Power Of One Essay 2017

The film ‘The Power of One’ has a major impact on anyone's life after they watching it. The film had many great characters, but one that stood out to me was P.k. P.k had a hard childhood but that never stopped him from relating to others, he loved people with all his heart, he always helped others no matter what was going on in his life. That’s why P.k is an important character to me.

In the film the power of one, P.k was an important character because he had a very tough childhood. The hardest thing of all for P.k was being sent off to boarding school. At boarding school P.k had faced many challenges.P.k had to face all of his fares, P.k got bullied by Botha and his friends, only because P.k was English. Botha and the school hated P.k just because he was English, they tried to make P.k’s life h***. They pissed on him, they even went to the extent of killing his only friend, which happened to be a chicken. In the scene of the killing of the chicken the techniques that stood out to me were camera shots. The director John .G. Avildsen used camera shots to make us feel empathy for P.k. The shot that stood out to me was a low angle which was used when P.k had pushed Botha onto some flags. This was used to make Botha look strong and big, like he a power over P.k. I can link this to earlier in the film when Botha and his friends pissed on P.k, the shots were used so the audience would feel empathy for P.k.

Not only was camera shots used but Avildsen used symbolism to have an impact on the audience, he used an Ostrich Bracelet in the film. The bracelet was used as a symbol of love which was passed down from P.k’s father to his mother when they feel in love, P.k’s mother gave him this bracelet when he left to go back to boarding school. When P.k felt himself falling in love with Maria, he snuck out one night after they had met, he went to see her because he had news, he had just got accepted into college, but she was leaving the next morning to go live with her aunt. When P.k had found out that she was leaving he gave her the Ostrich Bracelet because it had been with both of his parents when they had fell in love with each other. The director used this so we could relate back to P.k, we could relate because we all have someone we love very deeply, whether that be just a friend, a partner, or family, and we would do anything to show our love. I can link this to ‘The Notebook’ when they both write a notebook about how much they love each other.

Along with Camera shots and Symbolism another key aspect to the film was Dialogue. Dialogue was used when P.k had wanted to teach the native Africans, the Afrikaan language so they could read the signs, that were telling them where they could go. P.k had fought in high school saying that they should have a night school for people wanting to learn. The one line that has stuck with me throughout the movie is ‘But sir, it only take one drop of water to start a waterfall and look how that turns out.’ The director used this line because it has a hidden message, the hidden message is saying that there only needs to be one small change and it can change a lot, for example letting P.k open this night school and teach a small group how to read and write would help because then they can go and teach others how to, and all it is, is a chain reaction. I can link this to when I wanted to help someone and I gave them my opinion and they went on to helping other people.

The film ‘The Power of One’ had many great characters, but one that intrigued me was P.k. P.k had a hard childhood but that never stopped him from relating to others, he loved people with all his heart, he always helped others no matter what was going on in his life. P.k stood out because of these reasons.