The Price of Power
Director: Tonino Valerii
Genre: Spaghetti Western
Year: 1969
Country: Italy
Language: English Language
Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Van Johnson, Fernando Rey, Maria Cuadra, Warren Vanders, José Suárez
The Price of Power (Italian: Il prezzo del potere or Italian: 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 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, Maria Cuadra seems to emulate much
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