Dark Forces

Year releasted: 1980

by Nathan Rabin
October 17th, 2001

Even under the best of circumstances, politicians' lives are fraught with dangers and anxieties, ranging from the threat of assassination to the constant pressure to campaign and raise money. The 1980 film Dark Forces suggests that they might also face a more extreme threat: flamboyantly dressed, faith-healing magicians/ entertainers with magical powers and sinister designs on public servants' families. Robert Powell plays one such figure, a mysterious drifter first seen entertaining in clown garb at the party of Mark Spain, a leukemia-stricken tot affectionately described by his mother (Carmen Duncan), the trophy wife of morally compromised senator David Hemmings, as the "marred fruit of a godless union." As the marred fruit of a godless union, Spain despairs of leading a normal life until Powell re-emerges--sans clown makeup, but dressed in what appears to be a homemade Jedi uniform--and cures the boy. Naturally, Hemmings' advisors are suspicious of the spooky-looking Rasputin and his sinister influence on the senator's family, but Duncan and Spain soon accept him as a suitable replacement for Hemmings, particularly after he teaches Spain how to make irritating high-pitched noises with his mind. After Spain, Powell, and Duncan reinforce their newfound feelings of solidarity through a brisk getting-acquainted photo-montage sequence, Powell runs into trouble when he appears at a snooty political function dressed like a leather-clad villain from Superman II and lightheartedly pretends to chop off the finger of an old woman. Powell's stunt earns him a one-way ticket to the slammer, but not even iron bars can hold a man with mind-boggling mental powers and a wardrobe worthy of Cher. In one last grasp at power, Powell enters Hemmings' home dressed as a harlequin and attempts to win favor by floating and shooting bolts of energy at the senator. Instead, he's brought down by a hail of bullets, which seem to work just as well on levitating, telekinetic evil geniuses they would on more mundane bad guys.