The Price of Power
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| The Price of Power | |
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 Italian poster for The Price of Power |
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| Directed by | Tonino Valerii |
| Written by | Massimo Patrizi |
| Starring | Giuliano Gemma Van Johnson José Suárez Warren Vanders Maria Cuadra Ray Saunders Fernando Rey |
| Music by | Luis Enríquez Bacalov |
| Release date(s) | December 18, 1969 (Italy) |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Price of Power (Il prezzo del potere or La muerte de un presidente, 1969) is an Spanish-Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Tonino Valerii. The film has many political overtures, most notably drawing similarities between the assassinations of two American presidents James Garfield and John F. Kennedy. It also tackles some racial issues, with many of the antagonists, bitter after being on the losing side of the American Civil War, showing a distinctly racist attitude towards the hero's best friend, who is black. The score for the film was composed by the prolific Luis Enríquez Bacalov.
The film stars Giuliano Gemma as the hero Bill Willer who tries to get revenge against the killers of his father while at the same time trying to prevent an assassination plot against president Garfield (played by Van Johnson, as José Suárez played Vice President Chester A. Arthur) in 1881. The president ends up dying from an assassin's bullet, but Willer's further quest for revenge is ultimately more successful. Spanish actress Maria Cuadra plays Lucreatia Garfield, the President's wife. In her role she portrays pretty much the role of Jackie Kennedy as a glamorous President's wife. Even in the assassination scene, actress Maria Cuadra seems to emulate much of the same actions of Jackie Kennedy's last moments with JFK in Dallas.
While the historical president Garfield did die as a result of an assassin's bullet, the film's historical accuracy doesn't extend much further than that. While Garfield actually died from complications of the wound months after the actual event, in the film he dies shortly after the shooting. Furthermore, the film's events take place in Dallas, Texas while Garfield was in actuality shot in Washington, D.C.. In addition to taking place in the same city, the link to the assassination of another president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, is strengthened by the imagery used in the assassination scene, which imitates the Zapruder film of Kennedy's assassination.
