A Disappointing Continuation

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

When Stephen Dorff's character of PK sees the African child reading from the U.S. Declaration of Independence about that all men are created equal, he knew he'd started something. Literacy is always the key to freedom and accessibility to read everything is the second step. The southerners in the slave holding part of the USA knew that well. It was a crime back in the day to teach a black slave to read. In our own country Frederick Douglass knew that well and he counted his education as a first step for freedom for his people.What I liked about The Power of One is that it goes into the history of the Union of South Africa as seen not from a historian, but from the point of view of a growing boy who was of English parentage. The young man who grew up to be Stephen Dorff because he's orphaned as a child has to go to a school for Afrikaans children. Their resentment of English encroachment and victory in the Boer War runs deep. Their ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church preach a brand of Christianity that can now only be found in the USA among white supremacist fringe groups. It wasn't so long ago it was more in the mainstream here, let alone in South Africa.Dorff identifies with the blacks because he's an oppressed minority as well. The film takes us through the late twenties. thirties, and forties in South African history. The year 1948 is a critical one as shown here. The coalition building of Jan Christian Smuts came to an end as his South African Party was voted out of office and the white supremacist Nationalist Party of Daniel Malan was voted in. What was informal before became established law at that point. Of course even then a lot of people of good will in all races living there opposed that policy. It remained in affect until Nelson Mandela was elected president.Young people are shown as the engineers of change in South Africa. Dorff, his friend Dominic Walker, his African boxing rival Alois Moyo and even Fay Masterson whose father is high up in the Nationalist Party are the opponents. All of them give fine performances.The two most well known names in the cast are Sir John Gielgud as Dorff's English headmaster and Morgan Freeman the African who teaches him to box. The first half of the film is a flashback as Dorff's is reciting an autobiographical essay for class which we don't realize until the classroom is shown. He learned to box to combat the unceasing bullying he took from the Afrikaans kids. Freeman gives a wonderful performance and the coda to it was supplied by Dorff when he says that the Afrikaans policeman who beat Freeman to death was later found strung up in an isolated area. One of the kids who bullies Dorff grows up to be Daniel Craig who also becomes a policeman who now have powers greater than they had before. Their confrontation in the end is something to see. As a kid Craig idolized Hitler and as an adult we see how he put those ideas into practice. It's a truly malevolent portrayal of hate, you could tell Mr. Craig had a good career ahead of him.As did Stephen Dorff. He's got a great ear for dialect, right in the tradition of Robert Mitchum. Hard to believe he's an American.For a great picture of South Africa turning a dark corner in its history, I highly recommend The Power of One.

The story has been changed a lot (apparently) from the book. Since the film was made as a reaction (I assume) to pre-1994 South Africa ("Old South Africa") viewing it today, it seems dated, with a strong anti-South African flavour and magnified violence that seem overdone at times.The exact setting of P.K.'s family's farm and his first boarding school is unclear, and it can be quite confusing to put the rest of the story together.The film portrays Afrikaans people as the villains (played by new "James Bond", Daniel Craig and other Brits), and English speaking white people as the heroes (played by Americans and British actors). Black South Africans fill out the rest of the cast.It is evident that the filmmakers had their own idea (and that includes the dialect coach) about what South Africans are really like (or what they sound like!), with historical and geographical accuracy not big on their agenda.A particularly laughable scene was where P.K. (who lives in Johannesburg) goes back to the bush to think, and one sees a montage of Steven Dorff walking near the Victoria Falls (which is on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia 1317km north of Johannesburg) and appears in his principle's office the next day, ready with an answer!Further, the characters seems unclear as to what the township's (Alexandra) name is they are talking about, some referring to it as "Alexander".At least Morgan Freeman's African accent seems correct!

I think the movie is wonderfully presented and tells the story of one man raised in a hateful world first at his expense then at the expense of others. Through the story he overcomes triumph of his his own and others to become the man that he his. The personnel tragedy he endears and to have him overcome them is what i like to see in this kind of inspirational film. I have not read the book but the comments have made me want to. I seen the movie when it first came out and have thought about the message since then. To have a movie that explains the racial differences and social differences in this day and age is remarkable. I give this movie a nine for the message it delivers alone.

I expected a lot from this film but it just did not live up to my expectations. I remember Morgan Freeman once said that he was disappointed with the final cut. He was expecting much more because the screenplay/script was very strong. N one here gets the blame except for the director. He has a classic script in his hand but he goofed up. The movie gets tiring and boring at many stages. One wishes that there were more screen time for Freeman who shows that the lenght of the role does not matter. He had a terrific role and put in an nomination worthy performance. Gil Piet was my favorite character in this film so it was hard for me to see him exit the movie so far. I just wished that the director could have focused more on PK's childhood, because when the movie covers his adult years it slows down. Overall, it has some powerful scenes with good performances. But if there was a better director on board the movie would have turned out to be a classic.