Word: burdening
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...Southern conservative, celebrating the agrarian traditions of the region, but found himself fascinated by the vulgar, driving (and possibly transformative) energy of Huey Long, Louisiana's legendary Governor--Senator-- presidential candidate, who was the model for his book's Willie Stark. Novel and film are narrated by Jack Burden (Jude Law), scion of the now enervated Louisiana ruling class, who, as a newspaper reporter and then as a gubernatorial lackey, is both the author's surrogate and the audience's--a man who wants to be an ironic observer of events but irresistibly becomes the instrument for destroying his surrogate...
...film, as in Warren's novel, Burden is Stark's equal, and the restoration of that balance is important to the movie's success. Commentators on Warren's work often say that it's a study in how power corrupts, and that Willie is essentially a good man ruined by dictatorial depravity. Sean Penn strikes that note, playing him with a kind of bantam-rooster energy--and good-ole-boy charm. But something else is present, thanks in part to Zaillian's alertness to Warren's nuances. Willie has what Huey Long surely did not: a primitive sense of original...
...much more than a conventional ambition, a presidential dream. Lots of men entertain that fantasy. What drives him is an unacknowledged anarchy of the soul. There is no reason why Willie must possess aristocratic Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), daughter of the state's last great Governor and the woman Burden has impotently loved his entire life. It is just that she is there--blond, vulnerable and an all-too-symbolic representative of the class he can never join but has to screw any way that...
...Kiko, then 39, who conceived her miracle boy out of pure imperial duty, according to some of her fans. "The Emperor had been worried and depressed that the crown princess had no more children," says Nishiyama. So Kiko and Akishino "decided to have another child to lift the burden from the Emperor's shoulders." Whether or not that's true, Kiko has become the darling of the Japanese media and Establishment for being everything Masako is not. "Princess Kiko was courageous to give birth to a third child in a society of low birthrate," said House of Councilors president Chikage...
...conservative fake- news venture to compete with scads of liberal fake-news ventures. It appears to have imported a magic joke-writing John Birch robot from 1950 to produce most of the copy. Sample horoscope: "Beware of experiencing too much prosperity and wealth; it may result in more burden and commitment to Uncle Sam." Perhaps it's easier to skewer the Federal Government if you actually believe it should exist...