Watch Sean Connery In Sidney Lumet's THE OFFENCE, Coming To Masters Of Cinema In April

James Marsh, Editor, Asia; Hong Kong, China (@Marshy00)

January 29 2015, 11:30 AM

In their efforts to woo Sean Connery back to play James Bond one more time in Diamonds Are Forever, United Artists agreed to green-light two projects of the Scotsman's choosing, no questions asked. The first of those was The Offence, a gritty downbeat British cop drama - Connery's third collaboration with Sidney Lumet. The film was such a change of pace for Connery that audiences stayed away in droves. In fact, United Artists were so unhappy with the project that they reneged on their deal and refused to finance a promised second project for Connery.

The unfair treatment of The Offence cannot be overstated, and as anyone who has seen the film will attest, it's a tough, impressive piece of work that exploits a whole new side of Connery, and fits comfortably in Lumet's canon of work. Masters of Cinema will be releasing a dual-format Blu-ray/DVD release of the film in the UK on 20 April, and while we wait to get our hands on a copy, there's a clip from the film below to whet our appetites. Check it out:

From the press release:

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of THE OFFENCE, featuring Sean Connery who stars as a burned out British Police Detective Sergeant, who finally snaps while interrogating a suspected child molester, played by BAFTA nominated Ian Bannen . Directed by Sidney Lumet, the director of such classics as Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon, The Offence also stars Trevor Howard (Mutiny on the Bounty, The Third Man) and Vivien Merchant (Frenzy, Alfie), The Offence was the third of five collaborations between Lumet and Connery, besides The Hill, The Anderson Tapes, Murder on the Orient Express, and Family Business). The Offence will be released for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK on 20 April 2015 in a special Dual Format edition as part of the award winning Masters of Cinema Series.

"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.