Sidney Lumet Cast: Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, Rosanna DeSoto, Janet Carroll, Victoria Jackson, Bill McCutcheon, Deborah Rush, Marilyn Cooper, Salem Ludwig, Rex Everhart, James Tolkan, Marilyn Sokol, Thomas A. Carlin, Tony DiBenedetto Directed by Sidney Lumet. Can … The story, adapted by John Hopkins from his play, abounds in stylistic tics (recurring visual motifs, various events replayed several times, color coding), but the flashiness that pockmarked much of the director’s earlier work has been pruned to hushed, concentrated intensity. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Bannen is every bit his match as a complex, manipulative character who is at the same time sympathetic (as Connery's victim) and repulsive (for the sadistic delight he takes in pushing Connery's buttons). For reasons he cannot explain, he is driven to kill the suspect while interrogating him and is suspended from the force. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Sidney Lumet has never quite made a film like this before or since. From there, the film examines what drove the detective to do it, through individual scenes with his wife (Vivien Merchant) and the internal affairs officer investigating the beating (Trevor Howard). Directed by Christopher Morahan, it opened at London's Royal Court Theatre on 11 December 1968. In Sidney Lumet's harrowing portrayal of police brutality, Detective Sergeant Johnson's been on the police force for 12 years. This FAQ is empty. In 2004, MGM UK released a DVD of the film which contained no extras or trailers. Certificate: GP Connery has never been better, playing a character who is anything but invulnerable, instead being a bundle of nerves and frustrations which explode into violence at crucial moments. An ex professor offers Adam $1,000,000 to "get" some plasma from a high tech company's lab. When Connery agreed to return as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever, David V. Picker, CEO of United Artists, pledged to back two of Connery's own film projects, provided they cost $2 million or less, in association with Connery's own production company, Tantallon Films. I n a primer for the New York Times on the seven films featuring Sean Connery as the first and, in the eyes of most, best James Bond, Thomas Vinciguerra notes that Connery once referred to the role that made him an international star as “a cross, a privilege, a joke, a challenge. Lumet was keen to work with Connery again and accepted. 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. Two British former soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great. Was this review helpful to you? When a suspect (Ian Bannen) is arrested, the detective takes it upon himself to interrogate the man -- and ends up beating him to death. An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children. The nurse, in turn, falls in love with Charles' ne'er-do-well nephew Anthony, who plots ways to gain control of his uncle's fortune. Lumet thought the best way to acquire an all-star cast was to sign the biggest star first. His first project was the timeless 12 Angry Men, which was in collaboration with Henry Fonda and a huge critical success. His bottled-up anger and rage finally explodes whilst interviewing Baxter - a suspect in a series of brutal attacks on young girls, Throughout the interview, Johnson brutally beats Baxter, and reveals the state of his own mind's probably no better than some of the offenders who've comitted the crimes which disgusted Johnson originally. An all-star cast, a juicy whodunit, and A-list director (Sidney Lumet) lured Connery after he walked away from Bond (well, for the most part). Likewise, the movie looks ahead to the bathed-in-gray themes of Lumet’s later studies of law & order ambivalence -- Connery’s pressure-cooker copper, plagued with lurid images palpitating inside his brain, is the template for the protagonists of Serpico, Prince of the City and Q & A. Connery pinpoints some fantastic shadings of bullying, dissatisfaction and self-disgust, matched by Bannen’s peerless razzing — the culminating pounding is less liberating purgation than guilt transference, christened by Bannen’s bloodied leer.". I’ve not yet seen The Offence, in which Connery plays a burnt-out police detective who beats a suspected pedophile to death while interrogating him. His anger surfaces while interrogating Kenneth Baxter, who is suspected of raping a young girl. Ex-con Duke Anderson (Connery), backed by an underground mobster, assembles a skilled criminal gang with the intention of burgling every apartment in the block where his girlfriend (Cannon) lives. The Offence Action, Certificate: M Seeing potential in the story, Connery bought the option on the film rights and asked Hopkins to adapt the script for the big screen. 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. It stars Sean Connery as police detective Johnson, who kills suspected child molester Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen) while interrogating him. It is available as an exclusive from Amazon.com and contains no extras. Robin Hood, aging none too gracefully, returns exhausted from the Crusades to woo and win Maid Marian one last time. He starred opposite Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's last great masterwork, "Marnie" (1964), which he followed with the British-made crime thriller "Women of Straw" (1964) and Sidney Lumet's underrated war drama, "The Hill" (1965). To glimpse Sean Connery's magnetism, you might turn to a photograph of him in a tailored suit, leaning against an Aston Martin. An ex professor offers Adam $1,000,000 to "get" some plasma from a high tech company's lab. He did not win an individual Academy Award, but did receive an Academy Honorary Award, and 14 of his films were nominated for Oscars, including Network, which was nominat… From his success on 12 Angry Men in 1957, Sidney Lumet has created many gritty, excellent, well crafted films for over 50 years. [3], Connery had previously worked with Hopkins when the writer had co-scripted Thunderball and had seen the play during its original run in London in 1968. Tyrannical, but ailing, tycoon Charles Richmond becomes very fond of his attractive Italian nurse, Maria. Crime thriller directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery and Dyan Cannon. (1973). By the end of the interrogation, Johnson has severely beaten Baxter who is then taken to the hospital where he later dies. The Offence (197) IMDb 7.0 1 h 52 min 1973 R Sidney Lumet directs Sean Connery as a British police detective whose 20 years of handling murder, rape and other violent cases culminate in a deadly loss of control during a routine interrogation. The cast was as follows:[7], The first major revival of the play was directed by Jack Gold at London's Hampstead Theatre, opening on 5 February 1987 with the following cast:[8], Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/14/the-offence-sidney-lumet-dvd-review-sean-connery, http://www.londonpubtheatres.com/this-story-of-yours/4594169452, http://screenanarchy.com/2015/05/learning-from-the-masters-of-cinema-sidney-lumets-the-offence.html, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Offence&oldid=994704826, Articles needing additional references from March 2016, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Policemen - Edward Clayton, Steven Barnes, Oliver Maguire, Colin Pinney, Police Constables - Paul Fryer, Frederick Lane, This page was last edited on 17 December 2020, at 03:16. 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