Director: Anthony Page
Screenplay: Anthony Shaffer
Starring: Richard Burton, Dominic Guard, Dai Bradley, Billy Connolly
Year: 1978
Duration: 85 mins / 95 mins
Country: UK
BBFC Certification: 18
2025 sees the centenary of the sonorous and mesmerising Sir Richard Burton. Throughout his long and illustrious career as an actor of stage and screen, in the 1970s he made a living starring in films where he played older authority figures who become obsessed to the point of madness over a younger charge. At the bottom of the list you have the ill-judged The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), and nearer the top you have 1978’s Absolution.
Written by The Wicker Man’s (1973) Anthony Shaffer (who incidentally gets a possessive credit), it follows Burton’s Father Goddard, a teacher at an all-boys Catholic school, and the twisted machinations of one of his pupils whose sole aim is to send Goddard straight to hell.
Apart from Burton, you have Dominic Guard as Goddard’s protégé Benji and Dai Bradley as the well-meaning, if a little tiresome, Arthur. Both are well matched against Burton and show no fear of performing opposite the great actor. Guard and Bradley were nearing the end of their screen careers, which had included highlights such as The Go-Between (1971)for Guard and Ken Loach’s Kes (1969) for Bradley.
Bradley especially gives a powerful and lasting performance in Absolution, and towards the film’s climax—when he goes head-to-head with Burton—the pure energy and emotion between them is palpable. Rounding out the small cast is the debut film role for Billy Connolly, who had just gone stratospheric with his Banana Feet routine and an appearance on Parkinson. Connolly gets a small but integral role as the gypsy banjo-playing Blakey, allowing him to explore his more serious side.
Director Anthony Page is perhaps the person least evident in the final film. Page’s CV is full of projects with big stars and large performances. He likely got the job directing Absolution off the back of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), and afterwards he would direct Angela Lansbury, Cybill Shepherd and Arthur Lowe in Hammer’s final theatrical outing for nearly 30 years, The Lady Vanishes (1979). Page ensures the actors shine and the twists are captured clearly, though as Goddard descends into madness the flourishes of off-kilter camera angles feel restrained, and the imposing school locations are never fully exploited.
The film had a rough time finding an audience thanks to a protracted release. It premiered in 1981 (playing for just six weeks at the Lane Cinema in St Martin’s Lane) and only arrived in the United States in 1988, after Burton’s death.
It also didn’t receive the greatest praise from the press when it was finally released. Shaffer spent a lot of time deriding it and blamed its problems firmly at Anthony Page’s door. He also alleged script tampering by director Anthony Page’s boyfriend, and Burton’s drinking were contributing factors to its poor performance. However, there is little to no evidence either claim was true during production. As Kim Newman mentions in the commentary, ‘Better to blame the director than the producer’.
The film appears to have been a regular fixture on 1980s UK television and circulated on VHS, but has otherwise remained largely forgotten.
This is not the first time Absolution has come to Blu-ray, as Indicator released a disc in 2018 (you can read the original review here). The new disc from 88 Films ports over many of those original features (though it is missing the interview with costume designer Anne Gainsford), adds a booklet by Andrew Graves, and includes a new audio commentary by Kim Newman and Sean Hogan. The great cover art by Sean Longmore also deserves praise.
Also included is Page’s 2018 Director’s Cut, though to my mind it removes some of the best scenes the film has to offer.
If you missed the Indicator release, then it is definitely time to pick up this lost gem of British cinema.
Special Features
- O-ring slip case with new artwork by Sean Longmore
- Booklet by Andrew Graves
- High Definition Blu-Ray Presentation in 1.85:1 aspect ratio
- 2.0 LPCM Dual-Mono
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Kim Newman and Sean Hogan
- Audio commentary by Kevin Lyons
- Includes the 2018 Director’s Cut
- The Devil to Pay – Anthony Page on Absolution
- Them and Us – Dominic Guard on Absolution
- Image gallery
- Original trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring new art by Sean Longmore