MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Power of One’ Looks at Apartheid

“The Power of One” is a serenely unworried film, untroubled by distinctions that would give other motion pictures pause. Under the determined direction of John Avildsen, a man whose only speed is full speed ahead, it doesn’t so much suspend disbelief as totally demolish it.

Written by Robert Mark Kamen from a novel by Bryce Courtland, “The Power of One” cheerfully invades territory more cautious folk would avoid. Set in South Africa, it is not only yet another film that thinks the best way to tell the story of apartheid is through white eyes, it also puts forward a paleface as the savior of downtrodden natives. Its black people are brave and hopeful victims, its whites either kindly saints or brutal, sadistic monsters. And you know which is which in a matter of seconds.

Yet there is a heedless fascination, a primordial watchability to this film as there was to the earlier Avildsen/Kamen collaborations, “The Karate Kid” and “The Karate Kid II.”

Seeing a movie that doesn’t know the meaning of shameless, that refuses to worry about plausibility, that acts as if subtlety hadn’t been invented yet, does have a very basic kind of intrinsically cinematic pull.

What, you can’t help asking yourself, can this film possibly be up to next?

What “The Power of One” (citywide, rated PG-13) is up to first is introducing us to PK, a young English lad in 1930 South Africa whose father was unfortunately trampled to death by elephants just before he was born. After a multicultural childhood in which he learned to love the Zulu as brothers, 7-year-old PK is shipped off to an all-white Afrikaaner boarding school where the English are hated only slightly less than the Africans and he is subjected to systematic and sadistic hazing.

After rediscovering his courage with the help of a Zulu medicine man (don’t ask), PK at age 12 somehow ends up in a wartime detention camp under the joint tutelage of Doc (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a kindly world-class pianist and cactus grower, and Geel Piet (Morgan Freeman), an ex-thief and kindly world-class boxing trainer.

With Doc filling his head with thoughts like “to have a brain and not use it, that is a sin” and Geel Piet filling his fists with dynamite, the 18-year-old PK (American actor Stephen Dorff) emerges after the war as one hell of a human being. More than that, he has somehow gotten a reputation as “the rainmaker,” a messiah-type individual who will unite the countries warring black tribes.

To say what happens to PK in 1948 South Africa, a country about to enact its harsh series of apartheid laws, would not be fair and probably would not be believed. Yet with its well-behaved cast (John Gielgud even sneaks in a cameo) and a melodious collection of South African music, it is lively enough, and Avildsen, who serves as his own editor, does come up with a few undeniably startling moments.

Thankful though you may be that everyone doesn’t do it his way, this is one director who knows exactly what he is after, and just how to get it.

‘The Power of One’

Stephen Dorff: PK age 18

Armin Mueller-Stahl: Doc

Morgan Freeman: Geel Piet

Fay Masterson: Maira

Daniel Craig: Sgt. Botha

Gideon Duma: Alois Moyo

Presented by Regency Enterprises, Le Studio Canal+, Alcor Films and Village Roadshow Pictures, released by Warner Bros. Director John Avildsen. Producer Arnon Milchan. Executive producers Steven Reuther, Graham Burke, Greg Coote. Screenplay Robert Mark Kamen, based on the novel by Bryce Courtenay. Cinematographer Dean Semler. Editor John G. Avildsen. Costumes Tom Rand. Music Hans Zimmer. Production design Roger Hall. Running time: 2 hours, 7 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13.