The Power of One (1992)

An Exercise In Nonsense

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

One movie I remember watching was called The Power of One. It was a 1992 film that was based on the novel of the same name by Bryce Courtney. I remember in high school how I had to read that book as a part of the curriculum. The book concerned a young boy named PK (Peekay). PK was a young English-speaking South African boy who was sent to this boarding school after his mother had a nervous breakdown. To say that the experience was bad is an understatement. he gets confronted by a ruthless bully named Jaapie Botha, an Afrikaner who despises people of English descent due to some past war. As you would've guessed, he treats PK like trash throughout his stay at the school, even to the point of killing his pet chicken. Eventually, PK becomes interested with becoming the top heavyweight boxer in the world. We follow the story from his humble beginnings as we watch him inch his way up. For the book as much as I don't like some of the books I am made to read as part of the criteria, I did find myself liking the book. However, I remember my teacher saying to stay away from the film adaptation as it was nothing like the book. And she was right. While the movie was by no means bad, I felt that it missed the point of the book by making it into some generic la resistance movie. A major recurring element in the film adaptation is the Apartheid, which was kind of like how segregation was like over in the US but slightly worse. While the Apartheid was mentioned in the novel, it didn't play as much of a crucial role as PK wanting to become the top heavyweight champion was his continual goal. In fact, in the movie, he hardly brought up being a heavyweight champion as his primary goal. Instead, it gets pushed to the side so PK could try to take down the rulers of the Apartheid regime. With Jaapie Botha, his role slightly changes as well. In the film, he is still deeply prejudiced against PK because of his English descent and kills his pet chicken, but here, he actually gets kicked out of school rather than finishing it like in the book. In the film, he becomes a sergeant for the villainous Colonel Breyton, so that actually makes Jaapie a little more intimidating than his book counterpart who doesn't as much as get that kind of high position. As for changes, while I do understand that some changes and revisions must be made when adapting a novel into a film, here, I ultimately found myself loathing the changes. From the more stupid, I personally hated the fact that they decided to rename PK's pet chicken to Mother Courage. Just why? Why was this necessary? As I said making the film into a typical fight the power flick is doing the book some real disservice, and then you have the cliched romantic relationship that PK had, which doesn't even last long as she gets killed during an attack by Jaapie and his men. The worst change that I utterly despised, however, was PK's relationship with Doc. In the book, Doc was kind of like a father figure to PK as he mentored him. Really, Doc contributed a lot to making PK the man he was now. In the book, he gets arrested because of being an illegal immigrant, and it was traumatizing for poor PK; he even got his lower jaw broken as he tried to stop them from taking Doc. Eventually Doc returned and continued to teach PK before he died. In the film, however, he never came back. To me, it came off as just insulting. It really angered me because they made it seem like PK's relationship with Doc was nonessential to the whole story when that clearly wasn't the case. Aside from other differences between works, I didn't find them as problematic as this one. Overall, not a bad film, but it is a poor adaptation that relies on a cliche action plot, has poorly developed characters, and is overall the Power of One in anything but name.

From what I have seen on comments, people either loved the book and hated the movie or loved them both. Well, I have never read the book and do not intend to read it, especially after reading other comments about the differences between the two.Personally, I would prefer not to read a story about yet another whiteman-sob story about how much whitefolk struggle on their own and the power he has to fulfill his dreams (at least that's how one reviewer made the book sound). I like the Hollywood adaptation that makes it about how one person can affect others and how their will surpasses themselves.Plus, Morgan Freeman rocks it out as Geel Pete.

This movie is controversial as can be deducted from the diverse comments upon it. It is my opinion though that those who commented negatively on this movie have failed to see it in the historical perspective it was meant to show. The 30's and 40's of the previous era are well known for the oppression people all over the world suffered. This movie shows that standing up against that oppression may not seem to work at first, but it will have an effect ... however small. And that effect, that ripple in the pond, will find its way outward. This movie, more than any other I have ever seen, shows that discrimination on skin color is wrong, now matter when ... no matter what.That is the message this movie gives to me and that is the message it should convey. The characters are played convincingly and each has a power of his own. If you just try and see this movie in its historical perspective, you'll see it for the jewel it is.

The movie encapsulates the suffering in of the tribes of South Africa without hiding the truth. If not for the fictional part of the story I would suggest it as a documentary. Very emotional and to the point movie and subject. Excellent ploy and play. The movie is showing the sufferings of the African tribes. The viciousness of the Afrikaners and their NAZI counterparts. The sadistic behavior of an elitist society. The indifference of the rich to the poor people's suffering. The ideologists that go the extra mile to help out the Africans jeopardizing their own lives and community status. We watched the movie at home with my kid and it touched our souls from age 11 to 50. I suggest it as a must watch movie for all.