the only one who had trouble with this movie, lol! I was ok with the accents and understanding the words. I just couldn't follow the plot. The scenes didn't seem to link together for me. I was totally lost until near the end where I sussed a few things out. Not my fave film ever basically! It just felt it wasn't going anywhere and had no really story to it. Probably the dialoge mainly!

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I totally agree. I struggled to understand what they were saying, but that wasn't the whole problem. I just couldn't follow the story - for instance the muck that Jude Law was supposed to have found on the judge? I mean obviously the letter had something to do with it - but I have no idea what the judge had done wrong, just that it was bad enough for him to kill himself.
It was a dreadful film, sorry to say, because I rate Sean Penn - American acting at its best. Being a brit I did think it weird to have brit actors where there should have been real southerners. Bit of a waste of an evening really; should have watched something else.

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It's a drag when you HAVE TO turn on the subtitles to know what's going on but I do it. To the posters who claimed they couldn't follow the plot, it was probably that they weren't hearing the dialogue or weren't giving it the attention it required. And sometimes people have a problem with the murkiness of a character like Stark (good guy? bad guy? both? in what proportions?).

This is my signature, not the last sentence of my post.

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That's funny I did the same thing you guys did without even coming here. I turned on the subtitles to watch it and just finished. Then came here to see what other's thought of it. I had to stop the DVD and rewind it a few times back a few seconds to get what they were talking about sometimes but I understood it.

Semi-spoilers below. Through maybe not because I don't know if I got them right. Even people who saw the original movie (not this remake) don't know if he started out good or not, and what was setup.

It was about corrupt politics and then also about Jack's relationship with that Woman, past and present.

It seems to have a light twist in it and can get confusing because when you find out about the first setup, you then find out that he knew it was, then it seems like maybe he didn't know as he says "I'll leave it to be a mystery" about when he winked to Jack at the beginning. And also he has the guy who supposedly set him up to be governor (in order to expose the others), Tiny, ends up on his team. The very guy who seemed to sweet talk him into it.

It's confusing because their are a few setups/betrayals that end up possibly being made to look like setups to setup Jack. So thru out the movie I was like, "Ohhhh now I see what he was up to" then again, "Ohhh wait so he knew all along and was setting up this guy" lol.

Either way I think I get the jist. Politics is full of corruption and sometimes to get things done for the people like hospitals and schools made, one may have to use bad corrupt politics against very bad corrupt politicians to beat them at there own game to win these things for the people.

Music Vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzdJdYjWAI

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Wow, I was just reading about Shooter, another movie where people complained of Mark Whalberg's (sp.?) mumblings, and was struggling to remember this particular movie with much worse mumbling, and incoherent speech.

I remember renting this movie and sitting down with my Dad to watch it...about 20 minutes later we just had to turn it off because we could barely understand a single word Sean Penn's character said. It was really bad, like, I think it was a good movie, plot-wise, but we just couldn't watch it!

There's of course an importance in being 'authentic' and having his character use an 'authentic' accent is tantamount to that fact, but if at any time autheniticity interferes with the movie-going experience (i.e. listening to the dialogue), it should be toned down a bit.

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Not only did Penn muddle up the accent he overacted so badly that he looked like a whirling dervish and lost credibility. I certainly wouldn't have voted for such a nut job. but the movie takes place in the deep south farmland, not a
place where the well-educated and the rich constitute most of the inhabitants.
but the Burden family and the former governor's family (Kate's) were educated
and rich. and the contrast of upbringing, values, (honesty in particular)
played a very important part in the story. You wouldn't know it from the film
but this is one of the best America novels ever written. the author is the
only person ever to have won two Pulitzer prizes in one year, one for poetry
and one for literature. It is a mmarvelous read. that said, let's try to
straighten things out. Jack was not impotent (he was young and idealistic but
lazy because life was too easy for the son of a very wealthy family. That
night when they came back to the house together they expected to have sex (sort
of something you do by that age in college and while he was undressing her,
his mother came back with her boyfriend. They hurriedly dressed and the subject
never came up again because their lives went in different directions. BUt the
friendship of their youth had turned into something else important but not
fulfilled. here also was a subplot about Jack being somewhat of an underacheiver
full of promises unfulfilled and Ann being annoyed with him for that. Law was
perfect, he was 'Jack'. Once he was thrown togethr with Willy Jack knew it all,
the good and the bad and their lives and actions being bound together in ways
that brought about the end as we see it with Willy. THe true end to the book
was entirely different for Jack and Anne and I have no idea why Zallian thought
messing with that would do any good. The real ending brought closure and made
sense. But then a lot of the movie doesn't make sense.I enjoy the oerformances but when I watch the DVD I skip most of Sean Penn and some otherparts of the
script Zallian messed up. I don't understand at all because the casting was very
good (except for Penn.) and as for the accents - Penn needed another course in
it and Law added this one to his batch of good Southrn accents. (THe hardest of which was the COLD MOUNTAIN one and the Savannah one he did for Clint Eastwood
in MIDNIGHT in the GARDEN waasn't bad either.Hopkins didn't try and the only
other good one in ALL KINGS MEN was Patricia,who comes fr9om that area. I hope
some of this was a halp. What happened to this movie was very sad and I cannot
really figure out what Zallian wa trying to do at all.

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i did not notice, but i always turn on the subtitle when watching a movie these days for just the reason you mention. a lot of film makers seem to think if they screw up the sound enough people will spend for two tickets to hear everything, then also throwing in confusing things, like in "there will be blood" having the two brothers being the same person ... it is all about money ... and it is corrupt ... just like this movie depicts.

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Absolutely ! Very frustrating and ruined the entire film. I managed to watch half, take a break and finish the next day - that helped a little.

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