The Rape of Richard Beck

To help drive home the moral(s) "it can happen to you" and or "don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes".

I first saw this truly startling mid-80's made-for-TV favorite in health class when I was in 17 in high school. It truly unnerved the hell out of me. The teacher would occasionally stop the film and make all the students discuss what they just saw with utmost seriousness. It's an experience I'll always treasure as a truly special and unique adolescent memory. Richard Crenna deservedly won an Emmy for his exceptionally brave performance. Nicholas Worth and M.C. Gainey are positively terrifying as the two brutish homosexual hooligans who sodomize Crenna. The single most scary moment occurs when Worth holds a knife to Crenna's throat and venomously snarls to Gainey,"You ever go pig-hunting Sonny -- they squeal when ya stab 'em!" Yikes! This was pretty heavy and hard-sitting stuff for me to take at the time. It still upsets me today and rates highly as my second all-time favorite 80's TV movie right after the equally awesome "Fallen Angel."

Yours truly has endless respect for films that are several decades old already, but still feel very relevant and impactful today! Not seldomly, such films deal with horrendous - but sadly daily routine - social topics, like rape and its traumatizing aftermath.

The strength of this "The Rape of Richard Beck", a powerful 80s TV-movie directed by Karen Arthur, lies in the simple fact that it turns the tables around. Richard Beck, a most courageous performance by Crenna, is a typically chauvinist and macho copper. He goes on so-called "safaris" just for kicks when he's off-duty, he makes deals with wanted rapists in order to catch other criminals, he proudly shares his heroic stories at the bar, and he doesn't show any care or compassion for female victims of horrible sex-crimes. When he falls victim to sexual abuse during one of his nightly ventures, Beck himself gets confronted with the shame, exposure, pain, humiliation, and fear that thousands of women every year must undergo.

Partially because it's a made-for-television film, but mostly because director Karen Arthur approaches the sensitive subject matter very well, "The Rape of Richard Beck" is a slow-brooding drama gradually nesting itself if your brain. It takes quite a long before the titular rape takes place, but this length is effectively used to draw a very accurate and sadly truthful portrait of how sex-offenses are perceived and dealt with in our society. A frustrated female officer correctly states at one point that sexual assault is less high on the department's priority list than crossing the street during a red light; - and she's pretty much right. I caught myself mumbling things like: "Does it hurt, Richard? In so many more ways than just physically, Richard? Welcome to the agonizing world of thousands of women". If something like that happens, you know you are watching a forceful film.

"The Rape of Richard Beck" will soon be forty years old. Unfortunately, though, not so much has changed. Women and girls still fall victim to loathsome sex-related crimes, and "thanks" to the new digital technologies and social media, they are now even stalked and harassed via their mobile phones and email accounts. Films like this one should be made mandatory viewing in schools and reforming institutes, followed by group discussions.

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

This movie truly is remarkable. I know the title might sound a little off-putting to some but if you stick with it you're in for a real cinematic pleasure.

It tells the story of Richard Beck, a no nonsense police officer in America. Throughout the early stages of the film, we see him reacting to various sexual assaults in a light manner. He doesn't think it's possible that someone could actually feel stress, humiliation or even shame at being anally sexually abused. However, eventually some young hoods take his anal-virginity leading to Richard Beck feeling at constant unease around other men.

It's such an eye opener that Beck really was raped that made him an enlightened human being. Thank god this man was raped, for otherwise he would be stuck in his old ways and we can now all sleep easy knowing that he knows that rape is wrong.