La lunga notte di Richard Beck

To help drive home the moral(s) "it can happen to you" and or "don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes".

I first saw this truly startling mid-80's made-for-TV favorite in health class when I was in 17 in high school. It truly unnerved the hell out of me. The teacher would occasionally stop the film and make all the students discuss what they just saw with utmost seriousness. It's an experience I'll always treasure as a truly special and unique adolescent memory. Richard Crenna deservedly won an Emmy for his exceptionally brave performance. Nicholas Worth and M.C. Gainey are positively terrifying as the two brutish homosexual hooligans who sodomize Crenna. The single most scary moment occurs when Worth holds a knife to Crenna's throat and venomously snarls to Gainey,"You ever go pig-hunting Sonny -- they squeal when ya stab 'em!" Yikes! This was pretty heavy and hard-sitting stuff for me to take at the time. It still upsets me today and rates highly as my second all-time favorite 80's TV movie right after the equally awesome "Fallen Angel."

This bold and thought-provoking TV movie centers on a bigoted and sexist police officer (the late Richard Crenna) who has always believed that rape victims "ask for it", but finds himself re-thinking his belief after he is sexually assaulted himself. This was definitely new territory where TV movies were concerned but it was done with care and taste. Crenna's gutsy performance won him an Emmy Award in a disturbing film that raised quite a few eyebrows. I was impressed with the filming of the actual assault scene. A scene that could have been cheap and exploitative was done with style without compromising the integrity of what was going on in the scene. A serious adult movie experience for those who like a component of challenge in their entertainment.

Yours truly has endless respect for films that are several decades old already, but still feel very relevant and impactful today! Not seldomly, such films deal with horrendous - but sadly daily routine - social topics, like rape and its traumatizing aftermath.

The strength of this "The Rape of Richard Beck", a powerful 80s TV-movie directed by Karen Arthur, lies in the simple fact that it turns the tables around. Richard Beck, a most courageous performance by Crenna, is a typically chauvinist and macho copper. He goes on so-called "safaris" just for kicks when he's off-duty, he makes deals with wanted rapists in order to catch other criminals, he proudly shares his heroic stories at the bar, and he doesn't show any care or compassion for female victims of horrible sex-crimes. When he falls victim to sexual abuse during one of his nightly ventures, Beck himself gets confronted with the shame, exposure, pain, humiliation, and fear that thousands of women every year must undergo.

Partially because it's a made-for-television film, but mostly because director Karen Arthur approaches the sensitive subject matter very well, "The Rape of Richard Beck" is a slow-brooding drama gradually nesting itself if your brain. It takes quite a long before the titular rape takes place, but this length is effectively used to draw a very accurate and sadly truthful portrait of how sex-offenses are perceived and dealt with in our society. A frustrated female officer correctly states at one point that sexual assault is less high on the department's priority list than crossing the street during a red light; - and she's pretty much right. I caught myself mumbling things like: "Does it hurt, Richard? In so many more ways than just physically, Richard? Welcome to the agonizing world of thousands of women". If something like that happens, you know you are watching a forceful film.

"The Rape of Richard Beck" will soon be forty years old. Unfortunately, though, not so much has changed. Women and girls still fall victim to loathsome sex-related crimes, and "thanks" to the new digital technologies and social media, they are now even stalked and harassed via their mobile phones and email accounts. Films like this one should be made mandatory viewing in schools and reforming institutes, followed by group discussions.

This movie truly is remarkable. I know the title might sound a little off-putting to some but if you stick with it you're in for a real cinematic pleasure.

It tells the story of Richard Beck, a no nonsense police officer in America. Throughout the early stages of the film, we see him reacting to various sexual assaults in a light manner. He doesn't think it's possible that someone could actually feel stress, humiliation or even shame at being anally sexually abused. However, eventually some young hoods take his anal-virginity leading to Richard Beck feeling at constant unease around other men.

It's such an eye opener that Beck really was raped that made him an enlightened human being. Thank god this man was raped, for otherwise he would be stuck in his old ways and we can now all sleep easy knowing that he knows that rape is wrong.