The Power of One

The Power of One 

During the time that Apartheid took place, it was also the time that Adolf Hitler began his reign. In the movie 'The Power of One', directed by John Avildsen, the scene where Jaapie Botha threatened to kill P.K quoting "all English will pay" showing the influence Hitler has had on the Afrikaners. The techniques I'll be talking about are: close up shot, lowkey lighting, and non-diegetic sound. These film techniques help to show this important idea and cause the scene to have a negative impact on the audience, feeling frustrated and nervous about what Jaapie has done and is about to do next.

The first technique I will talk about is the close-up shot between Jaapie and P.K. The scene where the principal came in and slapped Jaapie for hanging up P.K, the two characters then made eye contact showing similar but different emotions. Avildsen put this scene in to show the tension between the two characters and how their hatred for each other grew from that moment. From the audience's perspective, they feel sympathy towards P.K and a strong hatred towards Jaapie. The close-up shots help to show the idea of Jaapie being the possible antagonist of this movie. The lighting also helped bring this scene together, while I'm on the subject of lighting let's talk about it...

The lighting was lowkey or dim in this scene.
This decision was purposefully made by Avildsen to show the 'dark' intentions of the Afrikaners/Jaapie. This is a smart way of pointing out evil intentions. The same method was used in the movie 'The Dark Knight Rises', in the scene where Batman fought Bane. Just like in 'The Power of One', the lighting is helping to show fear and anger through both characters without pointing it out. When P.K was bought into the room, the audience immediately knew something bad is going to happen to him. They were feeling nervous and scared, almost putting themselves in P.K's shoes and that feeling is pretty hard to show but they did it flawlessly.

For my last technique, I want to go back to the close-up shots between Jaapie and P.K and talk about the non-diegetic sound in the background. Most people won't notice this the first time around but it was a good detail added by Avildsen. The non-diegetic sound was a faint drumming when the close-up shot between the 2 characters was happening. Avildsen purpose to put this in the scene is to show Jaapie’s anger. Another clever detail was the drums only played when the camera was focusing on Jaapie, but when it turned to P.K the drumming completely stopped. The audience upon hearing the drums would have felt anxious about Jaapie hurting P.K even more and relieved that P.K was ok. The drumming made the scene just a bit better than it already is.

So, in conclusion, In the movie the ‘The Power of One’ directed by John Avildsen. Showing the influence Hitler had on the Afrikaners causing Jaapie to think that killing the English was ok. The techniques ( which are close-up shots, non-diegetic sound, and low-key lighting) help to frame this scene perfectly. The scene shows the audience how much power, Hitler had and how much destruction he caused. Thanks to these techniques the scene convey strong emotions, showing two powerful characters with different goals.