First with the head, then with the heart." This describes perfectly the attitude of The Power of One. It revolves around a young boy facing hardship and triumph in the harsh and racially unjust nation of South Africa. It all begins appealingly enough with a brave and contemplative performance from Guy Witcher as the main character in the film, a fair-haired boy nicknamed PK who is sent to an Afrikaner boarding school where he's tortured as the only English boy amongst the hate-mongering, Afrikaner schoolboys, whose idol, in the years before World War Two, is Hitler. The junior neo-Nazis are led by a bully with a swastika tattooed on his arm, and when that same tattooed arm turns up attached to a bullying officer of the state security force, the movie started to get lost. .
These scenes are meant to show the lasting resentment between the two white tribes of South Africa, the Dutch-French-German descended Afrikaners, and the British, and do so quite well, as they show the fear and anger they feel for each other.
All of this, and the movie has only been going for about fifteen minutes. The film seems to be in somewhat of a rush for the first half hour, then settles down to a gentle rhythm, just to build up to a shuddering climax. .
PK starts to become a man during a time of racial segregation and violence, hatred and constant fear. The contrast between the beauty of nature, and the cruelty of society allows you to concentrate on a picture of South Africa itself, rather then just the violence of apartheid.
PK has two major mentors during the film. Armin Mueller-Stahl, also known as Doc, a German friend of PK's grandfather, teaches him about the cultural and academic side of life. His acting ability was good, and was an all round performance, but was eclipsed by Morgan Freeman's performance as Geel Pete, PK's second mentor and boxing instructor, who's brilliant ability and style breathed new life into the film.
