Absolution

"Absolution" is a film that has somehow faded into the public domain. So, if you are interested in seeing it, you can download it for free from archive.org. Often IMDb links to this site but in this case, oddly, it has not.

The film is set at a Catholic boarding school. An incredibly humorless priest, Father Goddard (Richard Burton) teaches Latin at the school and in most of his dealings with the students, he's a nasty and cold man. He's so cold that he naturally breeds contempt in some of his students. And, this coldness and inflexibility will eventually be his undoing.

In the course of his work, Father Goddard has also managed to alienate a stranger--a drifter and a bit of a rogue (Billy Connelly). Instead of showing the love of God, Goddard is cold and dismissive of the man. However, because he does treat this man so poorly as well as students, one of the boys finds a kindred spirit in this drifter. They become friends and the boy starts sneaking out at night to spend time with the guy. Where does all this lead? Well, certainly NOT where you'd expect it to go!!! The film turns out to be a dandy suspense film--and one that kept me guessing many times. It's very interesting and worth seeing though I have one reservation. While the teens playing the students were pretty good actors, occasionally Burton seemed to overact. I know, he's well respected by many, but here he did seem to overdo it just a bit.

By the way, another part that didn't come off well was the violent scene involving a shovel to the head. However, I would say that although it looked fake, I am happy it wasn't more graphic!

Angry looking, twitchy Richard Burton stars as a priest at an all boys school. He's all for slapping down the disabled, annoying pupil while praising the sycophantic, sneaky pupil (I've forgotten their names already). Meanwhile, Billy Connolly of all people turns up as a drifter and after being told to bolt by Burton, sets up camp on the school grounds and begins to turn the sneaky pupil's head onto drink and drugs and living free.

Vexed by Connolly's free spirit and nimble banjo plucking, Burton sets out to get rid of the Glaswegian hippy and get his pupil to return where every adolescent boy belongs: in a school run by Catholic priests. Brian Glover appears as a policeman that gives out a good old seventies police kicking for good measure. However, the tables turn as the young pupil confesses that he's murdered somebody, but is he telling the truth or is it just all mind games to drive old rummy Burton out of his mind?

This film is deadly, deadly slow, but quite on purpose. It's yet another one of these seventies movies where the plot zigs and zags and somehow retains a dark atmosphere that modern films somehow can't quite emulate. There's very little by way of action, but one burst of violence took me by surprise in it's brutality (a nasty axe to the face scene). Burton looks genuinely annoyed at everything, and as this was Billy Connolly back when he was funny, he's enjoyable too. This is not a film for insomniacs but good for those with a bit of patience.

It's a gripping thriller, and Richard Burton is utterly convincing in the kind of role he was born to play (a rigid priest/teacher, but with traces of humanity underneath). But the constant flow of twists results in constant shifts in the characterizations, until the whole thing becomes too far-fetched for its own good. Nonetheless, it certainly didn't deserve its gross mistreatment by the American distributors, who released it ten years after it was made. (**1/2)

I wonder what it must have been like for Dominic Guard to play this really pretty manipulative role opposite Richard Burton. Whatever nerves or awe he may have felt is very well disguised, though, as he turns in a super performance as the young student "Benjie". His teacher - "Fr. Goddard" (Burton) is a man of profound faith and little tolerance of, or interest in, his students. The former alights on a plan to torment the latter by making a false confession - safe in the knowledge that this confession must be taken to the grave. The priest believes, investigates and discovers it is a practical joke. Soon, though, he is being subjected, regularly, to more equally heinous confessions and after discovering that there is truth to one of them, he slowly he begins to lose the plot. The pace builds well, the performances from the two and from David Bradley's slightly OCD "Arthur" giving us quite a sense of tension, and the last few scenes offer us a pretty brutal and unexpected series of twists. Burton is immersed in the role, and though maybe a little hammy towards the end manages to work well with the two younger actors to create quite a tense drama. The narrative also opens up to scrutiny the concept of "blind faith" - however well intentioned, and encourages thoughts on the pros and cons of any form of religion-based eduction.

Richard Burton plays a priest in Absolution. I know, his real-life persona was very un-priest-like, but that's why it's called acting! I mean, Frank Sinatra played a very convincing priest in The Miracle of the Bells, and he was just as un-saintly as Richard Burton in real life. Anyway, Burton gives a great performance as a man of the cloth. He's conflicted and pained, and when he even hears about a sin, you can see him struggling not to take it as a personal insult.

He's a teacher and mentor in a boys' Catholic school, and during one of his lessons, the boys ask about the rules during confession. If someone confesses to a crime, will the priest turn him into the police? Burton answers, almost directly into the camera for the audience's benefit, that the priest is bound to silence and can't call the police if he's told of a crime. Then, surprise! One of his students confesses a murder.

Granted, if this movie had been made today, it would be a lot more gruesome, and probably have a few more twists and turns. But it was made in 1978, and so if you watch it, keep that in mind. There are a couple of violent scenes, but nothing overly graphic. And I thought it was thrilling, with enough twists and turns to keep me on the edge of my seat. It's a lot of fun to watch a manipulative, snot-nosed student take Burton to the brink of insanity!