Sweeney! (1977)

Without doubt THE SWEENEY is one of the most popular and fondly remembered television shows Britain has ever produced and this was the first of two films made to tie in with the television series . It's certainly the more compelling of the two but where as the sequel did mirror the Thames Television series the original doesn't entirely One of the reasons for the show's success was its offbeat humour which features here in an early scene " What you mean Tiny Large ? " " He's a total animal . I remember we had him down the station and he wouldn't leave his cell so we sent in an alsatian . He broke its jaw and threw it out " " Dog Day Afternoon " What is noticeable right from the opening scene is that politics is involved and this film version of THE SWEENEY is very much a political thriller which sets in motion a shadowy conspiracy involving Special Branch trying to bump off DI Jack Regan who knows too much for his own good . It's a bit more grittier than the TV show if only that it shows a graphi scene of a constable getting shot in the head but the whole conspiracy is unlikely and feels false . And the final scene is somewhat confusing Having said that it's always good to see the underatted John Thaw playing the all drinking all smoking DI Regan during an era when TV cops were nasty but nice crimebusters . Certainly a film that reflects the strengths of the television show and one wonders if Nick Love's big screen version later this year will be a very pale imitation ?

Amongst the many British sitcoms of the '70's to be turned into movies were a couple of dramas - 'Doomwatch', 'Man At The Top', 'Callan', and, of course, 'The Sweeney'. Ian Kennedy-Martin's hit I.T.V. show starred John Thaw as D.I. Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as Sergeant George Carter, and ran from 1975-78. It set new standards for television violence, language and nudity. It unsurprisingly made an effortless transition to the big screen in the decade of 'Get Carter' and 'Villain'.Ranald Graham, one of the show's best writers, penned a gritty political conspiracy thriller, turning 'Sweeney!' almost into a British version of 'The Domino Principle' and 'The Parallax View'. An unknown multi-national corporation is out to wreck an oil conference in London; firstly, they murder a prostitute ( Lynda Bellingham ), leaving her nude body in the hotel room of Energy Secretary Charles Baker ( the brilliant Ian Bannen ) M.P. When her boyfriend, used car dealer Ronnie Brent ( Joe Melia ) calls on the Flying Squad to investigate, he and his staff are viciously slaughtered in a machine-gun attack. Then the villains turn their attentions to Regan himself. After being captured, he has whisky poured down his throat, and is put behind the wheel of a car. It crashes, and his superiors suspend him. But Regan is determined to go on.As one might expect, the violence levels are higher than those of the series. The murder of the Bellingham character is executed with such cold, clinical precision as to be shocking ( as is the sight of a policeman shot in the head ), while the massacre in the used car lot evokes Peckinpah. The sight of Diane Keen ( then best known for her role in 'The Cuckoo Waltz' sitcom ) topless in bed must have raised eyebrows. Michael Coles is particularly menacing as the smiling assassin 'Johnson'. As 'Regan', Thaw is, as ever, marvellous. Another man would quietly let the matter drop, but he chips away until the conspiracy unravels. Waterman, likewise, is great, although, he is missing for long stretches, while Thaw teams up with Keen. The reviewer who said the movie was good only for a few laughs because of the outdated fashions has missed the point. The notion that big business would sanction criminal acts to protect its interests strikes me as frighteningly believable. David Wickes does a good job in keeping the action moving, achieving some superb location filming in London.A few quibbles - where was Haskins ( Garfield Morgan )? Why did they not use Harry South's smashing theme tune? And why was an American actor not hired to play the pivotal role of 'Elliot McQueen', Baker's crooked P.R. man? Barry Foster ( of 'Van Der Valk' fame ) struggles but sounds about as American as Fidel Castro.'Sweeney!' opened to ecstatic reviews ( 'The best British crime thriller in years!' raved one ) and won a clutch of awards. A year later, 'Sweeney 2' appeared, but although written by Troy Kennedy-Martin ( brother of Ian ) it was not a patch on the first.If you have never seen the series, this movie should serve as a useful introduction.

I suppose anyone born in the late 60s or before is going to look fondly on this, and I'm no exception. I don't know about you but watching this (and the series of course) makes me think that there is just something missing in today's police related stuff on TV. It comes across as too sanitized, too clean, as though every 'officer' is reduced to some kind of professional stereotype (the good guy, the bad guy, the guy trying to escape his typecasting as Mark Fowler etc etc).'Sweeney' comes across as REAL. Of course it's cannon fodder for all those comments about trim phones, flares, kipper ties etc, but let's face it folks, at least the 70s had an IDENTITY. What is there now? What differentiates a 15 year old episode of 'The Bill' from one made in 2005? Not much I reckon.That's why this is good - real people with real personalities, foibles, quirks etc behaving human beings. I remember once that Regan was asked why he was still an inspector - 'I don't play golf' was the response. How true is that in the wider world! Enough rambling - the film itself. To me the acting is uniformally excellent; Foster doesn't come across as negatively pragmatic or oleaginous till mid way through the film, and the way his plan unfolds slowly as your distaste for him increases is carefully handled. By the end, you're rooting for him to get his come uppance. Also, the way Regan is hemmed in by those in authority as the film progresses is nicely claustrophobic, particularly when a suspended Regan meets Carter in a pub and is advised to 'get yourself some Alka Seltzer.' There are many quotable one liners here, deftly delivered by key protagonists. 'Alright Tinkerbell, you're nicked' is up there with 'in a thin glass' IMHO. Of course, they needed a 'big' plot to fill 90 minutes, and comparisons with Watergate and the general economic malaise endemic in Britain in the mid 70s are obvious. But put all that to one side folks - if you liked the series, you will like this, especially if, like me, you can remember a time when watching something on TV was an event to look forward to.

"Sweeney!" was one of the innumerable TV spin-offs which kept the British film business perilously afloat in the 1970s. For once this low-budget work did not spring from a sitcom but from Britain's best ever cop show, which made "Starsky and Hutch" look like "Sesame Street" with its relentless violence and raucous backchat. ("Sweeney Todd", it should be explained , is London rhyming slang for the Flying Squad, an elite detective unit of the Metropolitan Police.) Jack Regan and his sidekick George Carter here find themselves out of their depth with a bigger budget and canvas than on the boob tube: they get "webbed up"in an international conspiracy to lower, or raise, or something, oil prices. A suave Energy Minister is too fond of the high-class "brasses" furnished by his American PR agent. He is blackmailed, with multiple-murderous consequences and mucho ketchup.In some ways this is very much a 1970s period piece: flared trousers, two-tone grey telephones and no computers, police who drink and smoke heroically, ugly lowlifes, hideous pubs, tyre abuse, shootouts in junkyards and an overall grey, downbeat atmosphere which is a far cry from the Swinging London of Hollywood England in the previous decade. "Sweeney" was conceived at the moment of maximum crisis when OPEC was holding the industrialised nations to ransom, inflation was the highest for 60 years and trade unionists and militant socialists seemed poised to seize power in Blighty. True, a red double-decker bus figures during one chase, but the film makes concessions to mid-Atlanticism neither in casting, nor by moderating the constant Cockney badinage ("leave it aht!", "you wot?", "shut it!", "dull it isn't" (mocking a Met recruitment slogan)) nor by glamourising its high-life scenes. Also carried over from the series is the endless friction between different law enforcers: Regan clashes not only with his superior but with the security services and Special Branch, the Met's anti-subversion arm. Typically, he cocks up the operation to snatch the PRO and bring him to justice. Regan is no superhero.Contrary to what others have posted, I find Foster's accent and manner all too convincing, and his performance incisive. The theme of politicians being corrupted by their spin doctors remains fresh. Ian Bannen as the blackmailed MP looks and has a role not unlike Robert Vaughn's. Thaw and Waterman are the same crumpled reprobates as on the small screen, but the plot makes too little of their partnership; Regan is suspended and lone-wolfing it for much of the running time.No doubt the best of "The Sweeney" was on TV, but this is a fair-value distillation and introduction. It makes the mockney gangster movies of Mr Madonna and his posse look pathetic. "Up yours, sunshine!"