Sean Penn
© AFP/Getty Images Evan Agostini

TORONTO (AFP) - The film, adapted from Robert Penn Warren's 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel once described by former US Democratic Party strategist and political pundit James Carville, who produced the film, as a "manual for American politics," charts the rise of larger-than-life politician Willie Stark, played by Penn.

The movie also stars Jude Law as Stark's tortured sidekick, Kate Winslet, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo and James Gandolfini.

The book is loosely based on Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, who was shot at the State Capital in Baton Rouge in 1935 after introducing radical populist policies such as income redistribution to curb poverty and crime during The Great Depression.

Stark's rise begins after corruption allegations stick to his opponents following the collapse of a school due to shoddy construction, killing three students. It provoked memories of government mismanagement accusations after levies broke during Katrina in 2005, flooding New Orleans.

Patricia Clarkson
© AFP/Getty Images Evan Agostini

Stark's promises to build roads, schools and hospitals for poor "hicks" with money from the rich had audiences longing for a righteous politician to step forward.

US President George W. Bush faced criticisms he failed to help Louisiana's mostly poor, black population recover from the storm. The cast of the movie were no less critical.

Mark Ruffalo, who plays idealist Adam Stanton in the film, described the Katrina response as a "huge negligence." "It's one of the great things we should be ashamed of as a country," he said.

Director Steve Zaillian observed that if anyone echoed Huey Long or Willy Stark, or "said what they thought and actually believed in something, we'd recognize it" and people would vote for them.

But, "nobody is really doing that today," he lamented.

Penn, who took his inspiration for the role from evangelical orators, added: "One can make the argument that George Bush is a good politician. I think the issue is how you define politician."

"Once upon a time, politics was the organization of things to benefit the people. I think the opposite is largely true, the way we define politicians today. That's unfortunate. We ought to recover the prior definition."

Jude Law
© AFP/Getty Images Evan Agostini

"The word actor today almost universally means contest winner. That's the level of politician he (Bush) is good at."

The film, shot in New Orleans prior to the storm, will be shown there next week. For Clarkson (Stark's assistant Sadie Burke), the homecoming will be "bitter sweet."

The film "touches on so many aspects that are topical," she said. "It does mirror many things that are happening today ... There are many parallels for me with this story."

The city was "so alive" during filming, she said, but now her family is still recovering a year after the storm. "We have learned that while the government rebuilds the levies, they must rebuild themselves too because both failed miserably."

James Gandolfini (thug Tiny Duffy) went further, saying: "You get used to a certain power and a certain lust for it and I think it's hard to give it up and I think it corrupts in that way and I think we've seen (a lot of it lately)."

He referred to a speech by Stark about corporations raping the state of its oil resources while the poorest struggle as "relevant" now.

Some critics said the film was maybe too dark, with lots of despair and seemingly no hope of redemption. Stark starts as a populist leader who wants to do good, but eventually becomes a demagogue. Other idealist Adam Stanton dies.

But, Zaillian insisted: "It shows the good and the bad in these people and the good part of them is not something that gets totally destroyed."

"Someone just needs to kick the window open," says a judge played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the film.

Penn added: "The hope doesn't live and die with the characters on the screen ... If you share in that idealism, by the time you're done with the movie, then the hope lies in the audience."

"It's a tragedy ... but it also offers the possibility of change as idealism in the beginning of the movie did ... Politics leave it to us to change things."

And if not, Carville quipped: "We have had some crooked politicians in my home state but at least they had the good grace to entertain us."

©AFP