The Power of One

The Power of One was a movie that I honestly wasn’t sure about before watching it. We had been doing research and work on South Africa for the days leading up to it, and I was a little nervous to see such strong hatred and negativism toward the African race depicted on screen. After seeing Hotel Rwanda, I wasn’t sure I could handle much more bloody violence either. Once the movie started, though, I knew it was going to be one of those movies that would change your outlook on life forever. When I first saw little P.K., my heart almost broke because he was so cute. Even though it was a fictional movie, I hurt for him when he told of his father being trampled to death by elephants, and spoke of his shocked mother’s suffering. I was proud of the little boy when he had to go to an Afrikaner school, even though he was British and everyone would hate him, far away from his home, yet he stayed strong for his mom. Though, I just about lost it when the incidents at the school occurred and poor P.K. was so senselessly bullied, he didn’t even lose it; he just took it without retaliation. The whole of Part I was sad, but P.K. persevered and began to show signs of the hero he would become. Part II was equally revealing as to the virtuous man P.K. would develop into. His adventures with Doc and Geel Piet were encouraging, but the horrendous things that happened to Piet made me cringe in my seat. In that instance, I saw a fire that I had never seen before in P.K. I saw the raw emotion behind his mask of bravery and my broken heart shattered. Yet, somehow I knew things just had to get better, and I held on for the explosive Part III. The advocate P.K. was for the deprived African people moved and continues to move me. His heroic actions inspired me to better stand up for what I believe in and the hard parts to watch in the film reminded me just how hard the world we live in is, but that there is always hope.