Power

Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriters: David Himmelstein

Institute History

  • 1986 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Power is a complex and absorbing film, a drama of bock-room politics and the “men who make the man.” In an unusual role, Richard Gere plays a high-powered media consultant, simultaneously involved with several campaigns, including that of a New York millionaire (Fritz Weaver) running for the governorship of New Mexico, a college professor (Mathew Salinger) who has entered a high stake senatorial race, and a shady South American politician out to “improve” his image. Gene Hackman is Gere’s ex-partner, now estranged; and Julie Christie plays a British journalist covering the campaigns and privy to more information than she cares to report.

Sidney Lumet, director of such fine films as Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Prince of the City (1981) and The Verdict (1982), says this of his hew film: “It’s about the mechanization of the whole process. It’s about the influence of the polls, the emphasis on appearance and the loss of humanity in politics.”

Screening Details

Credits

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