The Absolute Truth (1997 TV Movie) User Reviews

" I Did Not Sexually Harass That Women "

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 18 May 2005]

American politics ? Very strange concept since Bill Clinton seems to have got up to all sorts of naughty stuff while he was in The White House and nobody it seemed could care less , then during the 2004 Presidential election between Kerry and Dubya the number one issue for voters was " morals " . Is there anything more fickle than an American voter I ask ?

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH centres around Alison Reid a television journalist who senses a story about Presidential candidate Senator Hunter who is such a dirty dog when it comes to women Bill Clinton has to lock up Monica . Oh and at no time is there any ambiguity - Hunter is completely guilty of sexual harassment , anything in a skirt is fair game for Horny Hunter .

I think this script might have confused the previous commentator who says the story doesn't make any sense after the shock twist at the end . It does actually make sense but because it's a TVM with Jane Seymour playing Alison Reid the audiences expectation is somewhat shaken when it becomes clear that it's not a self righteous moral story - It's an intelligent amoral story where the media is a double edged sword . I was slightly amazed the way the story turned out since as is often the case with these TVMs it's very run of the mill for the most part but the ending is totally unexpected which lifts THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH above countless other chick flick TVMs

A TV magazine and an apparently corrupt presidential candidate go head to head.

[arhude · 2/10 · 25 July 2000]

"Focus", an imaginary TV magazine, "discovers" that a leading presidential candidate is a sexual harasser. No one wants to come forward as a source until... This movie goes out of its way to try to keep you guessing (read that confused). It does a very good job, because in the end, the plot line is so twisted, if you look back, it doesn't even make sense.

Did you even vote today?

[sol-kay · 8/10 · 18 May 2005]

(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.

A charming villain is still a villain. Add power, and he's evil.

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 19 April 2023]

Topping in power his role as megalomaniac Gregory Sumner as "Knots Landing", William Devane plays a presidential candidate who seems like the sure thing, that is outside the fact that he not only sexually harasses women on his team but has possibly raped and threatened them as well. Investigative reporter Jane Seymour sees through that charm, especially since she's friendly with one of his victims and gets other information that with evidence could bring him down. Fellow reporter boyfriend Bruce Greenwood supports her, but when he aides her in taping one of Devane's victims against her will, it becomes more about ethical Investigative reporting than just the issues of Devane's actions, really driving Seymour to get the story while fighting distorted ethics in the desperation to get the story.

What impressed me about this well written and gripping TV drama is the fairness of the exposition, making it not a war on gender but the abuse of power and the abuses of the press to get a story. Devane is charming as long as he's working on impressing the public (or his next victim, dressed only in boxer shorts and a robe), completely manipulative, and despicable in ways that are nearly impossible to prove because of the fears of his victims. When Greenwood uses trickery to aide Seymour without her knowledge, even more issues are exposed, and it becomes like a combination of "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Network" while mixing in real life political scandal from the mid 90's. I like how this put many shades of grays on all of the characters so no one here comes off either all good or all bad. It's about the problematic mindets that makes powerful people do things they wouldn't have done had the lust for power or the biggest headline of their career gotten out of control.

This is a film that every business person and student should see and make a decision for his career.

[plamva · 9/10 · 24 January 2003]

I would really recommend this film to those who are interested in ethics in business and politics. How much of sexual harassment is around us? Do we just stand for our career or we want to change something for good? This is key questions for everyone to think after watching this movie. >

Precarious journalism behind closed political doors

[clanciai · 8/10 · 27 July 2023]

A film with Jane Seymour is always worth watching, since she acts well and usually takes part in very interesting subjects, often bringing up important issues. Here is a presidential candidate who is sure to be the next president, but he keeps harassing his secretaries. This is a subject that constantly keeps turning up again, the politicians never being able to risk their careers, avoiding scandals at any price, even telling lies and doing anything to get away with them, like Clinton about Lewinsky, Nixon about Watergate, the cases are innumerable, and sometime they get away with their lies. Here a news team has got a senator hooked by hard evidence, and he has even got assays with dirty hands before. The main argument of the film is about journalism ethics, do the journals really have the right to push the matter further even if their witnesses object, and is the absolute truth worth revealing at any price. There are no clear answers here, as the journalists have to keep their jobs and go on working, even if a dirty old man of a senator gets away by his manoeuvres. It's a documentary insight into political journalism carefully charting and navigating in troubled waters even involving personal tragedies, but no matter how much the truth is brushed aside and done away with, it will always remain there and sooner or later burst out into flames again.