Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19781 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-20
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Synopsis
Detective Sergeant Johnson (Sean Connery, in a career-defining role) has been on the Force for twenty years. He has seen too much dying, too much lying and too much maiming. When confronted with a suspect in a child-molesting case, he can no longer contain his fury.

Customer Reviews

"This story of yours..."
The Offence tends to have been relegated to a trivia question these days (what was the film United Artists agreed to make as part of their deal to get Sean Connery to play Bond in Diamonds Are Forever?). On some levels it is dated, but the power of Connery's truly extraordinary performance is undiminished. A man almost totally morally decayed by the horrors of the job who sees something he recognises in himself in the suspect in a series of child-rapes (an almost equally impressive Ian Bannen), with terrible consequences, it's a ferocious outpouring of anger and contempt crying out for help he simply won't accept. The eternally under-rated Sidney Lumet's direction is bold and cinematic despite the theatrical origins (the play Something Like the Truth by Thunderball co-writer John Hopkins), the film's dulled palette mirrored by the half-finished grey concrete of the modernist police station: with its large windows looking out at pure blackness, it's more a reflection of the character's state of mind than an attempt at a realistic representation, but it's an entirely appropriate arena.

Connery directed by Lumet
Anything directed by Sidney Lumet is worth considering and this is one of his very best. A dark and disturbing story, featuring two brilliant performances by Sean Connery and Ian Bannen. Its no coincidence that 'The Hill' from eight years earlier was also directed by Lumet and featured Connery and Bannen.

Connery is Sergeant Johnson a Policeman who after twenty years of dealing with murders, rapes and other violent crimes has had enough. Bannen plays child molester Kenneth Baxter who Johnson has to interrogate. His interrogation is brutal and Johnson starts to doubt whether he is any better than the man he is interrogating. This is a grim and depressing film throughout with the strain and stress of work affecting Johnsons homelife as well as his professional life. Somehow though its a film that I always enjoy when I see it again. I think this is down to Connery's massive screen prescence, a good script, and one of the best Directors of the 1970's.

This is only a 15 on DVD in the UK, but some may find the subject matter and general downbeat nature of the film off-putting. If in doubt I would rent it first.

Totally absorbing, wholly underrated
This is a marvelous film. A watertight script, neatly edited and a chilling score from Harrison Birtwistle. It is rare to find a film that is so accomplished, yet so utterly neglected of its place in cinematic history.