In my experience,police officers who beat up suspects do it because they can,some of them evidently enjoy it.They are selective about who gets a slap.Few bank robbers or professional crims of that calibre are victims of police brutality;and here we must differentiate between being hitting somebody out on the street to effect an arrest and beating them up in the safety of the Custody Suite or in the cells. User Ratings The Offence. But this is really Connery's film. A wet gray chilly England is the setting. | Policemen will beat up suspects because it is often a remarkably effective way of eliciting a confession - albeit one that is usually withdrawn subsequently.I have never known a policeman to beat up a suspect because the "horrors" of the job had got to him ior he was having a bad time with his marriage. Lumet jabs his camera tight in queasy examination of Connery's facial contours while his editing choices uncover the sins beneath Johnson's skin. at worst it's dated, at best it may include Connery's most phenomenal lead performance, "I'm hearing the words, but...they're not making any sense...". Sign up here. Offers. ... Movie Reviews Presented by Rotten Tomatoes. However, if anything, "Psycho" tried a little too hard to be frightening, so that, in the end we came away feeling that the subject was one of fear itself more than of the thing that made us fearful. He should have won an Oscar for this. Rated the #57 best film of 1973, and #3196 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). The Offence is directed by Sidney Lumet and adapted to screenplay by John Hopkins from his own play titled This Story of Yours. Directed by: Sidney Lumet. SEE DETAILS. A rigorous and gruelling ascent to the furthest echelons of bleakness, Sidney Lumet's The Offence is a uniquely disturbing crime drama based on the stage play 'This Story of Yours' by John Hopkins that boldly explores the psychology of police officer … The whole cast is excellent in their respective roles. its a hell of an… Cinafilm has over seven million movie reviews and counting … Shop The Offence [Blu-ray] [1973] at Best Buy. Whenever Sidney Lumet and Sean Connery get together, the subject seems to be sadomasochism. But anyone in doubt of his ability as a proper thespian need look no further than his grim, tormented portrayal of a cop who has seen one too many dead bodies in Sidney Lumet's The Offence, a huge flop at the box office and a film now faded into memory, ripe for a re-discovery. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. | It stars Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard and Vivien Merchant. "The Offence" (1972) was a well-acted Sidney Lumet directed story that kind of misfired for me because the film told its story too ambiguously, while leaving one with a lot to think about, but it is, upon second and third viewings, cloudy. Remarkable, dark, disturbing film. X. It is essentially a two-hander for the most part with Connery and Ian Bannen (as the paedophile) trying to get the better of one another in the interrogation room of a police station. Gerry Fisher's cold, muted photography perfectly captures the sterility and bleakness of post-modern England. When is The Witcher season 2's Netflix release date? The Offence is at core three dialogues featuring Connery - with Bannen, wife Vivien Merchant and superintendent Trevor Howard - compellingly verbose, John Hopkins adapting from his own play, and adroitly managed by actors' director Sidney Lumet. This film is a work of sheer dramatic brilliance and is connerys best performance on film. It did find an audience on television where it was regularly repeated. The film explores Johnson's varied, often aggressive attempts at rationalizing what he did, revealing his true motives for killing the suspect in a series of flashbacks. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. An English police officer, Sgt. Read full review. Sean Connery was a perfect, suave James Bond, and many of his later films were just audience-pleasing parodies, but this man can act. One of the best was The Offence. Metacritic Reviews. This week's films. This is a superb psychological thriller with a brilliant lead performance from Sean Connery. In 1972, Sean Connery, to his great credit, leveraged his power as the ongoing James Bond to get a number of films made that may not have been otherwise. I've met good cops,bad cops,gay cops,straight cops,honest cops,bent cops,cops who deserved to be in the Company of Saints and cops who deserved to be in a secure Mental Institution,but I never met that cop so beloved of writers and movie makers,the "Burnt - out" cop.Some police officers do beat up suspects.That is a fact.Some people are corrupted by power;that is also a fact,and police officers regularly exercise power,it is what we pay them to do.If you want to know the time - buy a watch.If you want to cross the road - find a Lollipop Lady. Instead, Lumet stays on Connery calming the girl till she submits to care, and takes his time with it, too. Cinematography is by Gerry Fisher and music by Harrison Birtwistle. Starring: Trevor Howard, Sean Connery. Based on a play by John Hopkins, "The Offence" stars Sean Connery as a violent policeman on the hunt of a child molester, played by Ian Bannen. Connery's character (Sergeant Johnson) would have probably lived out his career, and his life, literally drowning in his sickness and misery, but for his meeting with Baxter, a suspected child molester and murderer. The interrogation of the prisoner played by the superb ian bannen is fraught and uneasy as a battle of wills minds and psychology unfolds,the intensity of this film bears similarity to the claustrophobic feel of the jury room in twelve angry men, or even the warehouse in reservoir dogs, although the plots are in no way similar, this film is a must see for anyone who likes well acted well scripted tense drama, it is an unfairly forgotten gem, miles better than other better known movies of the time. Connery's cop has seen too much in his 20 yrs on the force. Director Sidney Lumet ("12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", "The Verdict") has found a very interesting style for this picture about a police detective's wrong way of dealing with his problems and the evil in the society around him. The Offence came out in 1972 as Sean Connery was desperately trying to break away from his James Bond image. Sean Connery is more a superstar than an actor. Sidney Lumet's new film, "The Offence," takes place in a suburb of London, not an old suburb but one of those barren new suburbs still in the process of … It stars Sean Connery as police detective Johnson, who kills suspected child molester Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen) while interrogating him. This film is a fine masterpiece by a masterful director. The film was in some ways spoiled but not ruined by the pretentiously arty way it was directed by Sidney Lumet. With 'The Offence', Hopkins took this philosophy to the limit and created a stunning portrayal of latent evil emerging from the wrecked personality of a good man. Was it the pressures of the job...or something else? he plays a British policeman who interrogates a man arrested on suspicion of a crime against a child, we see the character played by connery exposing his own frailties while exploring his past. A brilliant scene, however, does not in itself make for a brilliant overall feature. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Gritty police programmes are now so much a part of the TV landscape that it is hard to realise that a feature like The Offence once packed quite a punch. Although the story has become a staple of films and TV police dramas since this, it still hasn't been done quite so well. The third collaboration between Sean Connery and the director Sidney Lumet is an unsettling glimpse into the toxic mind of a policeman who has been polluted by the horrors witnessed over the course of his career. It is an adaptation of John Hopkins play "This Story of Yours." How can a man see such things and still stay sane? Arguably the best of Sidney Lumet's British films, this one benefits from a brilliant script by John Hopkins and a tour-de-force performance by Sean Connery as a cop who's been pushed too far. The same man can make a lurid, trashy potboiler like Guilty as Sin, and fire back with a lugubrious British police procedural, namely 1972's The Offence. When Connery first finds an abducted child in the woods early in the film, the scene isn't punctuated with the search's success. A powerful and complex performance by Connery is somewhat weakened by Lumet's typically stiff and stagey direction. Don't have an account? Lumet's eye for these soul-sucking landscapes is brilliant - better than that of most English directors. I've seen many movies that undertook the subject of evil. The point is to capture my instant thoughts about a movie and my overall film diet for 30 days, as well as post interesting links to the film in question. This is without a doubt Sean Connery's finest screen performance.Sidney Lumet conducts the whole affair with his usual precision and expertise. Offers. This unrelentingly somber policier inaugurates a newfound force in Lumet's work. There's a powerful confrontation of authority and accused between police sergeant Sean Connery and suspected child molester Ian Bannen in Sidney Lumet's The Offence. Sean Connery is as brilliant as in Lumet's masterful prison drama "The Hill". After returning to save the James Bond franchise with "Diamonds Are Forever," Sean Connery made a complete left-field choice for his next role. Grim but rewarding character study with a great Connery performance. The treatment of evil in most other films is either too underplayed to make us think hard about what evil really is, or is a typical Saturday afternoon cinema thriller like "The Exorcist" and its myriad of clones which are generally steeped in outward physical manifestations that all too often seem more of an excuse for showing off their latest special effects arsenal than anything. Hopkins' dialogue is uncannily subtle in its gradual illumination of the psychological states of its two antagonists. But why? Cast, plot and latest news 09 Nov. A series of sex attacks on children is just the latest in a long line of horrors to be dealt with on a daily basis. This is a searing film, which creeps up on you, and stuns you with sudden realizations. THE OFFENCE is an adaptation of a stage play 'This Story Of Yours',written by John Hopkins,about a senior police officer who eventually cracks under the strain of experiencing and witnessing horrific crimes and inhumanity over many years. A filmmaker who somehow opened up Murder on the Orient Express, a film entirely set on a train, but couldn't take Long Day's Journey Into Night off the stage. The Offence is based on a play, and it shows. You don't go to see a film like this if you're seeking jolly weekend entertainment. The Offence presents audiences with an overwhelmingly bleak rumination on evil. 'The Offence' is one of the few films which accurately captures the bleak, estranged architecture of the many English New Towns that sprang up in the 50's and 60's. Price Match Guarantee. Netflix ... Daleks! Trevor Howard and Vivien Merchantappear in major supporti… "The Offence" (1973) is well-photographed by Gerry Fisher (who also did the cinematography for two other Lumet films: "The Sea Gull" and the great "Running on Empty"). The Offence was a box office bomb, not because it is a hopelessly weak film but because the grim subject matter and the relentlessly bleak tone were too challenging for general audiences. Every 4 Tickets = $5 For You. Well-made,well-acted,but with a fatal flaw. Once seen, not a film to be forgotten easily. and the Terms and Policies, Very few locations- interrogation room, police quarters, a few outdoor scenes, Johnson's home- are punctuated by a whole lot of men (and one woman in a scene) talking in rooms. Embedded in a 'realistic' police scene, dialogue and situations now have a ring of arty melodrama. THE OFFENCE. Read full review. "Peeping Tom" was certainly creepy and disturbing, but in all the wrong ways. The performances are extremely good. The Offence is a 1973 British crime neo noir drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, based upon the 1968 stage play This Story of Yours by John Hopkins. The Offence Synopsis. The majority of villains who try to resist arrest will accept a few blows mano a mano on neutral ground,but that is a very different thing to being systematically beaten whilst curled up in a ball on the floor of the police station.They can respect a copper who takes them on in the street,but it doesn't take much of a man to give them a hiding in front of his mates because he thinks it makes him look hard. It is a rather hard film to watch, and is definitely not a film that encourages repeat viewings, but there's no denying Connery's mesmerising presence nor the horrifying, probing nature of the story. 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