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By
Giacomo Tramontagna
Powertool
Rating: 3 Stars
Photographed, written and directed by John Travis. Edited by Dan Pack, Sam Deliloh, Mark Steel, and Josh Eliot. Music by Sonic Seduction. Starring Jeff Stryker, John Davenport, Michael Gere,
Brian Estevez, Jeff Converse, Tony Marino, Gary Owen, Danny Russo, Tom Mitchell, Tony Bravo.
How to order
John Travis has made better videos than
Powertool, but the presence of porn icon Jeff Stryker has given this 1986 production mythic status. Twelve years after
it won Adult Video News awards for Best
Video and Best Director, a "10th Anniversary Edition" of
Powertool has been released. This new version, prepared without Travis's involvement, has been digitally re-mastered, somewhat re-edited, outfitted with new
opening credits, and embellished with a new musical score by Sonic Seduction. The result is a mixed bag. Color sometimes varies from shot to shot. An effort has been made to intensify sex scenes that didn't need help. New
dubbing is frequently awkward.
In out-takes appended to this new edition, the star breaks character, laughs, and kids around, and we can see that underneath the merchandising campaign that is Jeff Stryker, there's a person. This almost
comes as a surprise. Stryker, who started life as Charles Peyton thirty-odd years ago in Springfield, Illinois, seemed intent on becoming a commodity from the start of his career. With input from Travis, he marketed the image of
a white-trash pretty-boy brimming with attitude. It helped that his sad-eyed pouty look recalled James Dean, and that his pants appeared to house an anaconda. But in
Powertool he exhibits a minimal acting range and a
shallow sexual repertoire. Confined to the county jail for 30 days, he masturbates while watching sex in a nearby cell, then fucks fellow inmate Jeff Converse, then fucks guard Tony Bravo. Viewers who are beguiled by the
Stryker mystique have always been offset by those who, after seeing
Powertool, have dismissed him as a narcissistic bore.
Powertool was made in the pre-condom era when HIV infection soared and the adult entertainment industry tried to pretend it wasn't happening. This new edition carries no disclaimers. It's troubling that it
is being marketed as a brand-new bauble to a generation of gay men who were still in grade school when it was made-- and being promoted at a time when industry resistance to "bareback" videos may be crumbling.
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