| Powder | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Victor Salva |
| Produced by | Roger Birnbaum, Daniel Grodnik |
| Written by | Victor Salva |
| Starring | Sean Patrick Flanery Jeff Goldblum Mary Steenburgen Lance Henriksen Brandon Smith Bradford Tatum |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Jerzy Zielinski |
| Editing by | Dennis M. Hill |
| Studio | Caravan Pictures |
| Distributed by | Hollywood Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 27, 1995 |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $30,862,156 |
Powder is a 1995 film directed by Victor Salva, about a boy, nicknamed "Powder", with incredible intellect, telepathy, and paranormal powers. It stars Sean Patrick Flanery in the title role, with Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen, Bradford Tatum, Lance Henriksen, and Brandon Smith 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 humanity will advance to a state of better understanding.
Since its release, the film has grossed approximately $31 million worldwide.
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Jeremy Reed (Sean Patrick Flanery), whose nickname is Powder, is an albino who has incredible intellect and is able to sense the thoughts of the people around him. Jeremy's brain possesses a powerful electromagnetic charge, which causes electrical objects to function abnormally when he is around them, as well as when he becomes emotional. The electrical charge also prevents hair from growing on his body. Jeremy's mother was struck by lightning while pregnant with him; she died shortly after the strike, but Jeremy survived. His father disowned him shortly after his premature birth, and he was raised by his grandparents. Jeremy lived in the basement and worked on their farm but never left their property, learning everything he knew from books. He is taken from his home when his grandfather is found dead of natural causes. Jessie Caldwell (Mary Steenburgen), a child services psychologist called in by Sheriff Doug Barnum (Lance Henriksen), takes him to a boy's home because he is now effectively a ward of the state.
Caldwell enrolls him in high school, where Powder meets physics teacher Donald Ripley (Jeff Goldblum). Ripley finds out that Powder has supernatural powers as well as the highest IQ in the history of mankind. While his abilities mark him as special, they also make him an outcast. On a hunting trip with his schoolmates, Powder is threatened with a gun by John Box (Bradford Tatum), an aggressive student who views him as a freak. Before John can fire, a gun goes off in the distance and everyone rushes to see that Harley (Brandon Smith), a sheriff's deputy who is hunting with the boys, has shot a doe, which is now dying. Anguished by the animal's death, Powder touches the deer and Harley, inducing in Harley what the students assume is a seizure. Harley later reveals that Powder had caused him to feel the pain and fear of the dying deer, and he cannot bring himself to take another life.
The Sheriff enlists Powder to help speak to his dying wife (Danette McMahon) through telepathy. Through Powder the Sheriff learns that his wife clings onto life because she didn't want to leave without her wedding ring on her finger and without him reconciling with his estranged son, Steven (Tom Tarantini). She tells him that Steven found the ring and it has been sitting in a silver box on her nightstand throughout the entire movie. The Sheriff then places the ring on his wife's finger and reconciles with Steven, letting his wife die peacefully.
Powder meets Lindsey Kelloway (Melissa Lahlitah Crider), a romantic interest, but their relationship is broken by Lindsey's father (Woody Watson). Before the interruption, he tells Lindsey that he can see the truth about people: that they are scared and feel disconnected from the rest of the world, but in truth are all connected to everything that exists.
Powder goes back to the juvenile facility and packs away his belongings, planning to run away to his deceased grandparents' farm. He pauses in the gym to stare at a male student washing, noticing the latter's luxurious head of hair as well as body hair which he himself lacks, and is caught at it by John Box, who accuses him of homosexuality. John steals Jeremy's hat and taunts him, but Powder reveals that John's words mimic what his stepfather said before beating him when he was 12, further angering Box. Box and the other boys humiliate Powder, stripping him naked and throwing him in a mud puddle. Box is then knocked away by a mysterious electric attack, and a classmate pronounces him dead. Powder uses an electric shock to revive John.
In the final scene Powder returns to the farm where he grew up, now in probate with the bank, and finds that all of his possessions have been removed. He is joined by Jessie, Donald and the Sheriff, who persuade Powder to come with them to find a place where he will not be feared and misunderstood. Instead, a thunderstorm arrives and he runs into a field where a lightning bolt strikes him, and he disappears in a blinding flash of light.
Powder holds a rating of 47% ("Rotten") on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews, as of May 2011.
Caryn James of The New York Times described the film as "lethally dull" and said, "This intensely self-important film has no idea how absurd and unconvincing it is."[1]
The film's production by Disney resulted in a controversy over the choice of director Victor Salva, who had been convicted of molesting a 12-year-old child actor in 1988. When Powder was released, the victim, Nathan Forrest Winters, came forward again in an attempt to get others to boycott the film in protest at Disney's hiring Salva. Since then, Disney has not picked up any more pictures by Salva. [2][3]
The film was remade by Bollywood under the title of Alag.
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