The Absolute Truth (1997) (TV)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

James Keach

Writers (WGA):

Selma Thompson (written by) and
Harriet N. Frances (written by)

Release Date:

30 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A television newswoman (Seymour) must betray a friend in order to expose a presidential candidate (Devane) guilty of sexual harassment. |

Plot Keywords:

Political

Cast

Jane Seymour	...	Alison Reid
Bruce Greenwood	...	Jake Slaughter
Linda Purl	...	Jean Douglas
Sean McCann	...	Hal Gelson
Marina Palmier	...	Patti Gonzalez (as Marina Gonzales Palmier)
Barbara Eve Harris	...	Ellen Williams
Ramona Milano
Torri Higginson
Andy Velasquez
William Devane	...	Sen. Emmett Hunter
Frank Moore	...	Mike Tormel
Mario Romano	...	Mitko
Christopher Crumb	...	Ray
Trevor Cameron Smith	...	Luiz Gonzales Jr.
Lynne Deragon	...	Judge

Also Known As:

Spin (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Catfish Productions

Did you even vote today?

(There Are Spoilers) One of the most honest movie about sexual harassment by those in power ever made with an ending that will absolutely blow you, like everyone else in the cast, away.

We have no doubt at all about the actions of presidential candidate Sen. Emmett Hunter, William Devane, when it comes to attractive women who work for him like his press secretary Jean Douglas, Linda Purl, and speech writer Patti Gonzales, Marina Plamier. We even see that the senators lust extends even beyond his work environment when it comes to working girls like waitress Tiffany, Lynley Swain. Who we see his campaign manager pay-off to keep her mouth shut about him grouping her in an elevator while he was drunk. What is a revelation about the film "The Absolute Truth" is how people of power, like Sen. Hunter, can use that power to intimidate harass and even terrorize those who threaten to expose them to the public.

Jane Seymour is the gutsy TV reporter Alison Reid out to break the story about Sen. Hunter's secret life as a sexual predator. Alison in the film tries to get her friend and Sen. Hunter's news secretary Jean Douglas to go public with what he's been doing to her in the privacy of his office.

Jean approached Alison with an audio tape that she secretly recorded of Sen. Hunter forcing himself on her but does not want to be exposed by Alison's TV news show "Focus" as the person on the tape with Hunter. Alison's boss and co-anchor on the show Hal Gelson and Jake Slaughter, Sean McCann & Bruce Greenwald, are very excited about the story and with the presidential election just days away. This can blow Sen. Hunter, who's expected to win, right out of the water as well as put the show "Focus" on top of the TV news ratings.

Working behind Alison's back Jake gets a letter of resignation that Jean gave her of speech writer Pattie Gongzales who quit the Hunter campaign. This when he grouped and molested her in his hotel room. Jake Having the distraught Mrs. Gonzales tricked into telling her story and then secretly taping it caused her to almost kill herself in a car accident. It later turned out that Patti was being blackmailed by Hunter to keep quite with information the he had about her when she was a US Army nurse in Vietnam back in 1973.

The movie goes on with the embattled Sen. Hunter forced to make a statement on election eve before the TV show "Focus" audience and answer the charges against him. The wily politician has the TV show have him on live not on tape. By that time Jean agreed to go public with the tape she made of Sen. Hunter harassing her and it looks like curtains for the sleazy office holder. There's one thing that Alison and those connected with the show didn't foresee and that was what was to be the shock that brought them back to earth and to reality in how no matter what you got on him Sen. Hunter's position of power and his willingness to use it no matter who it hurts or destroys.