Absolute Power (film)

Last updated

Absolute Power
Absolute power.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Screenplay by William Goldman
Based on Absolute Power
by David Baldacci
Produced by
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Karen S. Spiegel
Starring
Cinematography Jack N. Green
Edited by Joel Cox
Music by Lennie Niehaus
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • February 14, 1997 (1997-02-14)
Running time
121 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million [1]
Box office$92.8 million [2]

Absolute Power is a 1997 American political action thriller film produced by, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood as a master jewel thief who witnesses the killing of a woman by Secret Service agents. [3] The screenplay by William Goldman is based on the 1996 novel Absolute Power by David Baldacci. Screened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, [4] the film also stars Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Judy Davis, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert, and Richard Jenkins. It was also the last screen appearance of E. G. Marshall. The scenes in the museum were filmed in the Walters Art Museum, where Whitney is copying a painting of El Greco, "Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata" ( art.thewalters.org/detail/6457/saint-francis-receiving-the-stigmata-2/ ).

Contents

Plot

In Washington, D.C., master thief Luther Whitney breaks into the mansion of billionaire Walter Sullivan. He is forced to hide upon the arrival of Sullivan's wife Christy, on a drunken rendezvous with Alan Richmond, the President of the United States. Hidden behind the bedroom vault's one-way mirror, Whitney watches as Richmond becomes sexually violent; Christy, in self-defense, wounds his arm with a letter opener. Richmond screams for help, and Secret Service agents Bill Burton and Tim Collin burst in, see Christy about to stab the President, and fatally shoot her. Chief of Staff Gloria Russell arrives, and they stage the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong. Whitney is unnoticed until he makes his getaway, pursued by the agents, but he manages to escape with millions in valuables as well as the incriminating letter opener.

Detective Seth Frank heads the murder investigation. Though Whitney, known to authorities as a high-profile burglar, becomes a prime suspect, Frank does not believe he is a murderer because he was never a violent criminal. Burton asks Frank to keep him informed on the case and wiretaps Frank's office telephone. Just as Whitney is about to flee the country, he sees Richmond on television publicly commiserating with Sullivan – a close friend and financial supporter of the president – on his loss. Incensed, Whitney decides to bring Richmond to justice.

Whitney's estranged daughter Kate accompanies Frank to Whitney's home in search of clues. Photographs of her indicate that Luther has secretly been watching her as she grew up. Fearing for her father's life, she agrees to set him up, arranging a meeting at an outdoor café. Frank guarantees Whitney's safety, but Burton learns of the plan through the wiretap, and both Collin and Michael McCarty – a hitman hired by a vengeful Sullivan – prepare to kill Whitney. The two snipers, each unaware of the other, try to shoot Whitney when he meets with Kate. Whitney escapes disguised as a police officer. Whitney later explains to Kate exactly how Christy was killed and by whom.

Suspecting that Kate must know the truth, Richmond decides she must be eliminated. When Whitney learns from Frank that the Secret Service is surveilling Kate, he races back to D.C. to protect her. Collin rams Kate's car over a cliff edge. Whitney arrives too late, but Kate survives. Collin tries again to kill her at the hospital with a poison-filled syringe, but is killed by Whitney.

Whitney replaces Sullivan's chauffeur and tells Sullivan what truly happened the night his wife was killed. He gives Sullivan the letter opener with Richmond's blood and fingerprints and drops him off outside the White House. A shocked and enraged Sullivan then enters the building to confront Richmond. Later on television comes the shocking news from Sullivan that Richmond allegedly committed suicide by stabbing himself to death with the letter opener. Meanwhile, Frank discovers that a remorseful Burton has committed suicide and uses the evidence Burton left behind to arrest Russell. Back at the hospital, Whitney reconnects with his daughter.

Cast

Production

The worldwide book and film rights to the novel were sold for a reported $5 million. William Goldman was hired to write the screenplay in late 1994. He worked on several drafts through 1995, which he later described in his memoir Which Lie Did I Tell? [5]

When Eastwood first heard of the book being turned into a film, he liked the basic plot and the characters, but disliked that most of those he considered interesting were killed off. He requested that Goldman make sure that "everyone the audience likes doesn't get killed off." [6] Absolute Power was filmed between June and August 1996.

Among the Washington, D.C. locations used for filming was the apartment of journalist Christopher Hitchens. [7] [8]

Reception

Critical response

Absolute Power was met with mixed reviews from critics. In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin gave it a mixed review, writing, "Mr. Eastwood directs a sensible-looking genre film with smooth expertise, but its plot is quietly berserk." Maslin goes on to write, "Mr. Eastwood's own performance sets a high-water mark for laconic intelligence and makes the star seem youthfully spry by joking so much about his age." [9]

On the aggregate reviewer website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56% based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Absolute Power collapses under its preposterous plotting despite an all-star cast and Clint Eastwood's deft direction." [10] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [11] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office

The film grossed $16.8 million in its opening weekend. It grossed $50.1 million in the United States and Canada and $42.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $92.8 million against its $50 million production budget. [2] [1] It Italy, it was number one for nine consecutive weeks. [12]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Absolute Power was released on March 11, 1997. "Kate's Theme" was composed by Clint Eastwood and arranged by Lennie Niehaus. All other tracks written and arranged by Lennie Niehaus.

No.TitleArtistLength
1."Kate's Theme" Lennie Niehaus 2:07
2."Mansion"Lennie Niehaus1:32
3."Christy Dies"Lennie Niehaus2:28
4."Mansion Chase"Lennie Niehaus4:34
5."Christy's Dance"Lennie Niehaus3:42
6."Waiting for Luther/Wait for My Signal"Lennie Niehaus6:58
7."Dr. Kevorkian I Presume"Lennie Niehaus1:44
8."Sullivan's Revenge"Lennie Niehaus2:19
9."Kate's Theme/End Credits"Lennie Niehaus4:42
Total length:29:54 [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood</span> American actor and director (born 1930)

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

<i>Pale Rider</i> 1985 film by Clint Eastwood

Pale Rider is a 1985 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars in the lead role. The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the pale horse's ghost rider (Eastwood) represents Death. The film, which took in over $41 million at the box office, became the highest-grossing Western of the 1980s.

<i>Mystic River</i> (film) 2003 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood

Mystic River is a 2003 American neo-noir crime drama film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney. The screenplay, written by Brian Helgeland, was based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It is the first film in which Eastwood was credited as composer of the score.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Baldacci</span> American novelist (born 1960)

David Baldacci is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Eastwood</span> American film director and actress

Alison Eastwood is an American film director and actress.

<i>Where Eagles Dare</i> 1968 film by Brian G. Hutton

Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 action adventure war thriller spy film directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It follows a Special Operations Executive team of men attempting to save a captured American General from the fictional Schloß Adler fortress, except the mission turns out not to be as it seems. It was filmed in Panavision using the Metrocolor process, and was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Alistair MacLean wrote the screenplay, his first, at the same time that he wrote the novel of the same name. Both became commercial successes.

<i>The Enforcer</i> (1976 film) 1976 film by James Fargo

The Enforcer is a 1976 American neo-noir action thriller film and the third in the Dirty Harry film series. Directed by James Fargo, it stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore, and DeVeren Bookwalter as criminal mastermind Bobby Maxwell. It was also the last film in the series to feature John Mitchum as Inspector Frank DiGiorgio.

<i>White Hunter Black Heart</i> 1990 film by Clint Eastwood

White Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American adventure drama film produced, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. It is based on the 1953 book of the same name written by Peter Viertel, who cowrote the screenplay with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The screenplay was the last that Bridges wrote before his death in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Haysbert</span> American actor

Dennis Dexter Haysbert is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film Absolute Power, Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on the CBS military action drama series The Unit, God on the Netflix show Lucifer, and President David Palmer on the first five seasons of 24. He has also appeared in the films Love Field, Heat, Waiting to Exhale, and Far from Heaven, as well as the science fiction series Incorporated.

<i>Absolute Power</i> (novel) 1996 novel by David Baldacci

Absolute Power is a 1996 book by David Baldacci. In 1997, it was made into a film starring Clint Eastwood.

<i>Every Which Way but Loose</i> 1978 film by James Fargo

Every Which Way but Loose is a 1978 American action comedy film released by Warner Bros. starring Clint Eastwood in an uncharacteristic and offbeat comedy role. It was produced by Robert Daley and directed by James Fargo. Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a trucker and bare-knuckle brawler roaming the American West in search of a lost love while accompanied by his brother/manager, Orville, and his pet orangutan, Clyde. In the process, Philo manages to cross a motley assortment of characters, including a pair of police officers and an entire motorcycle gang, who end up pursuing him for revenge.

<i>Space Cowboys</i> 2000 film by Clint Eastwood

Space Cowboys is a 2000 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four aging former test pilots who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite. It was theatrically released on August 15, 2000, received positive reviews from critics, and was a box-office success.

<i>Two Mules for Sister Sara</i> 1970 film by Don Siegel

Two Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). The film was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. It was the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968). The collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

<i>Bird</i> (1988 film) 1988 biographical film by Clint Eastwood

Bird is a 1988 American biographical musical drama film about jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Joel Oliansky. The film stars Forest Whitaker as Parker, and Diane Venora. It is constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of 34.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood filmography</span>

Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, producer, and composer. He has appeared in over 60 films. His career has spanned 65 years and began with small uncredited film roles and television appearances. Eastwood has acted in multiple television series, including the eight-season series Rawhide (1959–1965). Although he appeared in several earlier films, mostly uncredited, his breakout film role was as the Man with No Name in the Sergio Leone–directed Dollars Trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), which weren't released in the United States until 1967/68. In 1971, Eastwood made his directorial debut with Play Misty for Me. Also that year, he starred as San Francisco police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry. The film received critical acclaim, and spawned four more films: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988).

<i>True Crime</i> (1999 film) 1999 film by Clint Eastwood

True Crime is a 1999 American mystery thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood, and based on Andrew Klavan's 1995 novel of the same name. Eastwood also stars in the film as a journalist covering the execution of a death row inmate, only to discover that the convict may actually be innocent.

<i>City Heat</i> 1984 film by Richard Benjamin

City Heat is a 1984 American buddy-crime comedy film starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, written by Blake Edwards and directed by Richard Benjamin. The film was released in North America in December 1984.

<i>Bronco Billy</i> 1980 film by Clint Eastwood

Bronco Billy is a 1980 American Western comedy-drama film starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. It was directed by Eastwood and written by Dennis Hackin.

<i>Changeling</i> (film) 2008 film by Clint Eastwood

Changeling is a 2008 American mystery crime drama film directed, produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. The story was based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California. It stars Angelina Jolie as a woman united with a boy who she realizes is not her missing son. When she tries to demonstrate that to the police and city authorities, she is vilified as delusional, labeled as an unfit mother and confined to a psychiatric ward. The film explores themes of child endangerment, female disempowerment, political corruption, and mistreatment of mental health patients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1997 Cannes Film Festival</span> Awards gathering for films

The 50th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 18 May 1997. The Palme d'Or was jointly awarded to Ta'm e guilass by Abbas Kiarostami and Unagi by Shohei Imamura. Jeanne Moreau was the mistress of ceremonies.

References

Citations
  1. 1 2 "Absolute Power (1997) - Financial Information". The Numbers . Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "The Top 125". Variety . February 9, 1998. p. 31.
  3. "Clint Eastwood Is Returning to Acting". MovieWeb. May 21, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  4. "Festival de Cannes: Absolute Power". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  5. Goldman, William, Which Lie Did I Tell?, Bloomsbury, 2000 p 97-127
  6. Blair, Iain (March 1997). "Clint Eastwood: The Actor-Director Reflects on His Continuing Career and New Film, Absolute Power". Film & Video. 14 (3): 70–78.
  7. Groth, Gary (January 9, 2012). "My Dinner with Hitch". The Comics Journal. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  8. Hitchens, Christopher. "In Search of the Washington Novel". City Journal. No. Autumn 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  9. Maslin, Janet (February 14, 1997). "Absolute Power: A Whole New Meaning for Executive Privilege". The New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
  10. "Absolute Power (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved January 5, 2022.
  11. "Absolute Power". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  12. "Italy Top 15". Screen International . July 25, 1997. p. 43.
  13. Absolute Power Soundtrack AllMusic. Retrieved March 2, 2014
Bibliography