Product Details

• Actors: Peter O'Toole, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence
• Directors: Martyn Burke
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Media Home Video
• VHS Release Date: May 31, 1988
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301026209
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,296 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How to overthrow a country!, March 9, 2005

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Power Play [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Power Play actually starred David Hemmings, Barry Morse, Donald Pleasance as well as Peter O'Toole. The movie also came out in 1978 although this VHS was released in 1988. The movie is based on a book written by Edward Luttwak titled "Coup d'Etat". Its a book on how a nation can be overthrown by the military. In the movie, setting is based on a small fictional European nation, all English speaking but European in nature. David Hemmings leads a group of military officers to overthrow an oppressive and corrupt civilian government and the movie basically followed Luttwak's book on what to do, how to make it work and price to be paid. Donald Pleasance does a wonderful job as a master spymaster for the government who find himself one step behind. However, things don't go as plan and the movie as well as the book will tell you why.

I found the movie to be rather entertaining. I can forgive the fictional setting of the movie as easily as I can forgive all these English speaking Germans in all these World War II movies. The movie does give the viewer a clear and logical lesson in what needed to be done to overthrow a national government by the military. There are enough betrayal, political intrigue and powerbroking to satisfied most fans of this genre.

I supposed the unsettling subject matter of this film was probably one of the reasons why it got slam dunk by many of the critics back in 1978. There's also nudity where girl get tortured by electro device and some brutal killing scenes.

But overall, this proves to be an interesting and intriguing movie which draws out pretty faithfully to the Luttwak's book. On my VHS cover, its written "In the game of treason, only a fool plays by the rules" and this movie definitely tell you the truism of those words.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fate of Revolutions, April 14, 2011

By 

Belerophon (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Power Play (DVD)

Ths is a great movie with a great plot and an excellent cast. Why This flick remained a cult flick for so long astounds me. Maybe its just too intellectual. I think if Edmund Burke or Alexis de Tocqueville were around they would appreciate it. Its a stern warning to revolutionaries that Revolutions are a lot easier to start then they are to control and at the end of the day you may find yourself the victim of your own revolutionaries. A quick look at The Fench and Russian revoluttions should give anyone pause if not then they should watch this! Extremely well thought out and plausible and I suspect that someone was really thinking about recent events in South America when this was made but supposedly this takes place in a small European country. Which seems unlikely because The only dictatorships in Europe in the 70's were eastern Block countries. Personally I think that this was supposed to be Either Argentina or Chile. In any case someone did their homework and if you want a good primer on the fate of revolutions and not be bored doing it this movie is for you. Peter O'Toole is a slippery eel who lies in wait, Donald pleasence plays the head of the secret police who's inspiration must have been Heinrich Himmler. David Hemmongs plays The reluctant Revolutionary leader sucked in by a well meaning Intellectual (Barry Morse) who is its mastermind but not enough of a scoundrel for his own good.

In summary: There is lots of intrigue and twists that should keep you interested and the ending is chilling and very realistic. Highly reccomended

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The politics of a coup, October 19, 2010

By 

Rui C. Sousa - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Power Play (DVD)

THis is a relatively unknown film describing a coup d'etat in what appears to be a third world nation. Donald Pleasance Peter O'toole give decent performances as the architype of the secret police commander and the coup usurper. In the end it shows how it can all go wrong.