And perhaps the best opportunity I have Stateside to explain its appeal after my first viewing nearly 30 years ago.
The novels featuring Martin Beck were skillfully written by a married pair of avowed Marxists in a style that was clinical yet neither entirely detached nor heavy-handed. Call them police procedurals, social commentary or political thrillers, or some amalgam if you like, but I had no connection whatsoever to their setting, and there was no reason I should have enjoyed them. But I did on first read, and still do, for I know these people and daresay you do too.
The film adaptation of "The Abominable Man" (a reference to the first victim) has a relentlessness that at times irritates and exaggerates any necessary pause. The casting and acting are purposive and earnest throughout. The directorial style, photography and editing are FAR superior to "the drunken cameraman" that permanently distracted me from Stateside police dramas in the Nineties. With insight you will identify the man on the roof early on, but by then it won't matter. You may remain puzzled by some of the characters' decisions, Beck's final one in particular.
Just sit back and watch Beck, Roenn, Kollberg, Larsson, Malm and others wrestle with a practically insoluble problem that puts many lives at risk in the worst possible environment, then wonder if you have not in fact viewed a documentary if not a primer.
The novels featuring Martin Beck were skillfully written by a married pair of avowed Marxists in a style that was clinical yet neither entirely detached nor heavy-handed. Call them police procedurals, social commentary or political thrillers, or some amalgam if you like, but I had no connection whatsoever to their setting, and there was no reason I should have enjoyed them. But I did on first read, and still do, for I know these people and daresay you do too.
The film adaptation of "The Abominable Man" (a reference to the first victim) has a relentlessness that at times irritates and exaggerates any necessary pause. The casting and acting are purposive and earnest throughout. The directorial style, photography and editing are FAR superior to "the drunken cameraman" that permanently distracted me from Stateside police dramas in the Nineties. With insight you will identify the man on the roof early on, but by then it won't matter. You may remain puzzled by some of the characters' decisions, Beck's final one in particular.
Just sit back and watch Beck, Roenn, Kollberg, Larsson, Malm and others wrestle with a practically insoluble problem that puts many lives at risk in the worst possible environment, then wonder if you have not in fact viewed a documentary if not a primer.