Mannen på taket (1976)

Director:

Bo Widerberg

Writers:

Maj Sjöwall (novel)
Per Wahlöö (novel)

Release Date:

April 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The police lieutenant Nyman is murdered in his hospital bed and Martin Beck and his colleagues have another murder to solve...

Plot Keywords:

Sniper | Murder Investigation | Police | Gunman | Helicopter

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt	...	Martin Beck (as Carl Gustaf Lindstedt)
Sven Wollter	...	Lennart Kollberg
Thomas Hellberg	...	Gunvald Larsson
Håkan Serner	...	Einar Rönn
Ingvar Hirdwall	...	Åke Eriksson (as Ingvar Hirdvall)
Bellan Roos	...	Mrs. Eriksson
Gus Dahlström	...	Mr. Eriksson
Harald Hamrell	...	Stefan Nyman
Birgitta Valberg	...	Mrs. Nyman
Carl-Axel Heiknert	...	Palmon Harald Hult (as Carl Axel Heiknert)
Torgny Anderberg	...	Malm
Folke Hjort	...	Melander
Eva Remaeus	...	Mrs. Kollberg
Gunnel Wadner	...	Mrs. Beck

Also Known As:

Man on the Roof (USA)
The Man on the Roof (UK)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Centralbadet, Norrmalm, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Trivia:

Bo Widerberg had seen The French Connection (1971) and wanted to make a Swedish equivalent of that film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the sniper starts shooting, Kollberg and Larsson dash for cover in a hospital hallway. Larsson has a bad head wound and wraps a white towel around his head. They disguise themselves with lab coats and walk out. The overhead shot that follows shows Larsson without his head bandage. In subsequent shots, it reappears.

Quotes:

Lennart Kollberg: Am I in India?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "100 höjdare: Tidernas på ett eller annat sätt mest spektakulära debuter (#3.2)" (????)

One of the all-time best Swedish action-movies

This film is still, 25 years later, probably one of the best action films ever made in Sweden. The almost documentary style of shooting, the superb naturalistic performances, gives the movie its immediacy and urgency (The editing of the helicopter sequence is absolutely superb) - the sense that this is actually happening, as opposed to the dreadful American actionmovie stylization that dominates Swedish film-making nowadays (Nolltolerans, Hassle-förgörarna, Hamilton, the list goes on). Swedish directors should take a long, hard look at this movie, and hopefully get a clue as to what works and makes a movie believable, instead of trying to emulate an American-type of movie-making.