Sjowall and Wahloo's "Martin Beck" stories were as much an indictment of Swedish society as they were tightly-plotted and well-written police procedurals.
This one in particular, involving a man with a quite reasonable grudge against cops and a hero cop who might not be all he's been built up as, is particularly political, exploring the ways in which the police/justice system has failed the people, while at the same time giving us a genuinely suspenseful film.
One of the things about the Martin Beck novels is that the authors were not shy about suddenly hitting us with shocking changes in what we they had spent considerable time - often over more than one book - establishing as "the way things are". In most such series - Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" books, for example - the situation and the characters (except for poor Bert Kling, for some reason) remain basically the same, book to book, to give the reader a familiar structure. Not so here.
But the single most dramatic, shocking incident in this film - taken straight from the book - will likely lose a lot of its impact for people who have never read any of the books - though it still has a pretty good punch, i suspect, even if you haven't read..
An excellent film of a more-than-excellent book; one that ought to provoke a few thoughts along with the adrenaline.
This one in particular, involving a man with a quite reasonable grudge against cops and a hero cop who might not be all he's been built up as, is particularly political, exploring the ways in which the police/justice system has failed the people, while at the same time giving us a genuinely suspenseful film.
One of the things about the Martin Beck novels is that the authors were not shy about suddenly hitting us with shocking changes in what we they had spent considerable time - often over more than one book - establishing as "the way things are". In most such series - Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" books, for example - the situation and the characters (except for poor Bert Kling, for some reason) remain basically the same, book to book, to give the reader a familiar structure. Not so here.
But the single most dramatic, shocking incident in this film - taken straight from the book - will likely lose a lot of its impact for people who have never read any of the books - though it still has a pretty good punch, i suspect, even if you haven't read..
An excellent film of a more-than-excellent book; one that ought to provoke a few thoughts along with the adrenaline.