'Absolution' would have been a very different film had director Anthony Page gotten his first choice for the lead role, Christopher Lee. If Lee had helmed this film it's vaguely 'Hammer Horror' subtexts would have been front and center, but with Richard Burton in the lead his seriousness and gravitas gives the film a weight that allowed it's twist to work in a way that it wouldn't have with Lee.
Burton plays Father Goddard, a priest and teacher at a Catholic boys boarding school in England who has apparently been doing that job too long and has lost much empathy and patience. He neglects a cripple boy desperate for his attention, in favor of a charismatic one he hopes to steer towards the priesthood. When that favored boy starts to evidence signs that he may be a psychopath, and a threat on the life of the cripple, Father Goddard's very sanity may be at stake.
A solid film, notable for a troubled release history, it didn't American distribution until 1988, this movie is also Billy Connolly's feature film debut, he plays a hippie drifter. ***
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