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The Power of One

1992

John G. Avildsen

Stephen Dorff, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Morgan Freeman, John Gielgud ...

6.9

1,248

Adventure. Drama PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family’s political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him – and finds that one person really can make a difference.

	Author	Review
United States	Variety Staff Variety	"On the one hand a captivating and inspiring tale of a boy's journey to courage amid searing injustice"	POS
United Kingdom	Angie Errigo Empire	"Crude, patronising and mawkish, but rescued by excellent performances, beautiful landscape photography, and hard-to-argue-with themes of natural justice, delivered with a punch"	NEU
United States	Edward Guthmann SFGATE	"An earnest, ponderous epic that tries desperately to say Something Important about disenfranchised blacks and their Afrikaans oppressors, but never does."	NEG
United States	Rene Rodriguez Miami Herald	"It would have taken another director and a better script to make this movie into the serious, full-blooded epic it wants to be. But 'Power of One' succeeds in entertaining and getting audiences to think about the tragedy of apartheid"	POS
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"The film's facile treatment of racial issues may be enough to bring back the practice of throwing tomatoes at the screen"	NEG
United States	Henry Sheehan The Hollywood Reporter	"Despite promising opening sequences and some above-average performances from a trio of young actors, the film's points become more elusive as its technique becomes more blunt"	NEU

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