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The Offence

1973

Sidney Lumet

Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant, Ian Bannen ...

6.4

1,443

Drama. Thriller In Sidney Lumet's harrowing portrayal of police brutality, Detective Sergeant Johnson has been with the British Police Force for 20 years. In that time, the countless murders, rapes and other serious crimes he has had to investigate has left a terrible mark on him. His anger and aggression that had been suppressed for years finally surfaces when interviewing a suspect, Baxter, whom Johnson is convinced is the man that has been carrying ... [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Philip French The Guardian	"The atmosphere and performances are sustained at a terrifying pitch"	POS
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"for all its elaborate setting of scene and for all its introduction of subsidiary characters (...), sort of gets smaller and smaller, instead of bigger."	NEU
United Kingdom	Wendy Ide The Times	"The third collaboration between Sean Connery and the director Sidney Lumet is an unsettling glimpse into the toxic mind of a policeman"	POS
United States	Richard Schickel Time	"Lumet's direction strives to give to material that is neither edifying nor suspenseful a fake profundity, stretching it to unconscionable lengths."	NEG
United States	Clayton Dillard Slant	"Few genre films come as close to entering the abyss as Sidney Lumet’s 'The Offence' (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	TV Guide	"A powerful and complex performance by Connery is somewhat weakened by Lumet's typically stiff and stagey direction, which tends to sap the life out of the film."	NEU
United Kingdom	Jeremy Aspinall Radio Times	"Connery turns in one of his finest performances in this blistering psychological drama (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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