Fresh and Exciting

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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.

The book was excellent, but the movie has distorted the theme greatly. The book is more about Peekay over coming his trials. Not a political agenda for apartheid. through-out the book you can feel the injustice, but again that is not the theme. Somebody has an ax to grind and they have destroyed a great book in the process. There were many issues of human suffering and heartache, from many different sources. They came from religious fanaticism, male dominance, government interventions and and multiracial and multicultural issue from the empire building enterprises of many nations of that time period. There were many very important parts of the book eliminated from the movie altogether that make the story much more engaging and important to the character development of Peekay and his supporters. Do yourself a favor and read the book and appreciate what a great story it really is.

This movie was one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen! My teacher had us watch it in 5th grade, and ever since then I have owned the movie and recommend it to everyone. And I still cry. It is a moving story about a boy with no one left to care for him except Doc, a German pianist who is put in jail for not registering with the South African government. P.K learns how to box from the prisoners in the jail and turns to boxing in a society that doesn't accept him. Throughout the movie P.K learns lessons about life in South Africa and loses many things. It is a great representation of the culture of the time. The cinematography was well done and make the movie even more Amazing! I would recommend this movie to anyone. It will make you cry and move you beyond words. It will change your view of WWII in Africa and Apartheid.

I think this movie should be mandatory viewing in schools. This has got to be one of the most powerful and uplifting movies ever made. It does't beat around the bush about what's wrong in these places and shows that we can make a difference. I don't like watching movies very much, but once in a while one will come out that just blows me away and this is one of them. The actors do a spectacular job and it draws you into the movie. I have seen The Power of One several times due to me wanting others to see it. This is a great family movie as well and any child can be touched by it's meaning. This is highly recommended by me and all my friends and family who I have forced to watch it.