to stand on their own. There are real classics, and sometimes they can be remade to good effect. It's been done. It probably could have been done again with "All the King's Men", although I'm not so sure anyone but Broderick Crawford, who gave the coda "ten-four!" to the American lexicon in his subsequent 1950's TV series "Highway Patrol" (where he seemed forever out of place, yet it worked somehow), looked enough like Long and seemed to understand him well enough, that the 1949 original was pretty well assured a place in movie Valhalla.One ought not to break that glass unless one has a pretty damned definite notion of how to take the concept a helluva lot higher.

One gets the distinct impression with the Zaillian/Penn effort that they are both trying to convey something but forget what it is, exactly. This is hardly surprising in light of Penn's tendency to overestimate his own significance as a sociopolitical force. Simply throwing a wild man out there to rant and rave does not a Willie Stark/Huie Long make. Not even close. And Penn doesn't even remotely resemble The Kingfish, which is yet another oddity about this movie. Hell, even Paul Newman, in "Blaze", pulled off a better Long, simply because he is such a seasoned and mature actor. He wasn't trying to sell us on wild-eyed idealism in that flick: he was playing the Other Kingfish, the one who had a truly funny, crazy, self-indulgent tilt.

This time around what we seem to be getting is a glimpse of a Feuhrer in the making - or is it a messiah? I doubt anyone can really tell - or much cares.

While one may take issue with the facts concerning the role of the Knights Templar in the later years of the European Crusades against "the infidels", whether they be Muslims in the Holy Land or Cathars in France, one thing is historically illustrated by the death of the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar, in 1314, after having confessed, under torture, to a litany of absurd and horrendous accusations against the order (for the sake of greed on the part of King Philip "The Fair" of France and Pope Clement V), that Jacques DeMolay disavowed his "confession", and made his famous, final speech before being burned to death at the stake:

"It is just that, in so terrible a day, and in the last moments of my life, I should discover all the iniquity of falsehood, and make the truth triumph. I declare, then, in the face of heaven and earth, and acknowledge, though to my eternal shame, that I have committed the greatest crimes but it has been the acknowledging of those which have been so foully charged on the order. I attest - and truth obliges me to attest - that it is innocent! I made the contrary declaration only to suspend the excessive pains of torture, and to mollify those who made me endure them. I know the punishments which have been inflicted on all the knights who had the courage to revoke a similar confession; but the dreadful spectacle which is presented to me is not able to make me confirm one lie by another. The life offered me on such infamous terms I abandon without regret."

If someone of the reputed character, strength and honor such as DeMolay might have given up a confession to false or at least inaccurate charges "...only to suspend the excessive pains of torture, and to mollify those who made me endure them..." then how much more reliable is someone going to be who is either utterly ignorant of the substance of the charges against him or, worse yet, someone who is, in fact, guilty, but willing to lie to make the torture stop or lie about his confession afterward (there was no such likelihood in the case of DeMolay, as to recant a confession automatically carried a death sentence)? In either case due process, a hallmark of the American system of justice, would serve the accusers and the accused most effectively, most efficiently and, more importantly, most morally. How else dare we call ourselves Americans?

a jerk back then. It can't hurt to point out the relative continuity. So George allen learned not to call black people "niggers" in public. I taught my cat to use a litter box too. Amazing growth! He's still what he was. He was drawn to Virginia by what he believed to be true about the Old Dominion, and he's done his best to keep the worst of the legacy alive. This isn't "Swiftboating"; It is merely exposing part of a timeline of fecklessness, stupidity and cowardice wrapped up in a phlegm bag of self. George Allen, trust me, is every bit the racist, the bigot and the idiot he was when he first arrived in Virginia, uninvited, unneeded, and now, hopefully, exposed to the more fully-developed sensibilities of genuine Virginians and genuine Americans.