Film Review: THE OFFENCE (1972, Sidney Lumet)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 112 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Directed by Sidney Lumet (DOG DAY AFTERNOON, Q&A, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, FAIL-SAFE, FIND ME GUILTY). Starring Sean Connery, Trevor Howard (BRIEF ENCOUNTER, an elder in SUPERMAN), Ian Bannen (nominated for an Oscar for FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, in Castellari's INGLORIOUS BASTARDS and Gibson's BRAVEHEART), Vivien Merchant (FRENZY). Based on the play and written by John Hopkins (THUNDERBALL).
Tag-line: "After 20 years what Detective-Sergeant Johnson has seen and done is destroying him."

Inside the man, there is another man. This is the issue at the heart of John Hopkins' masterful play, THIS STORY OF YOURS, which was adapted to film by the legendary Sidney Lumet (12 ANGRY MEN, THE HILL). One of the best, frequently overlooked, director/actor collaborations (which in my mind can stand tall beside the likes of Scorsese/De Niro or von Sternberg/Dietrich) is that between Lumet and Sean Connery (who was allowed to make his "little art film" as part of a deal with UA for playing Bond once more). He transforms 'Detective Sgt. Johnson' into perhaps his greatest role, and it's one of the great tortured souls in cinema, alongside Lorre in M and Milland in THE LOST WEEKEND.

Johnson finds himself in a terrible place, completely unsure of how he got there- his home life is a war of attrition between himself and the missus; his work life is a barrage of banality, bureaucracy, and brutality; and his inner life is an endless horrorshow- thousands and thousands of pictures and urges and compulsions that won't stop, that won't stop, no matter how hard he concentrates, no matter how hard he tries to extinguish them.

While interrogating an accused child molester, he subconsciously sees a chance for punishment, confession, perhaps even Tabula rasa, a clean slate. We delve deep, past the oppressive glow of the overhead lamp, into the darkest abyss... Perhaps the quotidian horror of it all can be best illustrated by a brief shot of a policeman, vacantly, aimlessly stabbing a pond with a stick, trying to find a child's corpse. As the suspect, Ian Bannen is absolutely brilliant- slimy, otherworldly, compelling:

As Johnson's higher-up, Trevor Howard brings his wise, lionhearted presence to the first character to stand up to Johnson's bullishness:

Visually, the film recalls the best of Melville and Roeg: fishbowl lenses, muted landscapes, entrancing slow motion, and fractured editing, which combine to build the perfect unsettling atmosphere. Truly one of the great films.

-Sean Gill

Film Review: RYAN'S DAUGHTER (1970, David Lean)

Stars: 2.5 of 5.
Running Time: 206 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Sarah Miles, music by Maurice Jarre, written by Robert Bolt, lensed by Freddie Young.
Tag-lines: "A story of love...set against the violence of rebellion."
Best one-liner: "There's loose women, and there's whores... and there's British soldier's whores!"

David Lean said, "Mitchum can, simply by being there, make almost any other actor look like a hole in the screen." And while that is, in fact, entirely true, RYAN'S DAUGHTER doesn't quite use Mitchum to his full potential.

There's plenty of moping around...

...and not quite enough of this.

This film has been called an 'overblown, offensive mess' as well as an 'underrated masterpiece,' and the truth of the matter lies somewhere in between. In the plus column, the visuals are magnificent. Using the 65mm Super Panavision frame as a canvas, DP Freddie Young paints some of the most monumental 'beach-scapes' ever committed to celluloid.

In the minus column, there's a fairly cloying score from the usually first-rate Maurice Jarre, a remarkably hamfisted and shallow portrayal of a mentally disabled man (by John Mills, who won an Oscar for it!),

Yeah.

and a 200 minute + run-time that isn't quite called for. So it's a mixed bag. The sort of mixed bag where Mitchum threatened suicide to escape his contract and Trevor Howard remarked, "Three hours was rather long for a trifling love story."

Trevor Howard, quick to anger.

But Mitchum must've cared somewhat (he does an Irish accent!), and he makes the best of things in his low-key role. He does get to be shirtless, teach children (Umm…probably not a great idea), and be cuckolded by Sarah Miles, so it's by no means a loss.

The lengthy shoot must've been quite something- between Mitchum's propensity for finishing bottles of gin in under an hour and Howard's inclination toward "making love to bottles of Chivas Regal," one can only imagine the year-long bender such a shoot inspired. One’s Blood Alchohol Content probably rises just from watching this. Howard broke his collarbone riding a donkey (while in his free time), Mitchum planted a marijuana garden and exposed the locals to his reefer, and Mitchum's 52nd birthday party became the wildest event to ever take place in Dingle, Ireland. Anecdotes aside, RYAN’S DAUGHTER is a breathtaking aesthetic force that never quite congeals as a narrative, but it's well worth the view for a Lean or Mitchum fan.

-Sean Gill