BD 110 The Offence

[McCrutchy]

The Offence



After 20 years, what Detective-Sergeant Johnson has seen and done is destroying him. In their third screen collaboration, the iconic Sean Connery and director Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) plumb the depths of what is perhaps their most psychologically complex creation: a member of the British Police Force who has perhaps witnessed one horror too many.

Two decades into a career marked by fraught investigations into murders and sex crimes, Detective-Sergeant Johnson (Connery) loses all composure whilst conducting an interrogation with a suspected rapist, assaulting him and, subsequently, beating him to death. The lead-up to this moment is charted across the course of the film in a careful flashback structure... and the lines between guilt and innocence, protector and sadist, become ineradicably blurred.

Released only one year before the director's Serpico and almost a decade before Prince of the City, The Offence offers an early Lumetian investigation into the psyche of a policeman under duress, and the potential for corruption within a high-stakes profession. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Offence for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK in a special Dual Format edition.

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION featuring:

• New 1080p presentation of the film on the Blu-ray
• Optional English SDH for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Optional isolated music and effects track
• Video interview with stage director Christopher Morahan
• Video interview with assistant art director Chris Burke
• Video interview with costume designer Evangeline Harrison
• Video interview with composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle
• Original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a new essay on the film by critic Mike Sutton, a vintage interview about the film with Sidney Lumet, and rare archival imagery

[Person]

EDIT:Please sign my petition to get the film on Blu-ray, or at least a R1 DVD with extras.

Hi all,

So I posted on here a long time ago about my love for this film and my indignation at how it has been treated. I didn't see a thread for this film and I wanted to make sure that as many people read this as possible. Normally I would post this in an existing DVD thread, but it would probably get buried (EDIT: I see that it did).



The Offence is not on DVD at all in the US despite being directed by one of that country's most lauded directors and starring one of the most recognizable stars in film history (Sean Connery). The UK disc which came out in 2004 was bare bones without even a trailer. I bought it anyway and watch it on my PC.

When I heard it was being re-released on DVD (in the UK only) later this month I hoped that, just maybe, it would get some special treatment. A restoration perhaps, featurettes, or maybe...just maybe, a commentary of some sort.

I went to Amazon.co.uk and found the distributor, Optimum Home Entertainment. I looked for the title on their web site but it was nowhere to be found. I e-mailed Optimum and got no reply, I re-sent the e-mail and got this in reply:

The Offence is indeed out on October 20th.
I’m afraid there aren’t any extras on the disc.

Here's what I don't get...WHY???

There is no reason to re-release this that I can see. Because it has already become so unknown, there is only a small fanbase. Connery certainly isn't releasing a new film anytime soon, so that isn't a marketing factor. And then, there will be NO EXTRA FEATURES!

The only reasons I can think of think of are either that Optimum acquired a new bevy of titles and was contractually obliged to release it on their label, or the slight connection to the James Bond re-releases that will be out around the same time.

It seems that no one cares about this film at all. What a damn shame. Perhaps we will at least have restored picture and sound, but the tactics displayed so far cast strong doubt upon that happening.

The IMDb listing for the film (please see it if you can...spread the word!) The (now present) Optimum listing is here, Amazon.co.uk (2004 MGM UK DVD) links to the DVDs (2008 Optimum UK DVD).

Great film, I feel. I've seen it four times. I have no idea why Optimum have licensed this from MGM, yet have not upgraded their release. I uploaded the memory montage sequence to YouTube, btw.

Awesome. Every scene is amazing, I feel. "D'you have a fancy woman, a taaaaart, who gives ye cut rates for regular visits?"

[filmfan]

ANY word that Sean Connery or Sidney Lumet have, either asked that this NOT be released or whatever ?

It is a powerful film, and THE BEST, Sean Connery performance, but the subject matter, I'm sure, has something to do about this.

But of course, they will put out, their pairing, in THE ANDERSON TAPES, on that DREADFUL "Martini Movies" MESS, they came up with. GOD , knows "why" they came up with the lame series.

What they did to THE NEW CENTURIONS is criminal !

[McCrutchy]

ANY word that Sean Connery or Sidney Lumet have, either asked that this NOT be released or whatever?

I don't know for sure, but Connery certainly seemed passionate about the film at the time he made it. It was one of two projects he chose as part of his deal to return as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (the other, a supposed production of Macbeth, never materialized due to the failure of this film and the emergence of Polanski's version).

[jamie_atp]

This film is incredible. To repeat whats already been said, by far one of Connery's best performances. Would maybe fit into the BFI Flipside collection quite well if they could license it... Although I just realised its now on MGM b.o.d.
And I even posted on the thread announcing that. Must be the xmas drinking effecting my memory.

[Sloper]

Saw this the other day - extraordinary film. Connery's performance is so deranged and disturbing. He really delves all the way into this part in a way that I can't imagine many big stars being brave enough to do. James Bond's machismo will never look the same after this... He was terrific in The Hill as well, of course, but somehow still recognisable as Sean Connery, the strong, secure alpha male; there, when he cracked up, it was almost entirely because of the hellish circumstances he found himself in. In The Offence, the circumstances - the horrors this detective has seen over the years - are just the icing on the cake. I won't say any more, even in a spoiler tag, but what's incredible is the way Lumet uses careful editing and camera placement in the early scenes to prompt certain ideas in the viewer's head. I thought, 'No, that isn't where this is going' - and then very gradually and deliberately the film went there, and stayed there.

I adored the way Lumet photographed the grim Berkshire locations. At first it felt a bit like the world of Loach's Family Life - oppressive greys, greens and blues, middle-aged people in heavy coats scuttling around with a haunted look in their eyes. As the film goes on we become more and more immersed in the heavily stylised writing and acting, and the imagery too becomes more and more disturbing. The flashbacks are especially chilling. There's one 'memory' in particular - the one in the forest, you'll know what I mean if you've seen it - where it isn't immediately clear what you're looking at. Then you realise, and the image has the force of a nightmare, especially because Lumet has the good sense not to cut to a close-up. And the really awful part is that this imagery is less about documenting events and circumstances than about evoking one individual's psychological state. I love films that put you inside someone's head like this, especially when they're as bleak as The Offence. It is truly one of the most profoundly grim films I have ever seen, but also totally mesmerising throughout.

Having said that, I'm not sure the Trevor Howard character was necessary; it seemed like the information conveyed in that sequence (which is rather set apart from the rest of the film) could have been dealt with more economically in some other way. Still, it was nice to see Howard getting his teeth into the role, and the scene certainly contributes to the air of unreality which is so important to the effectiveness of the climax.

Speaking of the climax... Great as Connery is, the real acting honours here should go to Ian Bannen, about whose acting I've always had mixed feelings (in The Hill, for instance, I find him a bit mannered), but who gives a flawless performance in this film. I'd go as far as to say that the film's ultimate success is finally down to the strength of Bannen's acting in the final scene, which manages to focus all of the horror, strangeness and ambiguity of what has gone before and give them an emotional force that lends the whole story a tragic dimension.

[beamish13]

I don't have much to add, but I did want to remark on Harrison Birtwistle's extremely distinctive score for this film. It's reminiscent of the sound landscapes that Yamashta Stomu contributed to Altman's IMAGES and Saul Bass' PHASE IV, and it brilliantly punctuates the abyss that Connery's character is teetering into.

[Sloper]

Yes, the soundtrack is wonderful too - it accounts for a great deal of the immersive, hypnotic effect I was talking about before.

By the way, thanks to McCrutchy for setting up the petition, which I've signed. Here's hoping someone does this film justice soon.

[swo17]

Sean Connery stars as a burned out British Police Detective Sergeant in Sidney Lumet's THE OFFENCE on Blu-ray

Coming in 2015

[j99]

Superb film, and one I've liked since I first saw it in the 70s. Sean Connery and Ian Bannen are a terrific coupling as detective and accused respectively.

[McCrutchy]

I wonder if Sean Connery would be willing to be interviewed about this film now. I know he's retired and I believe he lives mainly in the States and the Bahamas, but he's also the only principal member of the production still alive, and at 84, this may be the last time he has to ever talk about this film, or his career.

It's very sad that MGM never made the effort with their European DVD in 2004--back then, even without Connery, they could have shot a good interview with Sidney Lumet, or at least sat him down for a director's commentary.

I've always understood that this was a passion project for Connery, one that he made with the money he got for Diamonds Are Forever. I'm almost certain he would turn them down, but I hope someone at Eureka at least makes an attempt to contact him (obviously, through an intermediary) and doesn't just assume that he would not do an interview.

[colinr0380]

I've always understood that this was a passion project for Connery, one that he made with the money he got for Diamonds Are Forever. I'm almost certain he would turn them down, but I hope someone at Eureka at least makes an attempt to contact him (obviously, through an intermediary) and doesn't just assume that he would not do an interview.

I'm glad that this film should finally get its due! Here's a quote from Julian Upton's review of The Offence in the book Offbeat: British Cinema's Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems on McCrutchy's point:

[After Lazenby quit as Bond]In some desperation, United Artists lured Connery back to Bond 'one last time' for $1.2 million plus twelve-and-a-half per cent of the box office gross, an unprecidented fee that the star duly donated to the Scottish Educational Trust. Connery was actually more attracted by the deal's other sweetener: the pledge by UA to fund, to the tune of $2 million, two of his subsequent 'personal' film projects.

As he auto-piloted through Diamonds Are Forever Connery's mind was clearly on these next projects, which now more than ever needed to cement his acting credibility. One was to be a new adaptation of Macbeth, with Connery starring and directing. The other, for which he'd re-teamed with Sidney Lumet, was a film version of a more modern but similarly brutal stage play, This Story of Yours...

....Not surprisingly The Offence bombed at the box office. Indeed, sometimes it feels like anti-entertainment...For United Artists, its failure proved an opportunity to backtrack on the Diamonds Are Forever sweetener. Connery's Macbeth project was duly cancelled (which it probably would have been anyway, since Roman Polanski had just released a version)...

...The film stands as a worthwhile reminder that, between the high-key antics of Bond and the scene-stealing character parts of his late middle-age, Connery was prepared to try something edgy and dangerous, to let us see how ugly he really could be.

[Sloper]

A wonderful and profoundly horrifying film - fantastic news that MoC are releasing it. Sean Connery's performance (and his investment in the project more generally) is almost unbelievably daring considering his fame and his typical screen image.

[j99]

A wonderful and profoundly horrifying film - fantastic news that MoC are releasing it. Sean Connery's performance (and his investment in the project more generally) is almost unbelievably daring considering his fame and his typical screen image.

It was a risky project, and the complete antithesis of his Bond persona, especially his character's empathy with the accused. It was a brave move for him to do this film. Never realised he put his own money into it.

[Drucker]

DVD Beaver gives a strong edge to MOC over Kino.

[McCrutchy]

DVD Beaver gives a strong edge to MOC over Kino.

The extras on this one seemed to pop up out of nowhere. A major win for Eureka to get some supplemental content done for this release, but still a great shame that Sir Sean couldn't be involved.

Hoping to be able to order it from Eureka soon.

[Drucker]

I won't say any more, even in a spoiler tag, but what's incredible is the way Lumet uses careful editing and camera placement in the early scenes to prompt certain ideas in the viewer's head. I thought, 'No, that isn't where this is going' - and then very gradually and deliberately the film went there, and stayed there.

As you so often do, Sloper, you helped me put into words what was so magnificent about this film. So many times I thought there would be a reprieve, some sort of release from the horror that Connery's character was undergoing. Surely:

SpoilerShow

The police would not arrest him. Surely the suspect wouldn't die. Surely he would be found innocent. Surely he would end up being right about the culprit in the end.

Alas, the film does not let the viewer off the hook. And the horrors that Connery relives as he drives home from work, post-suspension indicate that the events we see in the film are, as you put it Sloper, just the icing on the cake. There's no going back from the transformation he's already undergone. Visually, this sequence is incredibly uncompromising and brutal.

As a Lumet film, it defied my expectations in so many ways. In 12 Angry Men, Serpico, and Network, underdogs fight the good fight while being destroyed in the end. But their crusade is noble, and the characters are depicted heroically. This film blows everything I knew about Lumet out of the water. A grunting, impossible to understand turns of dialogue opens the film, and until Connery is home with his wife, we can't really understand what him or almost anyone else is saying. Is the fog of his life lifted once he takes another's life?

Connery's fate and the identity of the criminal are ultimately left unresolved. A perfect ending to a film which is so focused on the soul of a man, that the events that affect his soul are really secondary.

[David M.]

There is a big difference between the two 1080P releases. Firstly, the image quality - the UK transfer is over 12 Mbps higher than the Kino-Lorber and this shows up in warmer, more accurate, skin tones and significantly richer and deeper colors overall (scarves, grass, parrot etc. from the captures below).

Nope. Bit rate has basically nothing to do with skin tones or color.

The different (and knowing the process, more accurate) encoding process results in the gamma not being skewed. It has nothing to do with the bit rate.

[Orlac]

DVD Beaver really is amateur night for reviews...but kudos to MOC!

[tenia]

The issue with Gary is that he doesn't trust his eyes enough and ends up over-analysing the bitrate graphs, giving higher bitrate all types of benefits while, it seems, not knowing especially what's hiding behind.

[Gregory]

At Blu-ray.com, Svet gave the MoC a lower video score than a different reviewer had given the Kino Lorber, while scores for audio and extras went strongly in favor of the MoC, and the overall scores tied. (Kino really went all out on the extras for this release, providing a trailer in SD. No way would I pass up the MoC for that.)

[blueyes]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum but have been a regular visitor for years and find it very very useful. I've tought about registering many times before, every time I had a question or an issue to discuss, but have always been satisfied just reading. Now at last, I joined in.

I have recently bought MoC's The Offence and found an ever so slight sync problem with the audio on the BD. Has anyone noticed this? (I have checked onlive reviews, but there is no mention of it).

It was one of those things that at first I couldn't tell for sure, then I thought (although it would be very unlikely) that it could be inherent to the film (post-dubbing), but I decided to check the dvd (easy to do, since it is a dual-format edition) and it has no such problem! It happens throughout the film, and - as usual with this kind of problem - is more noticeable when someone claps their hands or sets a glass on a table. If one is sensitive about it, it obviously makes for an unpleasant viewing experience, as I am sure everyone here knows, and watching it right (on the dvd) made a world of difference.

Loved the film, btw.

[peerpee]

Sounds like you have a BD audio sync problem with your hardware. I had similar with a PS4 through a Sony receiver to a Sony TV. BDs on the PS4 had out-of-sync audio by a few frames. The same BD on a standalone player through the same receiver/TV played perfectly in sync, as did DVDs on the PS4. I had to alter the type of BD audio that the PS4 was outputting.

[blueyes]

Thanks for replying. I thought it might be that, but is it normal for that to happen with just one specific disc? No other disc has any audio problem. (The player is a simple sony S1500).

[peerpee]

Thanks for replying. I thought it might be that, but is it normal for that to happen with just one specific disc? No other disc has any audio problem. (The player is a simple sony S1500).

No, that's not normal at all – but it could be something to do with the type of audio on the BDs?

I'll pop mine in and see if the audio's a bit out (I'm very susceptible to it, and it bothers me a lot!)