Kingfish: La vie de Huey P. Long

John Goodman played a good mean guy, but Huey wasn't a mean guy.

In this movie the main character claims to be Huey, displaying a bad temper and hitting people, hardly an accurate portrayal of the real "Kingfish." Everyone loved Huey, except for a few greedy elitists. Huey opposed the unjust status que, where 85% of the wealth was owned by 5% of the population. They owned the Papers, oil wells and plantations. He was a valiant public servant working hard for the; oppressed, uneducated and poor of Louisiana. These people loved Huey. Consequently, he won the governorship with over 93% of the popular vote. He gave them reason to believe in good government.

Paul Monash wrote an interesting book but not an accurate book. Taking historical liberties to sell a movie, is wrong. But, to taint a fallen hero's character, while doing it is an insult.

John Goodman is best remembered for being Roseanne's husband on tv, as far as I'm concerned, he deserves a purple heart for just putting up with her! However, he is a fine dramatic actor as well and have repeatedly proven it in films like Sea Of Love and The Babe. He is a larger then life screen prescence who dominates every film that he is in, even when he played Fred Flintstone! He takes on a real life "Larger then life" character in playing Huey Long, the infamous Louisiana "Kingfish". People have forgotten Long's assassination in 1935 rocked the country like the JFK, RFK and MLK deaths three decades later. Long was really nothing but a bombastic dictator who turned the state of Louisiana into his own private political machine. You shudder when you think what would have happened if he had been elected President. Goodman shows Long's bombast and bluster, but also his great charm that appealed to the Louisiana voters. History tells us that Long was killed one night in 1935 at the Louisiana State Capitol by a young doctor named Wiess. However, ballistic and modern forensic examination seems to rule this out. Weiss had gone there to speak with Long because he was gerrymandering his Judge father in law's district and wanted to stop him from doing it. What happened is that they got into a shoving matfch and Weiss hit Long in the mouth. His bodyguards went beserk and shot Weiss over sixty times. One of the stray bullets hit Long and killed him. Its inronic and perhaps poetic justice that this dictator's death should have been at the hands of his brutal bodyguards.

I went looking for movies about the charismatic and controversial U. S. Depression era politician Huey B Long after hearing a song "Kingfish", being Long's adopted nickname, by Randy Newman on his "Good Old Boys" album. I then realised that I had already seen two fictionalised accounts of his life in the remarkable films, "A Lion Is In The Streets" starring James Cagney and "All The King's Men" starring Broderick Crawford, but outside of a Ken Burns-directed documentary which I will try to track down, this 1995 TV movie was the only depiction focusing on the real-life Long.

Playing a larger-than-life character of course needs a larger-than-life actor, so send for John Goodman, who is unleashed for an over-the-top performance as he bulldozes his way through the ironically-named Long's short life, which was truncated by an assassin's bullet at the height of his powers in 1935.

Naturally, a 100 minutes movie can only give a flavour of this man's turbulent life and times. I took a little time to fact-check some of the events in the film at least to his Wiki biography and certainly recognised a number of them, including his typically bravura answer "I am the constitution" when someone dared question the legality of his actions as Louisiana state governor, even as I recognised the usual dramatic licence taken with some or other of them.

America was in crisis at the time of the Great Depression when Long came to power as nationally FDR swept Hoover out of the presidency and commenced his New Deal legislature but Long's policies were even more left-leaning. He launched his "Share the Wealth" tax-the-rich idea to much popular acclaim, for which he even wrote a song "Every Man A King", a version of which you will also find on Newman's album. He would undoubtedly have been a factor in the 1936 presidential election, probably as a third party spoiler candidate, but behind the scenes his strong-arm, dictatorial political machine was attracting scrutiny and ultimately making him enemies. Of course, as we have since seen in recent times, other right, as opposed to left-wing populist demagogues are available, giving this film, a topical as well as historical relevance, when viewed today.

I enjoyed this breakneck tour through Long's career even as I suspect some short-cuts were taken with the truth for dramatic effect. Goodman didn't perhaps really convince me that I wasn't simply watching John Goodman-in-overdrive rather than an identifiable portrayal of Long himself, in fact putting him closer to the exaggerated performances of Cagney and Crawford before him. The late Anne Heche does her best to reel him in as his secretary / lover, while production values were as good as could be expected for a TV movie.

Personally, I think that this man merits a History Channel 10 or 12 episodes dramatisation of his life, but for those like me fascinated by this era and intrigued by Long's remarkable rise to power, this is a good place to start.

In current times that have a populist tone to them, the likes of which we've not seen since the Depression Thirties, a film about Huey P Long is good thing to view. It would be instructive to read and learn about Long and what he did in Louisiana it could happen again. For reading I recommend T. Harry Williams Pulitizer Prize winning biography of Long which I'm sure was the basis for a lot of this film, credited or not.

Long organized a political machine second to none in this country's history. The state of Louisiana was a personal fiefdom that he ruled over like a medieval duke. Opposition wasn't eliminated, it never was, but it was sure put in its place. One thing the film does not make clear was that while Long was Governor of Louisiana and had about a year or so for his term to run out he was elected to the US Senate for a term that would have begun March 4, 1931. But he and his Lieutenant Governor broke politically so rather than see this guy who was named James Noe take office, he simply never took the oath of office for US Senator. For a year he held both offices and Louisiana had for all intents and purposes one US Senator. Can you imagine the people of Louisiana putting up with that? I do so wish that was explored in the film.

But he built and modernized the state in many ways. He took on big oil and that would sure make him popular today. But as he said during the film 'he was the Constitution of the State of Louisiana'. Legal niceties weren't for Huey P. Long.

John Goodman does a fabulous job as Long who also took a lot of other liberties, personal ones. His doormat of a wife Ann Dowd played Rose McConnell Long who got a temporary appointment to fill Huey's seat after his demise. Their son Russell was elected to the US Senate in 1948 and served many decades. They are the only husband, wife, and child trio to serve in the US Senate.

Anne Heche's character is real, but her name is changed. It was really a woman named Alice Grossjean. Heche does well by the part. I imagine Alice's family would not given any consent to her real name being used.

Some really nice sets and period music capture the times of Huey Long. The life is in the capable hands of John Goodman and he delivers magnificently.

John goodman has proven his acting ability with this movie. It should be considered the height of his career. It is extremely doubtful that any actor could have played Huey P. Long with such conviction and believability as John Goodman. Combined with a lovely performance by anne heche, the movie is an acting coup. A must-see for lovers of historical films.