Power

Synopsis: Pete St. John is a powerful and successful political consultant, with clients spread around the country. When his long-time friend and client, Ohio senator Sam Hastings, decides to quit politics, he is rapidly drafted to help with the campaign of the man destined to succeed him, unknown and mysterious businessman Jerome Cade. In parallel, and unaware of the potential dangers, he proceeds to unravel the mystery surrounding Hastings dropping out, with the aide of his ex-wife, a prominent Washington-based journalist. But interests more powerful than local arm wrestling are at stake, and things start going awry.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Sidney Lumet
Production: Lorimar Home Video
  1 win & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
5.7
Rotten Tomatoes:
50%
R
Year:
1986
111 min
690 Views


If you say "No"...

...oil wells will be ours...

...and we will decide

what to do with them!

Thank you.

If you say "No"...

...we won't sell out

to foreign interests...

...not even if they rub

their money in our faces,

as if they're having a feast

before starving people.

Ambulance!

Stay with him, stay with him!

Get the mic down.

Got a two-shot?

- Ambulance!

Keep down the mic, keep it down.

Keep shooting!

Somebody bring an ambulance!

Stay close. Watch out!

An ambulance, for Christ's sake!

Get this shot, right here!

Go away! Go away!

Keep shooting. Bring it around.

Go away!

Roberto, let's go.

It's dangerous out here, come on.

Not until an ambulance arrives.

The ambulance and a doctor

are already on the way.

- Are you sure?

- Yes, positive. Let's go.

- Are you sure?

- Let's go, let's go.

Roberto! Roberto!

Come on, hurry!

Cut, cut, cut!

So, who did it? The guerillas?

Maybe.

Christ, you were terrific!

It was an incredible moment!

I'm gonna cut the film

tonight in New York...

...and have it flown back

down tomorrow.

We're gonna take this thing.

We're gonna take it.

When are you coming back?

I don't know yet, but I've gone over

everything with Miguel.

He's gonna be handling...

...all the print contracts,

the billboards, the posters.

He also's gonna be having

the payroll,

which includes the reporters.

I gave him a list already.

From now until the election,

every speech, every appearance,

you're gonna wear this shirt.

You keep your jacket on

till just before the finish,

then slowly take it off...

...and you just stand there,

let the whole country see it.

"They want to hurt us,

they want to destroy us,"

"but they'll spill our blood

before they defeat us."

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Nice trip, Mr. St. John?

- Tired?

- I can't tell yet.

We booked the mixing room

for the rest of the night.

- Did you bring the film?

- Yeah, but I wanna clean up a bit.

I want you to stick around

when I do the cuts.

I assume you found some decent

talent for the voice-over.

No, I found some great talent.

He's an actor.

He does Spanish soaps here.

He used to be a radio announcer

in South America.

Mom, I hope you didn't wait up.

God, you look like sh*t.

And this is only March.

What will you look like

in November?

I don't know.

I had him talk to my friend

Patricia, and according to her,

he has a very sexy accent.

I advise you to wrap this thing up

early tonight because...

...Wallace Furman is coming

in the morning.

- For how long?

- Definitely, no longer than all day.

What did Ellen want?

She said some decent information,

for a change.

You're having dinner

tomorrow night with...

-...Senator Hastings and his wife.

- In Washington?

Yeah, the plane will be

at LaGuardia at 6:00.

Even with traffic, you should

get there by 8:
30.

You pulled the file

from the last campaign?

Yeah.

Also the Stannard files.

Oh, Garber called last week.

We pushed your meeting

up to the 12th.

You'll go to Seattle

right out of D.C.

I'll go there tomorrow and

brief them on the new numbers.

You did good.

Syd, you are sensational!

No problem!

You're my kind of guy.

And what kind is that?

Temporary.

So, let us move ahead,

with energy,

with compassion, and...

...united by the vision

of what New Mexico can be...

...if only we dare

to make it so.

Darling,

you are so positive.

- No, I'm not.

- Your strength flows right off--

- Oh, no, please--

- I'm not just saying that!

- I was terrible.

- You're so strong...

...in a nice, understated way.

Now, granted,

I may be a bit biased, Mr. St. John,

but you have got to admit that...

...Wallace has just got

that certain-- you know.

Mrs. Furman, Wallace,

I'll be right down.

Are you sure you want to handle

this campaign?

- Why?

- Why?

If this guy were masturbating

his hand would fall asleep.

We have nothing to lose.

Anything that gets over 39%

makes us look good.

And it pays the overhead.

Wallace, you're running

for governor.

It's not gonna be easy.

What we're aiming for here,

the ideal,

is that you personify

the themes of the campaign.

That you make a statement

just by standing up. Now,

our themes are:

new ideas, new directions.

Change! Vigor!

No offense, but you look

too soft to change a tire...

- ...much less a state.

- That's ridiculous.

- What are you saying?

- He's saying you're a wimp.

What I'm saying is,

you've got to align

the perception with the reality.

We've got two immediate problems.

One, you were born into money.

Two, you did it out of state,

which wasn't too smart,

but these are turnable,

we'll manage this whole thing.

All right, I want you to go

on a high protein diet...

...and start working out

on a Nautilus,

three times a week,

minimum.

We also gotta work on punching up

this delivery of yours.

And energyze it, make it track

with the message. Okay?

- Yeah, okay.

- Now let's talk about colors.

Syd's gonna take you

to this guy on 57th Street...

...for a couple of dozen shirts,

once we get set on the shades.

I don't like you in blue or gray.

Too cold for you.

You're running

in New Mexico.

You look a little

washed out.

Don't you ever

get outside at all?

I've asked him

to stay out of the sun...

...because his family has

a history of skin cancer.

But you've never had it.

No.

Long-term exposure, right?

This is only going to be

for the next six months.

I don't see anything

to worry about.

Wait, I-I'm paying you,

you-you work for me--

You're trying

to run my life here!

Wallace, Wallace, Wallace...

You are paying me

to make you a new life!

Politics! And in order

for me to do that,

I gotta be in charge of

all the elements that go into it.

It's the only way I work.

That means, framing

the overall strategy...

...as well as deciding

all the specifics.

The look of the campaign,

the look of the billboards.

Bumper stickers, what colors

they're going to be?

It means the polling, the ads,

radio, TV, newspapers.

It means coordinating every piece

of information out of this office...

...to make sure it fits with

what a polling tells us...

...the people are

worrying about.

Or what they're

feeling good about!

But, aside from the campaign themes,

I want to address...

- ...some of my long-term plans!

- Yes, I'm sure they're great,

but they're not important.

See, my job is to get you in.

Once you're there,

you do whatever your conscience

tells you to do.

...before the largest crowd

of the campaign.

It now appears the bloody

terrorist attack succeeded only...

...in adding momentum

and conferring legitimacy...

...on the one-time

underdog Cepeda.

Well, Mr. Billings,

this is not good news.

It certainly is not,

Your Excellency.

Do you know

how it happened?

Well, we know that none of

our people were involved.

Perhaps, the guerillas.

I'll know more tonight.

How will the bombing

affect us?

It's hard to know.

Cepeda could gather

tremendous support.

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David Himmelstein

David U. Himmelstein is an American academic physician specializing in internal medicine. He is a distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, an adjunct clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. He is also the co-founder (with Steffie Woolhandler) of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization advocating for single-payer healthcare in the United States. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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