| Absolute Power | 
| List Price: $12.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 57 reviews)
Sales Rank: 951
Category: DVD
Actors: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn
Director: Clint Eastwood
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
Brand: CASTLE ROCK HM VIDEO
Label: Warner Home Video
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Full Screen, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 121 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Array
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
MPN: DC2508D
ISBN: 0790731959
UPC: 012569250826
EAN: 9780790731957
ASIN: 0790731959
Release Date: July 8, 1997
Theatrical Release Date: February 14, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 It has something missing December 27, 2007
First, I must say that I am a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, since his early days as the man with no name.....
I bought this movie without even watching it once, I saw the actors list and read the plot on the back of the dvd and thought to myself "This got to be the hell of a movie".
After finishing I didn't think the same. I mean, it has great actors and the story is great but it has something missing for my opinion, things get smooth really easy at the end.
However I haven't regreted the fact of buying it, is a good movie, not just as good as you could imagine.
The caracter played by Eastwood is, opposite to what you may think a great father, and he would do anything to protect his daughter.
Ed Hackman's caracter is a coward hidding behind secret services... I love him when he loses (like in Runaway Jury for example).
Anyway, just watch the movie and since is a Eastwood movie, you already know who will win at the end........
 Totally unbelievable but still great cinema ! November 17, 2007
This film is one of my all time Clint Eastwood favorites. He plays the kind of semi bad guy that you root for. You almost hope he pulls off the big heist and gets away with it and lives happily ever after because he is Clint. If you can accept the fact that this plot borders on total fantasy, could never happen and defies logic time and time again, you will enjoy the scenario. Lennie Niehaus' film score is perfect in creating the eery and sinister mood throughout the film and Clint's own playing of the piano theme is beautiful and haunting. Gene Hackman as the president is truly the screen's best on screen bad guy and Ed Harris is his usual natural and believable self as the "live alone" head detective. With that being said you must ask yourself: Why and how were the president's trysts unaccounted for by his staff and the media? When E.G. Marshall's wife was murdered there was apparently no investigation even though he was very prominent. When Clint met his daughter at the outside cafe the whole area was surrounded by police but apparently Clint didn't see any of them. When the secret service man was killed in the hospital apparently no questions were asked and no investigation took place and Clint was never a suspect. When the president presumably committed suicide E.G. Marshall was never suspected even though he was the only witness and no questions were asked why the president fatally stabbed himself at that specific time. Minor details, right?
Toughreviewer
 Kind of Cheesy October 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I usually love Clint Eastwood movies and was looking forward to watching this one, which has such a stellar cast. But Absolute Power is not up to Eastwood's usual standards. The writing is kind of cheesy, the end is both predictable and absurd (which is not an easy feat) and all the fine actors in it can't save such bad material.
A fine, intelligent thriller, with thanks to Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Judy Davis, among others June 11, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
So the president of the United States may not be the nicest guy in the world. Well, we've known that can be the case since 1789. So the idea of our presidents engaging in sexual shenanigans may be as uncomfortable as realizing our parents do it. Well, we've learned more than we want to know over the last few decades about how our presidents spend their time when they aren't bringing peace to the world and ensuring our domestic tranquility. One of the reasons Absolute Power is such a fine thriller is that it involves the dirty doings -- murder, cover-ups, self-serving righteousness -- of those in high elected office.
Absolute Power is the story of Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood), "one of the great thieves of the world," who breaks into the mansion of Walter Sullivan (E. G. Marshall), a very rich, very powerful and very old political kingmaker. But then Luther hears voices and has to hide in a bedroom vault with a one-way mirror. He has to watch the rough sex between the rich man's much younger wife and a friend of hers. When things get out of hand and she angrily starts to do some stabbing, suddenly two very competent men break in and shoot the lady dead. They're followed by an aggressively competent woman who proceeds to clean things up and spin a story that a thief must have killed the lady of the house. Luther comes to realize that the two shooters are Secret Service agents, the competent woman is Gloria Russell (Judy Davis), the president's chief of staff, and the man is Allen Richmond (Gene Hackman), the unscrupulous president of the U. S. Luther is spotted and barely escapes but Russell and the two agents manage to identify him. They also learn he has an estranged daughter, Kate Whitney (Laura Linney), a young prosecutor. At first Luther decides to take his accrued wealth and flee the country. Then he sees a press conference on television where Richmond uses the grief-stricken Sullivan, who made him president, in a smarmy soap opera of shared grief. Luther changes his mind and decides to see that justice is done. Luther's brand of justice is resourceful, clever and dangerous. All the while he has to deal with an honest homicide cop, Seth Frank (Ed Harris), who is on his trail, an assassin hired by Sullivan to kill whoever killed his wife, and the machinations of Gloria Russell, determined to shield Richmond, aided by the two Secret Service agents. One, Bill Burton (Scott Glenn), has a conscience. The other, Tim Collin (Dennis Haysbert), does not.
Eastwood and writer William Goldman have, in my opinion, concocted a fine, intelligent thriller that plays off Eastman's age ("Go down a rope in the middle of the night? If I could do that, I'd be the star of my AARP meetings."), gives us some fine set pieces (the break-in, killing and cleaning up; the attempt on Luther's life by two separate assassins when he meets his daughter; and the wonderfully played dance at a White House ball between Hackman and Davis) and which is told at a more-or-less human-sized scale. While I think perhaps too much time was spent on the relationship between Luther and his daughter, it's this relationship, well acted between Eastman and Linney, that helps raise the movie beyond just another thriller.
Three things make this movie so good. First, there are two sets of intriguing relationships, one of which is poignant and tender, the other almost grotesquely amusing. The Eastwood-Linney situation is the first. And then there is the Allen Richmond-Gloria Russell pas de dieux. He depends on her but we know he'd toss her out in a minute if he needed to. She depends on him, probably loves him, and would gut her mother to protect him and her power ("I'll take care of everything. Like I always do."). It's fascinating, especially as played out by Hackman and Davis. Their White House waltz at the ball, where Davis is coy because she thinks the necklace she received was a present from Richmond, and Richmond knows, and tells her, that the necklace was the one worn by Sullivan's wife and that it had to have come from Luther Whitney, is a classic lesson in acting. The two of them play every emotion you can think of, all the while dancing in close-up and smiling for the admiring guests. The scene is a tour de force and immensely funny.
Second, this movie is so good for what Eastwood and Goldman don't do. This is a thriller without explosions, without wild car chases and without star posing. We're left to focus on the story, on the intelligence of the dialogue, on the cleverness of the situation. As Roger Ebert said, "it's a thriller not upstaged by its thrills."
Third, and most importantly, is the casting. The impact of the movie primarily rests with Eastwood, Hackman and Davis. Each one has shown many times that they can carry a movie by themselves. Judy Davis is the least known and has been stuck in character roles for years. However, just watch her in My Brilliant Career, A Passage to India or Children of the Revolution to see an actress who can dominate a movie. The second tier, made up of Ed Harris, E. G. Marshall, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn and Dennis Haysbert are just as effective. These are experienced actors who work well together and who know how to deliver their stuff. E. G. Marshall at 83 gives a performance that combines great sadness with an implacable sense of retribution. And Scott Glenn, such a good actor who has slowly slipped down to smaller, secondary roles, gives a performance of such regret it nearly distracts us from the story.
The movie is in real need of a better release. The picture is consistently too soft and frequently too dark in the night-time and interior scenes. There are a couple of inconsequential extras.
Absolute Power May 7, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Clint Eastwood and a very good story plus a great cast makes for a keeper for collectors.
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