Bianca Ray is the chief executive of a giant corporation called "Mystique". The organization is also known as "Executive Development Training", or EDT.[1] Jack Nilsson is a decent all-American young executive.[2]
Top management executives are required to spend a weekend with Bianca at a hotel, where they are put under psychological pressure.[3] As a prerequisite to the training course, participants must sign a waiver giving the company the release to physically and psychologically abuse the individuals in the course.[2] The participants struggle with their shortcomings, such as obesity and alcoholism.[2] Another individual is a closeted homosexual, and a fourth is a transvestite.[1] At one point in the film, the obese trainee is forced to eat trash and discarded food in front of the other seminar participants.[1] Eventually, the seminar executives and their wives lose their inhibitions later on in the "consciousness-raising" coursework.[4]
A review in The New York Times described Circle of Power as an "attack on monolithic belief systems," and referred to it as "a worthwhile movie."[2]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, writing that "...it's an entertaining film with serious intentions." Ebert compared it to events reported in Boston newspapers about a man who died during a seminar, commenting: "Art anticipates life." Ebert questioned the conceit of the film, asking the question: "Could a major corporation get away with this brainwashing?"[3] The authors of the book upon which the film was based concluded their preface by stating: "And please remember as you read -- it's true."[6]
