The Offence (1972, Sidney Lumet) - Memory Montage

The brilliant and disturbing montage of Detective Sargent Johnson's (Sean Connery) dark memories from twenty years in the police force.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Sidney
• Lumet
• Sean
• Connery
• Trevor
• Howard
• Offence
• police
• paedophile
• disturbing
• Birtwhistle

[WarrenCromartie2]

I remember this being filmed just over the road from where i lived. I was about 4 at the time!

[GordonMorrice]

@WarrenCromartie2 Cool! Did you see Connery?

[xandy1959]

it was a film of a stage play

[GordonMorrice]

Indeed it was. The play was titled, "This Story of Yours" (1968) by John Hopkins who also wrote the screenplay.

[Soundtrackcollector]

Uncomfortable film in parts, however a must-see-that-again DVD.

Well done for putting this one on - thanks.

[spurtfather]

Just watched this last night on DVD (at last!!!!) Some film, Connery is on career peak as is the utterly amazing Ian Bannen. Maybe because Lumet was an outsider looking in but his vision of 70's Britain is like nothing I've ever seen before. The way he shoots roads, estates, carparks, flats and offices just blew me way. Like the most Ballardian of urban nightmares. This scene is a prime example. The scene when Bannen 1st appears, wandering shell-shocked down a walkway, is genius. great entrance!

[DougPatton1]

True too @JACKANDJAY10: The psycho-drama here which should be frequent required viewing for debate, is about the same primal urges hidden by 'PC/Pure Cowardice', and aired in another underrated classic 'The Wicker Man', cited by the most prolific film-actor of all time, the honest Christopher Lee, as his best ever. The 'suspect' was not charged and he knew as was being beaten up that the grossly overcompensating 'bent-cop' was revealing his own primal urges, now rightly refined as 'Lurve'.

[JACKANDJAY10]

@DougPatton1.whatever the content of any film,i suppose you could always "wonder'' what's going on in the creative minds of the people who produce the piece..as in Sean Connery for this film.Apparently the offence was a flop and part of a deal struck by Connery with UA.The film must have raised more than a few eye brows at the time..I'm going to open myself to ridicule now.!.Am i imagining it, or was Ian Bannens character never actualy formerly accused of the "crimes" ?..or meant to be obvious.?

[DougPatton1]

True@JACKANDJAY10, but the post-1970s/FraudMarket-ongoing fact is that so called stars can't expose themselves to ridicule by confounding today's 'Received Ignorance'/Junk-Meeja about true pedophilia-adultophilia of which the shallow ignorant masses are allowed to know squat. Ironically they know about as much as the joke James Bond knows about true spying=SQUAT! J. Irons made a brave defence of 'Lolita'/1998 with a friend's positive account of her experiences, but now he's folded too. LOL-ita.

[JACKANDJAY10]

@Lowerthetone1 ..That Film 72 footage would have made a great extra for the dvd.I bought it around 2003/4 and the quality seems pretty good for the film itself,just a shame no one could be bothered to add any extras's.:/

[JACKANDJAY10]

@DougPatton1 Sometimes i almost see it as an insult to the people who loved the film, when actors dismiss their work.On a completely different level - the way James Bolam dismisses the Likely Lads.

[JACKANDJAY10]

@DougPatton1 Sus which came out last year was pretty grim.About a black guy being wrongly interrogated for murder on the night Thatcher took power in 1979.Funnily enough,remined me off this fil and my reason to watch my dvd of this again.

[JACKANDJAY10]

@WarrenCromartie2 ..where about was it filmed Warren.? cheers.

[mszl]

Does anyone have access to the original screenplay?

[viejoratondeltiempo]

those flashbacks of connery's worst experiences as a cop... the sound of the breaking glass and the train. Sidney Lumet is truly a legend.

[SDP1677]

@GordonMorrice yeah I saw Connolly. Brian Connolly from Sweet