The curse of Jude Law

I agree, Jude Law is OK. But please don't try to prove it to me by bringing up Holiday. It was so excruciatingly awful, I really can't remember when I've been so nauseated. The writer/director have done some sublime things before, it almost seems as if they were put in a locked room and told that they would be let out only on reciept of a script or they couldn't have any dinner. Thats how slap-dash it seems. Jude Law doesn't do the crumpled down-in-the=dumps type very well. Gattaca was more his league.

hear hear. i agree with u

"Every man dies...not every man really lives." William Wallace-Braveheart (Mel Gibson)

sherylheartjude wrote:
"There were several things wrong with this movie, one of them being Sean Penn and the Willie Stark character being the most dominant force in the story. I'm told that in the book, it was not so....I think Law's character seemed too unaffected by everything that was happening around him...which could be the directors fault."

Sheryl, In Robert Penn Warren's book, Jack Burden was the main character.
The story was symbolic. Jack kept chasing Anne (way before Willie).The key scene was where Anne finally gave in, & Jack chickened out. He didn't care enough
to risk either his sexual reputation or his moral reputation by openly taking her
(her family unexpectedly arrived & almost trapped them). Jack should have taken Anne and fought for her, Warren implies. When he wimped out, Anne became fair game
for Willie. Jack became totally passive & apathetic, a stooge for Willie. Until
the end, when he finally got some guts--and on the final page, Jack, who has
dictated the story, reveals he went after & married Anne after Adam killed Willie.
That's a pretty touching ending.

The symbolism: Jack's indecision about Anne, Willie, etc symbolizes the Intelligentsia's indecision about Huey Long. Instead of supporting either
Huey, the Rich (Standard Oil, etc.), or neither, the educated middle class
should have put forward its own brand of Honest Progressive, like Hodding Carter
in next-door Mississippi, Warren implies. When they failed to do so, Huey
seduced and ravished the poor class of voters, the way Willie seduced & ravished
Anne.

Of course, none of that made it into the remade movie. The better 1st movie
hinted at it, but not nearly as clearly as the book.

PS
Dr. Carl Weiss (whose father's middle name was Adam!) was a friend of my father.
My uncle dated Russell Long ("Tom"). Dr. Weiss (Adam Stanton) probably just
punched Huey in the mouth. The guards ran up & shot Huey by accident. Hence,
Huey wasn't really assassinated. The guards were sequestered and a "story"
was cooked up for them. Weiss was shot scores of times.

None of the Warren symbolic story about Jack (Chick Frampton) and Anne
(Yvonne Pavy Weiss) is historical. Huey publicly accused the Pavy's (and hence
Dr. Weiss' wife & baby) of having African-American blood as a political trick.
Hence the punch in the mouth. Dr. Weiss was a devout Catholic and as sane
as they come--he was no assassin.

" I think Law's character seemed too unaffected by everything that was happening around him...which could be the directors fault."

blame the author. that is how he is written. the character is hamlet. paralyzed by the corruption he sees but cannot rouse himself to counter, attracted to the concept of reform but repelled by the demagoguery, repelled/attracted to willie as a social inferior but more vital person, raised as an effete as he is, afraid to declare his love, lied to about his parentage. he is a thoroughly tragic figure.

what a great epic tale warren gave us with "all the kings men" - it hits a lot of targets.

in a world where everyone has an opinion on everything, you get a lot of bad opinions - me