Man on the Roof

Man on the Roof (Mannen Pa Taket) (1976)

Runtime: 108 minutes

Directed by: Bo Widerberg

Starring: Carl Gustaf-Linstedt,  Sven Wolter, Thomas Hellberg, Hakan Serner, Ingvar Hirdwell

From: SF Studios

The task of fulfilling all movie requests: the task of Sisyphus! Still, I never mind receiving them.

A little more than two years ago, I tracked down a copy of 1973’s The Laughing Policeman, a cop drama starring Walter Matthau & Bruce Dern set in San Francisco & loosely based on a novel in the series of Martin Beck books, written by Swedish authors Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo. I found the movie pretty good; a mutual left a comment referencing this film, made by Swedish filmmakers & adapting another book in the franchise. I’d known of it before; despite tracking down a copy w/ English subtitles, it took this long to finally pull the trigger; my apologies to that mutual.

The opening: a police Lieutenant (Nyman) is murdered while in the hospital; the crime was far bloodier than expected. Martin Beck is a Detective in the homicide squad; he and his colleague-including one that vaguely resembles Giovanni Ribisi-investigate the crime, using logic and reasoning to narrow down the list of suspects. Note that Nyman was soon revealed as a dirty, abusive cop… insert your own comments if you wish.

The first half has a laconic, methodical pace—I was still riveted due to the characters and plot, along with the Swedish/European flavor, which includes “random male full frontal nudity” in one scene. Eventually, the tenor changes in the second half, when the titular man on the roof appears, w/ automatic weaponry and firing at any & all police officers. This and the protagonist’s attempt to neutralize this threat was edge-of-your-seat gripping.

The minimalist jazzy score, the cold, austere setting, the matter-of-fact investigation, the bold narrative choices, the solid performance of the cast (especially the older, fleshy Carl-Gustaf Linstedt as Beck, a world-weary cop increasingly downtrodden due to revelations made throughout) … shame on me for not firing the shot and viewing Man on the Roof much sooner.

Thankfully, Radiance Film has a region-free Blu of the film-perhaps this will be a future purchase.