The Man on the Roof – Men på taket (1976)

Directed by: Bo Widerberg | 110 minutes | action, drama, thriller, crime | Actors: Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, Sven Wollter, Thomas Hellberg, Håkan Serner, Ingvar Hirdwall, Birgitta Valberg, Carl-Axel Heiknert, Torgny Anderberg, Bellan Roos, Gus Dahlström, Folke Hjort, Eva Remaeus, Gunnel Wadner

‘The Man on the Roof’ is the title of the film which is based on the book ‘The terrible man from Säffle’ by Sjöwall & Wahlöö, a Swedish writer couple. They are pretty much the Nicci French of Sweden and have a significant readership in Sweden and beyond with their detective novels starring Chief Inspector Martin Beck. Swedish director Bo Widerberg found the story of a man on a roof shooting at cops interesting enough for a film.

The film opens promisingly with a gruesome murder of an, as far as the viewer knows, innocent man. This murder is preceded by icy silence: the calm before the storm. That storm will certainly come with a gruesome murder that wouldn’t look out of place in filthy horror films like ‘Hostel’. Unfortunately, the storm immediately ended after this. The film collapses like a hot air balloon that is punctured. A boring investigation ensues into the murdered man who turns out to be a police officer who has as many friends as enemies. All police officers talk to each other about this man and do not get any further in the investigation. Two officers find the weapon and then drive past a suspiciously parked car. They do not play with the thought of examining this car for a moment. They joke about the wrongly parked car and are happy that they are dealing with murder cases and not being a traffic police. As a viewer, this annoys you immensely. Hey?! A murder has just been committed, there is a suspicious car, go look, go look! But they don’t. Other than talking, developing theories, and more talking, nothing happens for most of the movie.

Fortunately, Chief Inspector Martin Beck (Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt) comes into play. Thanks to his insights, the police discover the identity of the perpetrator. Despite the fact that the murder mystery seems to have been solved, the tension rises again. The very spectacular action scenes ensure that the attention of the viewer is drawn again. As soon as the first shot from the roof sounds (the title says it all) and the first cop falls to the ground, the public’s interest increases again. In particular, the scene in which the child rides into the shooting range on a bicycle and innocently asks the injured officer: “Why are you lying here, sir?” is cringingly tense. The scene where the helicopter crashes into a curious crowd also provides some extra adrenaline. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit anticlimactic.

‘The Man on the Roof’ is a nice crime thriller. The beginning is promising, and from the moment the man on the roof starts shooting, the film is very exciting. Too bad that the middle part of the film is a bit disappointing and that the end is rushed. The murder and the action moments make up for it partly, but just not good enough. Otherwise Widerberg would certainly have gotten a big pass.