I know I'm alone (or maybe there's people who are too afraid to say what they really think about a film disagreeing with the invisible but at times appealing "common sense") but "Victim" is not that good, it is very dated and for an admirer of LGBT themed films this is very low even for an important subject matter that was treated as something so dark and twisted, with no chance of goodness.
Might have been groundbreaking at the time of its release for using the word 'homosexual' for the first time on the screen and for changing British laws concerning homosexuality but now it is so depressing and awful that it has a worrying ability to show how England had unfair and misguided laws against homosexuals. In Basil Dearden's film, Dirk Bogarde is a respected lawyer that investigates a blackmailer who threatens several gay men (they are closeted persons since during the time it was a crime being a homosexual), and one of the victims was a young boy, affair of the lawyer, who killed himself after being arrested. Now he might have to risk his career, reputation and family to arrest this person.
My objection to this story is the way the script dealt with it, very confusing in its character presentation, crossing everyone in a obtuse and complex way that was difficult to handle or accept it. When the storm of characters stop, comes the film noir style for a dramatic story that could be more emotional, less painful to watch and a little bit positive instead of a negative view of gays, negative view on all the British (yes, since if the characters are not gay they are homophobes, repressive, combative and blackmailers who take advantage of a ridiculous law).
I don't know what was more concerning, the portrayal of the gays, played all as emotionless figures who simply have needs but don't know how to love (someone makes this remark in the film); the homophobe bar owner who happens to attend gays; or the people who blackmail making of these a pathetic and awful lifestyle.
I haven't found the performances good or bad (but the cute boy, reason of all Bogarde's crusade, was interesting and had the best moments in the film, sad, he appears briefly), but the story wasn't as brilliant and educative than a similar film named "Anders als die Andern" ("Different from the Others")(1919), a German film that introduced the first gay character in film history, a movie elucidative and so ahead of its time in bringing to public the difficult of the homosexual condition treating as a case of normal behavior rather than something to be punished with imprisonment. But at least in "Victim" Dirk Bogarde risked his career just as much Conrad Veidt did in the 1919 film and that's something to be applauded.
It made me angry because I expected more from a so well talked film, and it made me sad after so much pessimistic things presented in both sides of the matter. It might work for those who wants to comprehend the incomprehensible British laws against homosexuals that existed for a long time; you're gonna see a historical look on the subject but that's it. 3/10
Might have been groundbreaking at the time of its release for using the word 'homosexual' for the first time on the screen and for changing British laws concerning homosexuality but now it is so depressing and awful that it has a worrying ability to show how England had unfair and misguided laws against homosexuals. In Basil Dearden's film, Dirk Bogarde is a respected lawyer that investigates a blackmailer who threatens several gay men (they are closeted persons since during the time it was a crime being a homosexual), and one of the victims was a young boy, affair of the lawyer, who killed himself after being arrested. Now he might have to risk his career, reputation and family to arrest this person.
My objection to this story is the way the script dealt with it, very confusing in its character presentation, crossing everyone in a obtuse and complex way that was difficult to handle or accept it. When the storm of characters stop, comes the film noir style for a dramatic story that could be more emotional, less painful to watch and a little bit positive instead of a negative view of gays, negative view on all the British (yes, since if the characters are not gay they are homophobes, repressive, combative and blackmailers who take advantage of a ridiculous law).
I don't know what was more concerning, the portrayal of the gays, played all as emotionless figures who simply have needs but don't know how to love (someone makes this remark in the film); the homophobe bar owner who happens to attend gays; or the people who blackmail making of these a pathetic and awful lifestyle.
I haven't found the performances good or bad (but the cute boy, reason of all Bogarde's crusade, was interesting and had the best moments in the film, sad, he appears briefly), but the story wasn't as brilliant and educative than a similar film named "Anders als die Andern" ("Different from the Others")(1919), a German film that introduced the first gay character in film history, a movie elucidative and so ahead of its time in bringing to public the difficult of the homosexual condition treating as a case of normal behavior rather than something to be punished with imprisonment. But at least in "Victim" Dirk Bogarde risked his career just as much Conrad Veidt did in the 1919 film and that's something to be applauded.
It made me angry because I expected more from a so well talked film, and it made me sad after so much pessimistic things presented in both sides of the matter. It might work for those who wants to comprehend the incomprehensible British laws against homosexuals that existed for a long time; you're gonna see a historical look on the subject but that's it. 3/10