Absolution

At a Catholic boarding school for boys, Father Goddard runs discipline with an iron hand. He keeps one pupil, Benjie, apart from the rest and is close to a father to him. Then the boy comes into the confessional and says he has killed someone. Goddard's hands are tied; he cannot break the seal of confession, cannot tell anyone, and has to look into it alone. He finds nothing that confirms the murder either. In that gap both the man's faith and his mind start to come apart. Anthony Page directs, with Richard Burton as Goddard and a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer. Ninety-five minutes. A young Billy Connolly is in the cast. It is a quiet thriller that keeps its surprise for the end.