Governor Willie Stark was very popular because of his integrity and closeness to the people. He started his career at the bottom, denouncing the stupidity and venality of officials before the people. He was an honest working man, serving the ideals of justice, until at some point politics soiled him and reshaped him in his own way. A compromise with his conscience, a small bribe – and there was no trace of the former idealist. Power, copper pipes – the test that no man can pass. After a while, the most decent person who comes to power will lose himself. The temptations are enormous, and man is weak.
The film is an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The prototype of the main character is the real-life Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long.