User talk:Acidtest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Powder | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Victor Salva |
| Produced by | Roger Birnbaum, Daniel Grodnik |
| Written by | Victor Salva |
| Starring | Sean Patrick Flanery, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen, Bradford Tatum |
| Distributed by | Caravan Pictures, Hollywood Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 27, 1995 |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Powder is a 1995 film directed by Victor Salva, about an albino boy, nicknamed "Powder", with paranormal powers over electricity. It stars Sean Patrick Flanery in the title role, with Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen, Bradford Tatum, and Lance Henriksen in supporting roles. The film questions the limits of the human mind and body while also displaying their capacity for cruelty, and the hope that one day humanity will advance beyond technology.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Powder's mother gets struck by a lightning bolt while pregnant. She dies and Powder grows up with his grandparents. When Powder's grandfather dies after a heart attack, child care representatives take Powder to an orphanage, where he quickly finds himself thrown into many painful circumstances.
He is taken to high school and encounters physics teacher Donald Ripley (Goldblum) who finds out that Powder has supernatural powers. While his abilities mark him as special, they also make him an outcast. Powder meets Lindsey Kelloway, a romantic interest, but their relationship is broken when Kelloway's father spies them kissing.
Powder goes back to the orphanage and packs away his belongings, planning to run away to his deceased grandparents' farm. He decides to join John Box, a troubled young man at the orphanage who bullies him. Box and the other males humiliate Powder, only for Box to be knocked unconscious by a mysterious electric attack. Powder uses his supernatural abilities to revive John. Powder is taken to the farm, where he is rejoined by Jesse the psychiatrist, along with Donald Ripley and the Sheriff, who persuade Powder to come with them. However, Powder symbolically refuses to join the rest of society, instead letting nature take him: he runs into a stormy field where lightning strikes him, and he disappears in a blinding flash of multi-colored light.
Since its release it has grossed approximately $31 million worldwide.
[edit] Controversy
Shortly after the film's release, a media frenzy erupted when it was revealed that director Salva had been convicted of molesting a 17-year-old boy who had acted in his earlier film Clownhouse, with some people (including Salva's victim) calling for a boycott. Nonetheless, the film proved successful, and was the second highest grossing film in America for two weeks.
There was concern that the movie may be seen as encouraging violence among children. Conservative leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Senator Arlen Spector(R-PA) condemned the scene in which the title character used what appeared to be a gamma-wave frequency oscillator, or a "laser cannon" as Falwell termed it, to kill a small boy who falls off his bike in the protagonist's front yard. After the boy complains about his skinned knee, Powder procures the oscillator from off camera and proceeds to vaporize the boy and his canine companion, who was revealed in the script to be named "Woofy." In the Italian dub of the movie, the boy is replaced with deposed dictator Bennito Mussolini.
[edit] Remake
The film was remade by Bollywood under the title of Alag.
