The Rape of Richard Beck (1985) (TV)

Director:

Karen Arthur

Writer:

James G. Hirsch (writer)

Release Date:

27 May 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Cop Beck (Crenna) thinks rape victims "bring it upon themselves" to be raped but has a mind-changing...

Plot Keywords:

Rape | Male Rape | Police

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins

Cast

Richard Crenna	...	Richard Beck
Meredith Baxter	...	Barbara McKee (as Meredith Baxter Birney)
Pat Hingle	...	Chappy Beck
Frances Lee McCain	...	Caroline Beck
Cotter Smith	...	Lt. Hugo
Joanna Kerns	...	Anita Parrish
Mark Dickison	...	Eric Gibbs
Jason Bernard	...	Sgt. Wally Rydell
George Dzundza	...	Blastig
Nicholas Worth	...	Ray
M.C. Gainey	...	Sonny
Stanley Kamel	...	Dr. Greenberg
James Goodwin Rice	...	Stan Weatherspoon
Jonas Marlowe	...	Joey Beck
Gregory Wagrowski	...	Harlan Bozer

Also Known As:

Deadly Justice (USA) (DVD title)
The Broken Badge
Violated (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Bill Spiedel's Underground Tour - 608 First Avenue, Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Robert Papazian Productions

Movie Connections:

References Deliverance (1972)

Perhaps The Characterisation Should Have Been Changed

This TVM features rape as the dramatic centre point but there`s a difference in that the victim is a middle aged streetwise cop who is MALE . The crime itself is thankfully understated ( This is a TVM after all ) and the teleplay revolves around the victim Richard Beck struggling to come to terms with his rape as he finds sympathy in short supply

Casting Richard Crenna as Beck is a double edged sword . Crenna is best known as playing supporting roles usually as good guys and he gives a very good performance here . Unfortunately he does come over as being far too nice to be entirely convincing as a tough streetwise cop . I couldn`t help notice that the script also seems to play up to the nice guy character of Beck . We the audience are supposed to empathise with the victim but if they`d made Beck a rather more hard edged or just plain nasty and cynical character we`d have still felt sorry for him . Considering the theme is one of rape I can`t feeling the producers have made a mistake in making Beck too likable . Were they frightened that if we saw Beck give someone a few slaps now and again we would have thought he deserved to be raped in some way ?

I can`t help thinking everything would have worked a bit better if there had been more in the way of " Rape victims deserved it " from a sneering cynical arrogant pre rape Richard Beck which would have made a few scenes work even better , scenes like where his police chief says " Get out of here punk " when Beck goes to pieces at the ID parade or when Beck desparately explains to his unsympathetic relative that " There was nothing I could do , they had a gun to my head "

As it is THE RAPE OF RICHARD BECK is a very good TVM but probably tries a little too hard to make us empathise with the rape victim which isn`t necessary because no one deserves to be raped