Absolute power

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Movie
German title Absolute power
Original title Absolute power
Absolute power 1997.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Clint Eastwood
script William Goldman
production Clint Eastwood,
Karen S. Spiegel
music Lennie Niehaus
camera Jack N. Green
cut Joel Cox
occupation

Absolute Power is an American movie from 1997 . In addition to directing and producing the film, Clint Eastwood played the burglar Luther, who witnessed his final coup as the Secret Service murdered President Allen Richmond's mistress, played by Gene Hackman . Now we have to make sure that Luther cannot talk about it. The screenplay was written by William Goldman based on a novel by David Baldacci .

action

Aging thief Luther Whitney breaks into billionaire Walter Sullivan's home and clears a secret chamber off the bedroom. Unexpectedly, Christine, Sullivan's wife, enters the house and the bedroom with a man. Both are pretty drunk. Whitney can hide in the chamber the whole time and has to watch the initial love play of the two through a Venetian mirror .

The love game turns serious when the man hits the woman and then tries to have sadistic sex with her. In a duel, however, the woman can gain the upper hand and now threatens the man with a letter opener . When he starts yelling for help, two more men storm in and shoot the woman. Another woman, apparently the boss of the two shooters, appears in the bedroom. The three spend the night cleaning up the crime scene. In doing so, however, they forget the most important evidence: the blood-smeared letter opener.

After the perpetrators have left the bedroom, Whitney comes out of the secret chamber and takes the letter opener. The group is about to leave the property when they notice the loss of the murder weapon and Whitney's presence in the bedroom. The two gunmen pursue Whitney through the forest, but he escapes.

The following turns out that the billionaire's wife's lover is the President of the United States , Allen Richmond. The two gunmen, Bill Burton and Tim Collin, are Secret Service agents , the wife is Gloria Russell, the White House Chief of Staff . Richmond is also a close personal friend of Sullivan's. The murder is officially declared a criminal act, and Richmond promises at a public press conference that it will do everything possible to clear the case. Whitney overheard this transmission as he was about to leave the country in disguise and with false passports. Enraged by the president's hypocrisy, he decides to stay and heat up the president and his accomplices.

The Secret Service is working on the hunt for Whitney. Police detective Seth Frank leads the investigation on the civilian side and soon gets on the trail of Luther Whitney, but soon has doubts that he is guilty of the murder - especially since the traces left at the scene are extremely contradictory and do not fit Whitney's modus operandi . Frank contacts Kate, Whitney's daughter and district attorney, who was estranged from her father even before her mother died, although he still worries deeply about her. He finally manages to get Kate to work together, and she contacts Luther and arranges a meeting with him in a café. But the Secret Service listens, and Collin is put on him with a sniper rifle . In addition, Sullivan has hired his own killer to avenge the death of his beloved wife. The double attack fails, however, and Whitney escapes disguised as a police officer. But he returns to his daughter and tells her the whole truth about the case. Whitney also gains another silent ally in Frank, who has fallen in love with Kate.

Finally, Richmond decides to get rid of Whitney's daughter, whom he fears as a lawyer and confidante, in addition to Whitney. She is crashed down a cliff with her car. Kate survived this murder seriously injured. When she is in the hospital, Collin, disguised as a doctor, tries to give her a lethal injection, but Luther guards her and in turn injects him with a lethal drug. Burton, who has been plagued by remorse since the murder of Christine and now especially after the attack on Kate, kills himself. Gloria Russell is arrested with the testimony he left on tape as evidence.

Whitney, who returned the stolen goods, confronts Sullivan with the truth and gives him the letter opener as evidence. Sullivan is so bitter that he immediately goes to the White House with the letter opener. He is admitted as a confidante of the president without control. Shortly afterwards, the media reported that the president had committed suicide. Detective Frank visits Kate at the bedside and leaves the room after Whitney walks in. At the end of the film, shortly after Frank's visit, Kate wakes up from her half-sleep and asks Whitney if Frank has visited her. Whitney suggests taking him out to dinner.

Reviews

"The colportage story speculates with vague similarities to well-known Washington events and secures the attention of the audience through carefree sensational exaggeration. In the cool production, which is more interested in people than in action, the nasty story reveals more about the state of American society than one should initially assume. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The way Eastwood and his team [...] manage the entire first half of the film narrative is unparalleled in today's entertainment cinema: how spatial and temporal development merge, measured step, but agile; how secondary characters are brought into play as actors beyond their pure functionality, equipped with motifs, doubts, damage in just a few strokes; how, in the middle of the film, a showdown in an open space, brilliantly assembled from five different perspectives, turns into an interior view of paranoia and betrayal - all these are practical examples of an ethics of form that has become rare in genre cinema. As an actor, too, in course and language, Eastwood is becoming increasingly similar to Henry Fonda . [...] As if he lacked the desire and the courage to spend that third hour that would be necessary to find an end on the same level, the film gathers the whole plot together with a few lame poses and narrative short circuits. "

- The Time (May 30, 1997)

Awards

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW awarded the film the title “particularly valuable”.

Judy Davis was honored for her role in the film prize Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Absolute power. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Horwath, Alexander: Kino: "Absolute Power" by and with Clint Eastwood , in: Die Zeit (May 30, 1997), accessed on May 14, 2011
  3. ↑ Absolute Power , in: fbw-filmbeval.com, accessed June 30, 2019