Absolute Power: The Screenplay

by William Goldman

When a routine burglary in an elegant, upscale Virginia mansion goes awry, career thief Luther Whitney finds himself witness to a brutal murder involving none other than Alan Richmond, the youthful, charming, and thoroughly corrupt President of the United States. Torn between fear for his life and devotion to his family and country, Luther must make a decision that will change not only his own destiny, but the destiny of the world as we know it. Based on the best-selling thriller by David Baldacci, described as "relentlessly entertaining" by The Atlanta Journal & Constitution, William Goldman's screenplay captures the paranoia, greed, and corruption of politics through the ages and around the world.

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 1997

About the author

Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.His brother was the late James Goldman, author and playwright.

William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.

In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.

Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.

Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu]

Absolute Power written by William Goldman, directed by Clint Eastwood. William Goldman was one of the best writers in Hollywood, he has won two Oscars, for All The President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid – more notes on films are available at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
Absolute Power vs The Orange Caligula and MAGA

8 out of 10

Clint Eastwood https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is one of the greatest film makers of all time, despite the fact that he is a republican, I just hope he is not MAGA (which for me means gaga, in the sense of mentally challenged), Unforgiven is one of my Top 50 Movies

Almost every day now, on the Public Station they have documentaries about thespians, directors, and Clint Eastwood was on the other night, with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, his status could be called ‘polyamorous’, notwithstanding his conservatism, he has been quite progressive from this point of view, married to more than one woman we could say
He is the director and star of Absolute Power, a thriller which has a killing, political drama, and even some humor, it made me think of this ludicrous https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... buffoon, who wants Absolute Power, and alas, he has managed to accumulate a lot

Luther Whitney is played by Clint Eastwood, he is a thief who gets inside this mansion, and while stealing from the place, a couple come into the house, and the intruder can witness their foreplay, which turns rather violent, and then while the woman is on top, trying to pay back for the assault, she is shot dead
The victim was about to have sex with…president Richmond aka divine Gene Hackman https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and she was shot by the agents of The Secret Service, they have to defend the life of the commander in chief, no matter what

We have just heard the preposterous story of the Orange Caligula hiding in a food truck, because he had accepted bribes, one of them in the form of an opulent plane, given by the dictator of Qatar, one of the tens of thousands of abject acts committed by what I see as the epitome of evil, foolishness, the ultimate Con Man
There is a sense that the motion picture describes children’s games, when we compare what happens on screen to what has become reality, over these years when the (once free, respectable) world has been led by an idiot https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... who wants Absolute Power


A few last words about William Goldman https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... he has written a fundamental book, Adventures in The Screen Trade, one that any cinephile must read, to find details about making movies, thespians, directors, film stars and their shenanigans…

[Tawni Palin]

As usual Mr. Baldacci has a riveting way of whisking me into a world of power and intrigue.

I started reading this because it sat on my shelf waiting for me to get to it, and its movie companion has been waiting just as long.

[S D]

I like the script better than the movie.