Although this gritty crime drama garnered a great deal of critical recognition at the time of its release, it never achieved the box office success that it deserved and probably this is the reason why it's remained so under-appreciated ever since. Its story about a criminal who tries to go straight, illustrates brilliantly the many factors that make such an undertaking so difficult and also does so in a way that never glorifies the criminal or condemns the institutions that make rehabilitation such a huge challenge.
One of the movie's strong points is its appearance of absolute realism and this is, no doubt, attributable to the involvement of career criminal, bank robber and long-term convict Edward Bunker whose novel "No Beast So Fierce" provided the raw material for the plot. His additional contributions as a screenwriter, technical adviser and bit-part player must also have been critical to achieving the level of authenticity that makes "Straight Time" so compelling to watch from start to finish.
After serving a six-year sentence at San Quentin for armed robbery, Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) has to report to his parole officer Earl Frank (M Emmet Walsh). Their relationship gets off to a bad start because Max had failed to report to the halfway house he was supposed to go to on his first night out of prison and Frank, who's obviously a man who likes abusing his power, treats his newest parolee with utter contempt. Max says he wants to leave his life of crime behind and initially makes good progress by getting a job in a can factory, getting himself somewhere to live and starting to date Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell), a young clerk he'd met at the employment agency where he's found his job.
Max makes contact with his old friend Willy Darin (Gary Busey)an ex-con who's now married with a young son but his enjoyment of the evening he spends at Willy's home is spoiled when Willy's wife makes it clear that she doesn't approve of the two men renewing their acquaintance. Willy subsequently visits Max's room and when they're talking, casually cooks up some heroin. Later, when Frank turns up unexpectedly at Max's place and finds the book of matches that Willy had used, he takes Max to the county jail to be checked for drug-taking. Although the tests confirm that Max hadn't taken any drugs, he's kept in prison for some days before he gets picked up by Frank who intends to drive him to his halfway house. As they travel along the freeway, Frank tries to get Max to tell him who'd been using drugs in his room and when he becomes increasingly insistent, Max flips and beats Frank repeatedly before taking a spectacular form of revenge on him for all the humiliation he'd suffered at his hands.
This incident leads to Max losing his job and deciding that his only chance of survival is to go back to the life that he knows best. After renewing his friendship with Jerry Schue (Harry Dean Stanton), an apparently reformed ex-con who soon makes it known that he's bored by the straight life, Max's downward spiral goes into overdrive as they go on to carry out a couple of high-value robberies together.
"Straight Time" was originally scheduled to provide Dustin Hoffman with his directorial debut but soon after shooting began, it became clear that helming the piece as well as starring in it was going to be too onerous and so Ulu Grosbard was recruited. His style of direction proved to be particularly effective both in the context of providing the required level of focus on the characters and also for the ways in which he filmed the various heists.
Hoffman's performance is exceptional, especially for the completely natural way in which he makes his character seem so believable. Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey are terrific as Max's associates, M Emmet Walsh is marvellous as the sadistic parole officer and in one of her earliest roles, Theresa Russell expresses the full range of (mostly negative) emotions that the naïve Jenny goes through with all the skill of someone considerably more experienced. "Straight Time" is a great piece of 70s' cinema and really deserves a much higher profile.
One of the movie's strong points is its appearance of absolute realism and this is, no doubt, attributable to the involvement of career criminal, bank robber and long-term convict Edward Bunker whose novel "No Beast So Fierce" provided the raw material for the plot. His additional contributions as a screenwriter, technical adviser and bit-part player must also have been critical to achieving the level of authenticity that makes "Straight Time" so compelling to watch from start to finish.
After serving a six-year sentence at San Quentin for armed robbery, Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) has to report to his parole officer Earl Frank (M Emmet Walsh). Their relationship gets off to a bad start because Max had failed to report to the halfway house he was supposed to go to on his first night out of prison and Frank, who's obviously a man who likes abusing his power, treats his newest parolee with utter contempt. Max says he wants to leave his life of crime behind and initially makes good progress by getting a job in a can factory, getting himself somewhere to live and starting to date Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell), a young clerk he'd met at the employment agency where he's found his job.
Max makes contact with his old friend Willy Darin (Gary Busey)an ex-con who's now married with a young son but his enjoyment of the evening he spends at Willy's home is spoiled when Willy's wife makes it clear that she doesn't approve of the two men renewing their acquaintance. Willy subsequently visits Max's room and when they're talking, casually cooks up some heroin. Later, when Frank turns up unexpectedly at Max's place and finds the book of matches that Willy had used, he takes Max to the county jail to be checked for drug-taking. Although the tests confirm that Max hadn't taken any drugs, he's kept in prison for some days before he gets picked up by Frank who intends to drive him to his halfway house. As they travel along the freeway, Frank tries to get Max to tell him who'd been using drugs in his room and when he becomes increasingly insistent, Max flips and beats Frank repeatedly before taking a spectacular form of revenge on him for all the humiliation he'd suffered at his hands.
This incident leads to Max losing his job and deciding that his only chance of survival is to go back to the life that he knows best. After renewing his friendship with Jerry Schue (Harry Dean Stanton), an apparently reformed ex-con who soon makes it known that he's bored by the straight life, Max's downward spiral goes into overdrive as they go on to carry out a couple of high-value robberies together.
"Straight Time" was originally scheduled to provide Dustin Hoffman with his directorial debut but soon after shooting began, it became clear that helming the piece as well as starring in it was going to be too onerous and so Ulu Grosbard was recruited. His style of direction proved to be particularly effective both in the context of providing the required level of focus on the characters and also for the ways in which he filmed the various heists.
Hoffman's performance is exceptional, especially for the completely natural way in which he makes his character seem so believable. Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey are terrific as Max's associates, M Emmet Walsh is marvellous as the sadistic parole officer and in one of her earliest roles, Theresa Russell expresses the full range of (mostly negative) emotions that the naïve Jenny goes through with all the skill of someone considerably more experienced. "Straight Time" is a great piece of 70s' cinema and really deserves a much higher profile.