The Offence (1973)
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant
Synopsis:
Underage girls are falling victim to a series of sex crimes, and a detective sergeant interrogates a man he considers to be a breakthrough suspect. In the course of his brutal questioning, the police officer reveals to what extent his mind has been affected by the crimes he has had to deal with.
Review:
Connery's third film with Lumet, part of a U.A. deal in return for making Diamonds Are Forever, is a brave film with which to follow his portrayal of a different kind of state-sponsored killer. Its portrait of an urban dystopia (actually Bracknell, Berks.) with an ultra-modern police station interior recreated at Twickenham Studios, is a master stroke of atmospherics helping to fill out an essentially theatrical format: interrogation (shown three times in different ways), domestic with Merchant, questioning with Howard, etc. A sequence of traumatic memories serves to illustrate a later speech by Connery, and gradually we see the frustrated husband and brutish policeman meld into a character who could be the child molester in all but deed. A tough watch, then, and with a superbly unsettling score by Harrison Birtwistle, but brilliantly acted by Connery and Bannen. Above all, it credits its audience with the intelligence to work out that Bannen could not be the guilty party.
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant
Synopsis:
Underage girls are falling victim to a series of sex crimes, and a detective sergeant interrogates a man he considers to be a breakthrough suspect. In the course of his brutal questioning, the police officer reveals to what extent his mind has been affected by the crimes he has had to deal with.
Review:
Connery's third film with Lumet, part of a U.A. deal in return for making Diamonds Are Forever, is a brave film with which to follow his portrayal of a different kind of state-sponsored killer. Its portrait of an urban dystopia (actually Bracknell, Berks.) with an ultra-modern police station interior recreated at Twickenham Studios, is a master stroke of atmospherics helping to fill out an essentially theatrical format: interrogation (shown three times in different ways), domestic with Merchant, questioning with Howard, etc. A sequence of traumatic memories serves to illustrate a later speech by Connery, and gradually we see the frustrated husband and brutish policeman meld into a character who could be the child molester in all but deed. A tough watch, then, and with a superbly unsettling score by Harrison Birtwistle, but brilliantly acted by Connery and Bannen. Above all, it credits its audience with the intelligence to work out that Bannen could not be the guilty party.
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant
Synopsis:
Underage girls are falling victim to a series of sex crimes, and a detective sergeant interrogates a man he considers to be a breakthrough suspect. In the course of his brutal questioning, the police officer reveals to what extent his mind has been affected by the crimes he has had to deal with.
Review:
Connery's third film with Lumet, part of a U.A. deal in return for making Diamonds Are Forever, is a brave film with which to follow his portrayal of a different kind of state-sponsored killer. Its portrait of an urban dystopia (actually Bracknell, Berks.) with an ultra-modern police station interior recreated at Twickenham Studios, is a master stroke of atmospherics helping to fill out an essentially theatrical format: interrogation (shown three times in different ways), domestic with Merchant, questioning with Howard, etc. A sequence of traumatic memories serves to illustrate a later speech by Connery, and gradually we see the frustrated husband and brutish policeman meld into a character who could be the child molester in all but deed. A tough watch, then, and with a superbly unsettling score by Harrison Birtwistle, but brilliantly acted by Connery and Bannen. Above all, it credits its audience with the intelligence to work out that Bannen could not be the guilty party.