source: Power Play

Trailer—Power Play

Power Play

This film is very much kept alive by the key stars Hemmings, O'Toole, Morse and Pleasance their acting carries it through the sluggish pace, lacklustre direction and lack of budget...however the narrative depicting the inside plotting of a coup is still unusual even 40 years later and for that it deserves watching...the totalitarianism of the existing regime and the plotting and organisation required to overthrow it and the trust and mistrust involved was compelling. It could have been genuinely a great movie with more budget , better direction and tighter focus but still worth a watch for the premise alone.

...not the missing Hollywood CGI, direction drags on through too many takes - - (Donald, whoosh) and the the only thing interesting is Plenty O'Tools hair wave. When you're bald you think about those kinds of things. Not that it bothers Donald much - - the movie seems to skip around him, he seems wasted. I'm glad the Yanks hired Barry Morse and I'm a big fan of the Fugitive, nice seeing Barry in a film. Maybe the money made him cry or Peter's posing. Poseur. Actors are so competitive. I hope Barry got up to the others level in pay. David Hemmings should have done a sequel to Blowup, an excellent film, he's just not military material. Peter - - too effeminate here, and not helped by the end credits body count on a pole.

'Political thriller' mish-mash of the bargain-basement package-tour-for-the-cast variety, with enough intrigue, insurrection and military corruption to keep its small banana republic going for the next 25 revolutions, but none of it remotely interesting or even watchable. If it were a European co-production farrago then at least maybe there'd be a wry smile or two raised by incompetent dubbing, but it's impossible to mask the embarrassment of the English-speaking "stars" in their native tongue, or gloss over the unease of the 'international' cast members. On top of that, this TV print looks like it had been salvaged from a Third World sanitation ditch, and it seems the director must have been shot by terrorists before he had a chance to shoot any of his own movie.

"For a coup to be successful you need tanks. My tanks" declares tank commander Peter O'Toole to idealistic young army officer David Hemmings in this engrossing military drama reminiscent of Bunuel's 'La Fievre Monte a El Pao' and Jancso's 'The Red and the White' with a wonderful punch line as he demonstrates to Hemmings that power comes down the barrel of a gun and you never know who's next for the firing squad.

A really interesting film about a military coup, POWER PLAY is virtually unheard of today but well worth a look particularly considering the talents of the top three cast members: David Hemmings typically dedicated as the hero, Peter O'Toole as the soldier he enlists to help, and Donald Pleasence up against them as a truly sinister Himmler-style villain. It's a story about political corruption and the lives of those dedicated to overthrowing it, and it's certainly timely given the kind of stuff going on internationally in the 1970s. It's also grimly realistic with one of the nastiest torture sequences I can remember witnessing in a mainstream film, and the ending is outstanding.

An unnamed country is suffering at the hands of a corrupt government so a group of idealistic army officers and intellectuals attempt to stage a coup with the idea of reforming their nation. But who can they trust, is there a Judas in their midst? A great idea, a great cast and great detail into how to stage a coup d'etat and yet the film just lacks that little bit to make it truly memorable. The production looks a little flat, the pace lags and it's narrative is a little fractured. It comes across as a vaguely interesting tv movie not helped by the fact that it should have been set in either Africa, South America or Eastern Europe because the locations just scream "Canada!" at you and why would they be staging a coup? Still, enjoy Peter O'Toole, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasance and Barry Morse together.

Disgusted at the behaviour of his corrupt government, Colonel Narriman (Hemings) agrees to lead a Coup D'Etat. The films follows the planning and delivery of the Coup with associated twists and turns. An intriguing film, charting the thinking and action required to complete a Coup. Hemmings is really good in the lead with fine support from Morse as a moral driving force, Pleasence as the dreaded head of Security and O'Toole, in a supporting role as one of the key soldiers involved. There are issues however. It is rather dull to look at, the pace varies considerably, it clearly needed a bigger budget and towards the end looks cheap and the direction overall is flat and unimaginative. Worth catching though, it's different, well acted and definitely provides food for thought.