source: The Offence

The Offence

This film is a fine masterpiece by a masterful director. This is definitely one of the gems in his filmography, hardly known film, but a wonderful character study, a powerful insight in ones fears, and an example how any man can fall under the pressure of his own psyche. Connery is in one of his best roles, here, Bannen too. This film shows that there's something awkward in any man, and that the mind of a serial rapist can sometimes be less burdened than the mind of an ordinary decent man, who should protect the society from those, but can't handle it. All in all this one is highly ranked among the first five of Lumet's films. Not to forget the photography, which is brilliant as well, so deservedly I give it 10 out of 10.

This film, involving an unbalanced police detective, going after a suspect (a potential child molester) is about as intense as it can be. The point is that the police officer is as messed up as his suspect. He is determined to get the man to confess and is interrogating him without permission of his superiors. The man, however, is incredibly damaged and complex and has faced horrors in his life. Sean Connery plays the police officer, Johnson, and if one ever had any question about his acting ability, watch this film. It is an hour and a half of pure, claustrophobic intensity. I had never heard of this film but saw it listed on some "greatest" lists.

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 interrogation scenes between him and an excellent Ian Bannen, as the prime suspect in a child molestation case, are riveting. Hopkins' dialogue is uncannily subtle in its gradual illumination of the psychological states of its two antagonists. Vivien Merchant is exceptional as Connery's emotionally-drained spouse. Gerry Fisher's cold, muted photography perfectly captures the sterility and bleakness of post-modern England. This is not a fun film, but its truths about the fragility of the human psyche are eloquently conveyed.