Absolution (1988)

Very disappointed :(

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Father Goddard (Richard Burton) teaches Latin at St. Anthony's boys school. Benjei Stanfield (Dominic Guard) is among his favorite students. However, he has failed to connect with Arthur Dyson in a positive way. Dyson wears a leg brace. He is picked on because he is bothersome. He looks to Father Goddard and Benjei for close friendship, but gets rejected.Meanwhile Blakely, a hippie biker (Billy Connolly) camps out in the woods nearby and has befriend Benjei who sneaks out at night to see him. Blakely's basic life philosophy contradicts the church and he places the idea in Benjei's head of feeding Father Goddard a false confession of a serious nature, one that would cause him to go crazy because he has to keep the secret: "A priest may not break the seal of confession" for any reason. Oh let the head games begin.This is an older film I had not seen before. I loved the twist. Part of a 70's fifty film DVD pact.Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

As a teaching priest in a British boy's academy, Richard Burton finds himself up against some calculating minds in this depressing drama. The judgments of his old school religion turns one of his prized pupils against him, claiming in confession sins of the flesh and taking it a step too far as a further part of his revenge. This is basically a variation of "The Children's Hour" with boys instead of girls, as well as a bit of "The History Boys" and various other educational stories where a teacher thought of as a mentor finds themselves in a moral crisis beyond their comprehension. By the time this hits its dramatic high point, the audience is numb from trying to comprehend what it's all about. While Burton is fine and the young actors all believable, it's the way the story progresses that turns it upside down to make it extremely frustrating to try and follow, let alone believe. There's a passive/aggressive crippled student who goes out of his way to make the situation worse, all seemingly out of revenge towards Burton for favoring the more popular boys. The lack of real motivation makes this feel forced, a twisting path in the woods that seems to be out to attack the sacrament of absolution rather than to explain its purpose. Having had only a preview showing after completion, it was released officially years after Burton's death, sparing him the embarrassment of its quick failure.

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.

After a drifter moves in the woods at an all male catholic school, things take a turn for the worse. Benjie is a teachers pet, but this drifter starts to make him realize that life has more to offer than rules and regulations. Another kid Arthur is keeping Benjies secrets about the fact hes always running away and hanging out with this drifter. After being told that in confession nothing said to the priest can be repeated Benjie starts taking advantage of that. He lies about sexual encounters with the drifter and later lies about killing the drifter playing a huge joke on the head priest. Soon the priest sees the true evil in this young man and the fact his sworn secrecy of the clothe is preventing him from acting on it is driving him insane. The more we learn, the more the twists unfold to find the sins of the father are stronger than his prayers.This was my second time watching this and I think it is truly a great movie. It was intense and shows how even the sweetest acting kiss up teachers pet can be evil and mean and it shows how an innocent nerd can sometimes be malicious as well. It has so many great characters in it and is just fun to watch.The direction was great and I love the music. This story was great and it had some great scenes some were extremely bloody and gory and worthy of any horror fan. The acting was great. Richard Burton played his part so well and the kids Dominic Guard as Benjie and Dai Bradley as Dyson were superb. I think Billy Connely and his funny Scotish charm stole the show though, this was his film debut too.great drama/ suspense with some great gore in a scene. I recommend it highly 6/10 stars