I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Absolutely the worst movie.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

"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!

This movie is somewhat hard to watch because it is slow-paced and low-budget, but the great acting by Richard Burton and the others make up for this. More importantly, it brings up a unique set of issues that other movies do not, at least not in one single movie. The effects of Father Goddard's favoritism towards apple-polishing Benji at the expense of the more intelligent Dyson. The homoerotic dynamics between Goddard/Benji, Blakey/Benji, Goddard/Dyson, and basically everyone, and the sadism of Benji towards the masochist Dyson (who ultimately is more clever). The biggest issue, more important now than ever, is how crimes can be hidden within the Catholic church which sees itself as above the law and above family/friendship, and well- meaning priests will perpetuate this, because they are inculcated that this is their highest duty. This simple yet extremely intelligent movie shows how the Catholic church can be rendered impotent to protect people because (in theory) its priests are sworn to secrecy, and may not appeal to secular police.

Not only is Absolution a hard movie to find, but it also very slow moving. The acting is great and the story is great, but the director could have tried something to liven it up. All script writing books will tell you to put the first action and get the ball rolling about ten to fifteen minutes into the film, whereas in the case of Absoution, you go about halfway through the movie and realize the plot started half an hour before.Absolution focuses on two students in a catholic school, one named Benji (Dominic Guard) and one Dyson (David Bradley). Benji is the golden boy of the school who is good at everything from sports to class, Dyson on the other hand is crippled and not too good at anything. When Father Goddard (Richard Burton) hears Benji's confession that he killed a homeless drifter named Blakey (Billy Connoly) then investigates only to find a buried scarecrow he doesn't take the next report of Blakey's murder very seriously, but this time discovers Blakey's corpse. When Goddard receives another confession that Benji has killed Dyson, he drives himself mad looking for the body until finally killing Benji, only to discover that Dyson, jealous of Benji's abilities and the favoritism shown to Dyson by Goddard, had been impersonating Benji in the confessions.also I believe that Richard Burton's performance was great but you can't overlook Billy Connoly who is a great comedian and great actor of any genre.