MANNEN PA TAKET (MAN ON THE ROOF)

Sweden, 1976, 110 minutes, Colour.
Carl- Gustaf Lindstedt, Sven Wollter, Thomas Hellberg, Ingvar Hirdwall.
Directed by Bo Widerberg.

Man on the Roof is considered one of the best of Swedish police thrillers. It is based on a novel by the prolific writers Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Their main character is an inspector called Martin Beck. Here he is portrayed by Swedish comedian Carl-Gustav? Lindstedt.

The Martin Beck character was portrayed in a number of other films but especially during the 1990s in a series for Swedish television.

Another novel by the writers was filmed in the United States in 1974 by Stuart Rosenberg and Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern.

The film is almost semi-documentary in style, getting its impact from characterisation and plot development rather than the American-style car chase and tough investigation. The interest is on the situation, an angry man going onto the roof of a building to avenge his wife who died in police custody, under the care of the police lieutenant, Nyman, who is murdered at the opening of the film.

The film has intelligent writing, has strong characterisations as well as insight into the police thrillers – and it is interesting to make comparisons with the 1970s American thrillers, especially the Dirty Harry and the Popeye Doyle, French Connection series.

1. The quality of this thriller, enjoyment value, social and personal themes, crime and the modern city? Modern madness and crime?

2. The film was based on a popular Swedish novel and popular Swedish police characters. Was this evident from their treatment in the film? The particularly Swedish contribution of theme, plot, characterization, social environment? The impact for a Swedish audience, non-Swedish audience?

3. The importance of the city environment, the visualizing of Stockholm, the streets, the buildings? The police within this context? Ordinary people and the eruption of crime and the sniper Into their midst? Ordinary rescue within this context?

4. How authentic was the plot, the characterization of the police and their work? The film's concentration on police individuals, their work together, the role of the police force In a city, detective work, dangers etc.? The particular events In which they were involved as authentic? The less than sensational treatment? Documentary overtones? The possibility of an audience identifying with the police and the reality of the situations?

5. The focus on the detective* and audiences liking them and identifying with them? Ordinary, age, skill, family sequences, mutual loyalties, abilities in their work? The bonds between them? The focus on Beck as a character in himself, his quiet and practical wisdom, his heroics? An interesting detective? In comparison with the others?

6. The dramatic impact of the opening, the toughness and the violence? Sympathy for the murdered man? The horror of the brutality and gore? His being hospitalized? The transition to his widow? The gradual unfolding of the truth and the lessening of sympathy for him? How important was the initial sympathy for audience response to the murderer, to the police work?

7. The Chief of Police who was murdered and the comparison with Hult? Their work together, brutality even to killing people, the cover-up? The kind of police mania which is so brutal and has cover-ups? Hult as a person, his gradual involvement in the case, his sense of responsibility and involvement in the rescue?

8. Kollberg and his involvement? His heroics at the end? The up and coming young lad-policeman compared with Beck?

9. The various pieces of the plot about Nyman and the gradual revelation of the truth? Throwing light on his violent death? The police and the various interviews to find out what had happened? The searching out of the files to find why he was murdered? How convincing were these aspects of police work? The visit to the parents? The realization that he was the murderer?

10. The focus on the sniper, the visualizing of the sniper and his killing ordinary people in ordinary streets doing ordinary things?

11. The link between as the murderer and as the sniper? How credible was this kind of police work? As providing a strategy for Beck to cope with the situation? The devices of the helicopter, the police being lowered? The deaths of the police? The ordinary men involved (and the man without a gun licence?), the ordinary heroism of the people involved? Their skill? The requirements of extraordinary heroism, even of Beck?

12. Now well portrayed was the character of Eriksen, the deep hurt with the death of his wife, his police work and knowledge, the motivations and the growing madness, the murder of Nyman, his erratic behaviour? The motivation for his sniping? The sniper as a symbol of the person driven mad by the ills of society and taking his revenge?

13. How accurate was the social observation? Ordinary observation, points being made?

14. How accurate was the psychological observation of the sniper, the police and their work, brutal police chiefs and their assistants?

15. How well did the film blend the thriller ingredients, the police genre, social and psychological comment? A satisfying film?