'The Rape of Richard Beck" combines elements of "Dirty Harry" and "Deliverance" in a message-oriented, urban crime melodrama about two hardcore homosexual hoodlums that sodomize an off-duty police detective at gunpoint when he cannot produce any back-up. Basically, it's a rape movie for guys about guys that espouse a callous, chauvinistic attitude toward female rape victims. Neither former ballet dancer-turned-director Karen Arthur nor producer-scenarist James G. Hirsch deviate an iota from the social problem/crime drama formula in this outstanding role-reversal rape movie. No, they don't depict the actual simulated sodomy between the cop and his two thuggish assailants, played with menace by Nicholas Worth and M.C. Gainey. Most of the action that takes place between Beck and his assailants occurs in close-ups and medium shots. The act itself takes place off-camera so that everybody retains their dignity. After all, this was a prime-time network featured 1985 made-for-television movie. Nevertheless, the impact of the rape on the cop's life evokes a reevaluation on his part about helpless women raped because he thought that they brought it on themselves. By the end of the action, Beck is teaching sensitivity training classes to cadets at the police academy.
"The Rape of Richard Beck" takes an obnoxious, hard-boiled cop and forces him to endure sodomy and then live with the consequences. Mind you, this isn't something you want to sit around and watch with a bunch of drunks. Detective Richard Beck's transformation when he loses his gun is 180 degrees. Indeed, at the beginning of "The Rape of Richard Beck," the filmmakers make a subtle point that perhaps Beck is a little too big for his own britches by trying to be a one man army. Beck compares modern-day cops to 'tribal warriors' of another age going out on 'safari' in 'the jungle' to apprehend criminals. Meanwhile, Beck's partner Blastig (George Dzundra of "Basic Instinct") thinks that Beck is crazy to jeopardize their lives when they are off-duty, especially because he has 37 months left until he receives his pension. If anything, Beck's hubris is that he's supremely overconfident about himself. He thinks that he is larger-than-life and exempt from all the rules. Indeed, he makes up Beck's Police Rules about being a cop. Ironically, the very same thing that Beck had accused women of doing by bringing her rape on themselves, he does himself when he embarks on his so-called 'safaris' to nab lawbreakers.
Aside from this horrific twist, "The Rape of Richard Beck" is a well-made but standard, police procedural that argues a good case about misguided (male) perceptions of rape (women) victims. Earlier, Beck felt that female rape victims brought this molestation on themselves and then did help matters by refusing to identify the suspect and prosecute. By having the unthinkable happen to an abrasive, masculine cop who has trouble coming to terms with himself after the fact gives this film its dramatic punch. Richard Crenna, better known for his comedy TV role on "The Real McCoys" and his supporting bits in the "Rambo" movies, received an Emmy for his first-rate, top-notch performance as the violated detective. This performance is a far cry from his spaghetti western "A Man Called Noon," his French crime thriller "Un Flic," and his turn as a criminal in "Wait Until Dark." The sodomy for the sensation minded doesn't occur into about 40 minutes into the plot. Earlier, we learn that Beck is divorced. His son Joey (Jonas Marlowe of "Children of the Corn") and his daughter live with their mother Carolina Beck (Francis Lee McCain of "Patch Adams") and Beck comes around to take his son on fishing trips with his father Chappy Beck (Pat Hingle of "Hang'em High"). Beck spoils his son and his ex-wife doesn't appreciate his shenanigans. We only see Beck's current girlfriend once after the rape occurs and Beck suffers from a nervous breakdown and destroys the dinner that she had carefully prepared. Indeed, in the underground room where the crime transpires, we only see unsavory tough guy Nicholas Worth of "Heartbreak Ridge" and a younger, thinner M.C. Gainey of "The Dukes of Hazzard" corner a cop, disarm him, batter him, then seize him by the hair and pull his head back as one character reaches to unzip himself. Later, we learn that a janitor witnessed the rape in its entirety and refused to interfere for fear that he would receive similar treatment from them. Initially, Beck behaves like a female rape victim. He lives in the land of denial, but rape counselor Barbara McKee (Meredith Baxter Birney of "Ben") sees through his masquerade. Eventually, these two who had never tolerated each other join sides to catch a rapist.
"The Rape of Richard Beck" is one of the few TV movies or theatrical features that examines the impact of rape on a man, but the grim subject matter and prime time sensibility prevented the filmmakers from delving too deeply into any man's worst nightmare. You'd think that a TV movie of this magnitude would have merited a better presentation on DVD, but the copy that I bought appeared under a different, more generic title "Deadly Justice" on a twin-bill with an early Mark Harmon adventure opus "Tuareg: The Desert Warrior."
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