THE OFFENCE

UK, 1972, 113 minutes, Colour.
Sean Connery, Trevor Howard,, Vivien Merchant, Ian Bannen.
Directed by Sidney Lumet.

The Offence is strong, meaty drama with a different slant on police problems, especially brutality - the brutalising effects on the man who lives with crime, investigation and an obsession with finding a criminal. Sean Connery gives a powerful performance as the disintegrating sergeant whose mind and feelings are filled with lurid self-hatred. He encounters a suspect who mirrors his distorted self, his wife trying to help him and an officer probing and interrogating him, Ian Bannen, Vivien Merchant and Trevor Howard all acting excellently. Sidney Lumet directs forcefully with some gimmicks. The Offence is not a pleasant film, but it has something to say about the support needed for men working in difficult social jobs.

1. The meaning of the title: whose offence? The tone of the title?

2. How much did the style of the film contribute to its mood and meaning: lighting, colour,. the use of slow motion, the English setting, the police station locations,, the slow electronic music etc.?

3. How important dramatically was the structure of the film? The slow motion assault at the beginning? Its later repetition? our first judgements on Johnson? Our later knowledge of what happened? The structure of Johnson's memories as drove home? The style of phases of the interview with Cartwright merging into each other?

4. How well could an audience identify with Johnson? Identifying with him in his plight? But not with him in his violence?

5. How sympathetic a person was he? How well was his character explored and portrayed? Sean Connery's style? The fact that he was always a sergeant and would always remain so? His expectations in life and in his job? His hopes and ambitions, his sense of duty and the ways these were expressed in his memory flashbacks? The happiness and unhappiness of his marriage? Keeping his work to himself? The obsessions and deep passions within him. his unwillingness to recognise these, his identity breakdown, his breakdown in his conflict with Baxter, the meaning of his relentless pursuit and violence of Baxter? Was he a typical product of twentieth century society?

6. How well did the film communicate the police atmosphere: the police station the crime. the police search,, Johnson's home background etc.?

7. How important for the film and its interpretation of Johnson's crisis was the background of searching for the child. the detail of the police work. Johnson's participation and finding the girl? The importance of the close-ups of his confrontation with the girl and his passions and his struggle with himself?

8. How interesting was the portrayal of the other police? The chief the ordinary policemen? The picture of the searching out of suspects?

9. How interesting a character was Baxter? The audience's sympathy for him and lack of sympathy for him? Did audience attitudes change? His role in confronting Johnson with himself? Baxter as a reflection of Johnson?
10. The dramatic importance of the sequence of Johnson and his wife? Meeting with her after his assaulting Baxter, the clashes, the lack of support. the appeal for support,, her willingness to help him.. the way that he poured out his memories and feeling to her,, the madness and confusion, the violence and her illness? How insane was he? How credible was her reaction; should she have given more support?
11. The clash between Johnson and Cartwright? The initial clash and Cartwright's pre-suppositions? The games that they played with each other in the interview? Johnson's protecting himself? Cartwright's status on the force? That he had moved from sergeant into more official ranks and Johnson would not? His bullying, the self-knowledge he used and his attempts to get Johnson to self-knowledge? Johnson's satisfaction in having protected himself?

12. The importance of the sequence between Johnson and Baxter and the fact that it was kept till last, when we knew that Baxter was dead and Johnson arrested? Who controlled whom? The credibility of the games that they played with each other? Baxter hooking Johnson's dependence? Baxter's memories and his stories about bullies he controlled at school and later? Johnson's growing dependence on Baxter while still relentlessly pursuing him? Baxter as the mirror of Johnson's soul? Johnson's horror and helplessness? Baxter's helplessness, his fear of violence and Johnson's violence? The mirror of his thoughts? Baxter's condemnation of Johnson's thoughts?

13. Was Johnson's killing Baxter inevitable? Why? was this presented credibly in the dram of the film? As explained by Johnson? Did Baxter expect to be killed?

14. The picture of society in itself and its affect on ordinary persons? On the police?

15. The picture of the police and justice? Who helps the police in their worries?

16. The themes of sanity and responsibility in society? The personal individual and law enforcement? Hope in society. how pessimistic was this film?