Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The Offence (1972)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Adaptation of a stage play (This Story of Yours) by John Hopkins (of Z Cars). Discreet as it is, the opening-out process (effected by Hopkins himself) has sabotaged the strange, claustrophobic duel in which a suspected child-molester (Bannen) and the cop obsessively convinced of his guilt (Connery) find themselves subtly changing places during the course of interrogation. Embedded in a 'realistic' police scene, dialogue and situations now have a ring of arty melodrama. Fascinating, nevertheless, with outstanding performances from Connery and (especially) Bannen.

Author: TM

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Garry said...
    Posted on Aug 03 2008 06:38 An ill tempered detective, eaten up inside by years of frustrations and morbid flashbacks, finally snaps and savagely attacks a suspected child molester. The theatrical origins of this gloomy psycho-drama are very evident, and Lumet seems to be struggling to give it some visual weight, resorting to some obvious cinematic devices- windscreen wipers mesmerising the cop to recall some of his most harrowing cases, odd camera angles, ghostly slo-mo etc. The director is further saddled by retaining some of the opulent soliloquies from the original play that seriously threatens to undermine the authentic atmosphere of a mundane police station, and it's macho culture. There are considerable plusses though: a serious attempt to tackle a very real problem of stress within the force as well the disappointments presented by sex generally; a genuine atmosphere of dread during the interrogation scenes; and the courageous and compelling performances from Connery, Bannen and Merchant that rmust ank amongst their best works.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


The Offence

Cast & crew

Director: Sidney Lumet

Producer: Denis O'Dell

Cast: Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant, Ian Bannen, Derek Newark, Peter Bowles, John Hallam full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 113 mins


Features

Different Strokes

Different Strokes

Chris Smith dips his toe into new waters in The Pool.

Street fighting men

BAM celebrates John Carpenter’s sci-fi-inflected rage against the machine.

Zoom in:

<em>They Live'</em>s Roddy Piper

The American experience

British comedian Steve Coogan gets in touch with his inner Yank in <em>Hamlet 2.</em>

Spanish intuition

Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall flirt away an Iberian summer in <em>Vicky Cristina Barcelona.</em>

Shadows and frogs

Crime pays in Film Forum’s expansive French noir series.

Strip tease

IFC’s new midnight-movie series revisits Hollywood’s groovy ’60s scene.

To air is human

<em>Man on Wire,</em> a new doc about a surreal Manhattan morning, aims high.