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.

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!

Coincidentally, this is the second thriller I see in the span of a week that deals with the Catholic seal of confession as a main theme. The other one was the almighty Alfred Hitchcock's "I Confess", which is obviously a totally different kind of film (*), but nevertheless very fascinating to see how the concept of the supposedly holy and inviolable privacy of confession forms the inspiration for intense, grim and robust thrillers. And, mind you, then I haven't even mentioned Pete Walker's raunchy "The Confessional Murders" (a.k.a. "House of Mortal Sin") yet!

"Absolution" is a very compelling and original thriller, albeit admittedly one that too patiently takes its time to unfold. This shouldn't come too much as a surprise, since the scriptwriter is none other than Anthony Shaffer. He made himself immortal with screenplays like "Sleuth" and especially "The Wicker Man", and they are definitely also slow-brooding and unsettling stories with a heavy focus on character development. Richard Burton is truly great as the humorless Father Goddard; teacher/head priest in a strict Catholic boarding school for boys. When his prime pupil, of whom Goddard was certain he'd become an exemplary priest, suddenly develops a rebellious streak because he befriends a free-spirited drifter (Billy Connolly), things quickly escalate. The student, Benjamin, plays a vicious prank on Father Goddard and desecrates the holy confession, but things even get worse when people turn up murdered and fellow students missing. Also typical for an Anthony Shaffer screenplay is that nothing is what it seems, and the finale keeps some extreme violence and couple of surprise twists in store. I also would have preferred "Absolution" to kickstart a bit sooner, so that the first 40-45 minutes weren't so difficult to struggle through, but the second half is really good. Apart from Burton, there are great performances from the young actors Dominique Guard and David Bradley, and the climax is downright fantastic. Slightly predictable, maybe, but definitely satisfying for fans of grim horror and downbeat endings.

(*) I state there isn't a direct connection between Hitchcock's "I Confess" and "Absolution", but that isn't entirely true. One of the first screenplays the great Anthony Shaffer wrote was for "Frenzy"; - and that became the nastiest serial killer thriller to ever be directed by Hitchcock. Also, one year after "Absolution, director Anthony Page took on "The Lady Vanishes" as his next project, and that was a remake of a fantastic 1938 thriller; - directed by ... Alfred Hitchcock.

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)