Somnath Bhattacharya I happened to stumble upon this unrecognized masterpiece. Very few movies have actually quite managed to delve into deep human psyche, this one's that. Sean 'Bond' Connery seems to have been possessed by his character. His character's mind shows just how dangerous is the human psyche, it makes you feel it's not you somehow it takes you over and you become someone else. l years of working on crime scenes with child rape and murder, Johnson(Character) has had enough and is done with when something even more heinous shows up. His mind has seemed to arouse his interests in doing the crime that he's been working on. That's how evil a human psyche can get. Those moments between him and the accused Baxter shows.Well, this should have been received well by fans. I'm surprised with the low votes and ratings. Such a realistic way of portraying stuff. THE OFFENCE will surely leave you shaken.

Scott LeBrun "The Offence" is a gripping psychological drama starring Sean Connery, who plays Detective Sergeant Johnson. Johnson gets into a lot of hot water when he goes overboard and beats the almighty hell out of a suspect, Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen). Baxter seems a likely candidate to be the monster responsible for a series of assaults on children. The film begins with the immediate aftermath of the beating, then details the events leading up to it. An interrogator, Cartwright (Trevor Howard), is called in to grill Connery and get him to explain himself.Written by John Hopkins, based on his play, this film does betray a certain staginess. It's also going to be too deliberately paced for some tastes. And, in the end, it wasn't hard for this viewer to guess where the story was going. But even taking those things into account, there's a palpable level of tension in "The Offence" right from the start. It also has a striking look, because, with few exceptions, director Sidney Lumet and cinematographer Gerry Fisher avoid strong primary colours.Where Lumet succeeds the most is in getting some exceptional performances out of his actors. In exchange for agreeing to reprise the role of James Bond (for "Diamonds are Forever"), Connery had insisted that he get to do two smaller budgeted projects of his own choosing. "The Offence" was one, and an adaptation of "Macbeth" was the other; however, the latter project never came to fruition because "The Offence" didn't fare too well at the box office, and Roman Polanski beat Connery to the punch with his own version of "Macbeth".Connery, who'd also shined for Lumet in "The Anderson Tapes", is mesmerizing here. He's matched by the equally powerful Howard, and the pathetic (yet also perceptive) Bannen. Praise also goes to Vivien Merchant, in the role of Johnsons' wife. Connery has scenes with all three where you can just get lost in the performances.Overall, an intense study of a forceful, angry character.Seven out of 10.

tieman64 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.Much of the film simply consists of Connery and Bannen in an interrogation room. It's a battle of the wills, Bannen feigning innocence and Connery insistent that the man is guilty. Of course, everyone thinks Bannen is telling the truth, except Connery, who's been in the gutter so long he knows the mind of a criminal inside out.Not only does Connery know that Bannen is guilty, but he himself identifies with and understands how Bannen thinks. They share the same mind, they've both been to the filthy depths of humanity, both adept at inflicting hurt on each other.The film ends with Connery assaulting Bannen. Unconscious and on the verge of death, Bannen is taken to the very same hospital that his victim, the molested child, was taken. IE- Connery has become a "rapist" just like the man he hunted.Prior to this, flashbacks show Connery being interrogated by his superiors for killing Bannen. This interrogation mirrors Connery's interrogation of Bannen. The tables are turned and it is now Connery who is being questioned and bullied by superiors. IE- power structures hinge on the very dominant/submissive relationship so favoured by Ian Banner's child molester.7.5/10 – Director Sidney Lumet tries to break free of Hopkins' stage play by using flashbacks, slow motion and wonderfully moody exterior shots, but it's not enough. This is filmed theatre, far too stagy and reliant on dialogue.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU A small English film, well done and many other things, but the interest is not in the plot because we know from the very start who the rapist is. But the whole interest of the film is how the rapist does not know he is one, does not remember his crime and how his memory is going to come back little by little, though it will take him killing another – at least – man who managed to see through his official innocence. That shows how being a rapist is a very special crime. It is a secret crime that happens in the deepest depth of one's mind and of which the rapist himself is not conscious, though his subconscious, when it takes over to guide him through the crime, is extremely well organized and makes him do exactly what is necessary for him to succeed and to go through it without any problem or opposition. This subconscious is also strong enough to make him forget about the crime entirely so that he does not have to hide anything since he does not know any more, though he does not need his torch in the night to go back to the girl in the woods, and her reaction confirms in our eyes the fact he is the rapist even if he is trying to comfort her now. And yet that subconscious is trying to hide the tracks of the crime by looking for an easy scapegoat who would in a way or another accept, willy-nilly or unwillingly if necessary, to be the surrogate rapist. The transfer of another transfer, and that is the beginning of the fall of the rapist because he will become a criminal of his own. And we are set wondering how it is possible for a criminal of that type to mislead his surrounding co-workers or even relatives and acquaintances into believing he is an innocent good man. How can crime hide so well and so deep in a man's deeper layers of his personality? Apart from that tricky psychological side of the film, it is rather simple and uneventful. But just try to imagine how he is going to realize he is the rapist and how the people around him are going to realize he is the rapist. And we can only have a flitting picture of what he did to the various witnesses or people who are in his way to leveling the witnesses into the ground. Quite a bloody trail.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines