Stunde der Bewährung (1978) Online

Whatever the weaknesses of STRAIGHT TIME, the strengths render them meaningless. This is at the center a small story about a small man of no consequence in the world. Dustin Hoffman's character is never going to do Great Things with his life. He's probably never going to hold a meaningful job thanks to his criminal record. Whether it's due to the inequities of the system or his own character's weaknesses, it doesn't matter. He'll never have a family or make a contribution to society. But we still care about him. Hoffman's amazing performance makes us care and gives him meaning that few actors could imbue.

The storyline is slow and downbeat. Nothing good is going to come to the inhabitants of this movie. However, that is the unrepentant message of STRAIGHT TIME and it is delivered with amazing power and stark desperation. I can see why this sad premise was a commercial flop but there is not a single false note in the entire heartbreaking two hours. The stellar supporting cast features early roles for Gary Busey, Kathy Bates and M. Emmett Walsh. One of the great noirs of the seventies and a must see for anyone who is a fan of Hoffman or film noir in general.

My wife and I saw this in the theater at the time of its release, and I've never talked to anyone else who's seen it. This is among Dustin Hoffman's grittiest work, and he is superb (I've read that this is his favorite of his own films). Gary Busey, a gorgeous 20-year old Theresa Russell,and the old pro Harry Dean Stanton are all excellent. This film is among my all-time favorites, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Since reviews are required to be at least ten lines long, I'll add that it took me several minutes to recognize the young, skinny Kathy Bates, who was spot-on as Busey's justifiably concerned wife. I'm a fan of character actors, and M. Emmett Walsh is great as the asshole parole officer. I hope that this film will someday be re-released, ala Taxi Driver, and get a chance to prove itself to a new generation of audiences.

This is such a great film. The cast is so excellent. You've got Dustin Hoffman, who turns in one of his best performances, but it only gets better from there. Gary Busey plays Hoffman's buddy and husband to Kathy Bates-both excellent. Harry Dean Stanton (probably one of my favorite actors) plays one of Hoffman's partners in heist. His performance is right on the money as always. M. Emmet Walsh plays Hoffman's nearly inhumanly sleazy parole officer. Walsh does such a good job here too(I read somewhere that the Coens saw him in this movie and that was what led them to cast him in Blood Simple). Theresa Russell does a nice job as Hoffman's girlfriend. Eddie Bunker himself shows up as a bartender. It's no one wonder Tarantino would want to study this film-it's remarkable.

"Straight Time," hoisted high by a brilliant and dexterous performance by Dustin Hoffman, pulls off a very unusual trick: It's one of the only movies in memory where a character we fully identify with turns out to not be such a good guy - and stays that way. "Straight Time" begins on Max's (Hoffman) side and shows us what appears to be a handsome, wounded soul suffering at the hands of an injustice legal system. But Max turns out to be no angel, and yet through the very end, we care about his fortunes and want things to work out for him. It's a brave and gritty role, and Hoffman, on screen the entire film, embodies it. Compare "Straight Time" to "Monster," and see that Lee Wuornos and Max Deblor are cousins. Both characters are labyrinthine in their depth, and both actors find the perfect pitch.

I wasn't expecting much from this film especially since it's only 6.9 on IMDb, and barely any posts about it, but don't let that fool you, this is probably one of the most under-appreciated movies i've ever seen in my life.

I really see why Dustin Hoffman is sometimes regarded as one of the best actors of all-time.. he had such a strong performance, so congruent and alpha. It's really a movie where you just GOT to keep watching to see what happens next, and it's well worth watching, you'll love it. I think if more people see it, it's going to be a "cult favorite".

8.5/10 GO SEE IT!

This modest movie captured the blown out angst of the 70's better than any other film and is a worthy addition to the great tradition of noir gangster dramas that began with High Sierra (starring Bogart). It is also a high point in Dustin Hoffman's career, perhaps his greatest performance. Unlike pictures such as "Rambo," it does not so much romanticize the violence as make the viewer pity the protagonist for his tragic choice. I wonder if any parolees who saw this movie decided to go straight rather than risk the dangers of returning to a life of crime. I also wonder if any parole officers who saw it were persuaded to be more humane in their treatment of ex-cons. Haven't seen one this good in a long long time!

A great film. Dustin Hoffman is at his peak here, and shows why he's one of the five greatest actors of his generation as he inhabits the character of Max Dembo, a career criminal who's just been released on parole. The movie is brilliant in it's pacing, as we see the layers of Dembo slowly revealed. We want to believe he's a good guy who just made a mistake ("I just want the same things everyone else wants..."), but as the film goes on we see one transgression after another that ultimately reveal to us that he may not be the man we thought he was in the beginning. An excellent portrayal by Hoffman is at the center of the movie, but there is also fine work on display from M. Emmett Walsh (maybe the greatest character actor of all time) as his parole officer, and Theresa Russell (looking like she's about 18) as his naive love interest. Hoffman is brilliant in his interpretation of a prison lifer. Check out the scene where his P.O. throws him back in jail on a petty bust just so he can show Dembo who's in charge. Walsh nails his part as the small man who compensates for his shortcomings by abusing what little authority he has (in other words, a dead on portrayal of almost all law officers), but Hoffman is absolutely perfect as he goes into his thousand yard stare mode while going through the jail house routine of frisking and delousing. The look on his face says "You can't hurt me because I'm numb". Very few flaws in this film. Hell, even the Randy Newmanesque music that plays throughout is perfectly suited. I was enthralled from the opening scene to the last, which is, fittingly, a series of mugshots of Hoffman's Dembo over the years. Highly recommend.

This movie creeps up on you, gets a kind of emotional hold on you and digs in through the end. Really, a terrific 70s style film (should have been made in 1973). Dustin Hoffman is outstanding. He gives an understated performance that fits the atmosphere of the movie, the story and himself perfectly. It is one of his best performances. Theresa Russell, and Harry Dean Stanton also deliver excellent performances. A very good example of how story, and acting that is true to the story, matter so much in making a good film. Urls Grosbard does a good job of establishing the mood of the film and carrying it all the way through, without hitting you over the head with unnecessarily forced dialog or drawn-out action sequences, etc.

Gritty, seemingly realistic drama about the life of an ex-con trying to go straight. Hoffman is great in the lead role of new parolee Max Dembo trying to succeed in the outside world despite some strong barriers (Walsh). The supporting performances are quite good, particularly those of Harry Dean, Walsh and Theresa Russell. Look for Kathy Bates as Gary Busey's wife. The settings (seedy Los Angeles in 1977) are good, as are the clothes (!). My issues with the film are 1) Max gets a good setup very quickly (job and hot girlfriend), and 2) his descent into almost psychotically violent and foolish behavior happens quickly. Perhaps he leaves a clue that this metamorphosis will occur when he's having dinner with Russell. I also found the editing to be a bit rough in spots, as scenes unfold with no resolution to certain issues (e.g. Sandy Baron showing up late for a job and disappearing from the film).

Overall, "Straight Time" is a hard-hitting drama with a great performance by Hoffman in a "real" role that was overshadowed by his less fulfilling later roles ("Rainman," "Outbreak," "Sphere"). The film's final scene is quite good, and perhaps answers some questions raised earlier in the film. A "7."

N.B. One would believe that an ex-con who reveals easily verifiable info. about his new girlfriend to his parole officer, then beats up the parole officer, would be foolish to shack up at her place while on the lam. How does the criminal mind work?

Dustin Hoffman gives one of his finest, scrappiest and least sappy performances as Max Dembo, a cagey, scuzzy, ferociously self-reliant sociopathic ex-con who gets sprung from the joint and makes a game, albeit futile attempt at going legit, only to wind up resorting to his old criminal ways after his browbeating, grossly unfair and overzealous parole officer (a superbly slimy M. Emmet Walsh) fouls up his chances at becoming a decent, law-abiding citizen with some trumped-up bulls**t drug charge.

Under Ulu Grosbard's tight, no-frills, naturalistic direction, this marvelously gritty and hard-hitting semi-verite crime drama makes for a terrifically tough-minded adaptation of real-life reformed hoodlum Edward Bunker's exceptional semi-autobiographical novel "No Beast So Fierce" (Bunker co-wrote the rough, resolutely unromantic no-nonsense script and has a funny bit part as one of Max's connected underworld pals) as well as a savagely trenchant indictment of our society's cruelly ineffectual prison reformation system and a provocative meditation on the struggle for redemption. The supporting cast makes the grade with flying colors: the gorgeous Theresa Russell as a guileless, but headstrong welfare worker who gets more than she bargained for when she hooks up with Max; Gary Busey as a deplorably craven, heroin-addicted wheelman with a backbone of jello, a then unknown Kathy Bates as Busey's loving wife, and, best of all, the ever-awesome Harry Dean Stanton as an uncomfortably mellowed-out erstwhile jailbird who gladly chucks away his hideously banal suburbanite existence in order to embark on an exciting robbing spree with Max. Further strengthened by David Shire's sprightly blues score, Owen Roizman's agile, but scruffy cinematography, a suitably harsh and unglamorous depiction of brutish low-life crooks and the grimy, seedy, and dangerous down'n'dirty milieu they inhibit, a lively, adrenaline-pumping jewelry store heist sequence, and a rigorously grim, downbeat, unsentimental tone that stays bleakly true to itself to the literal bitter end, this extremely powerful knock-out undeservedly tanked at the box office, but has rightfully amassed a sizable cult following which correctly proclaims it as one of the single most remarkable and shamefully underrated sleepers from the 70's.

After many juvenile detentions and six years in prison, the small time thief and burglar Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) is released on parole. Max has an initial friction with his nasty parole officer Earl Frank (M. Emmet Walsh), but the officer agrees to let him live in a hotel room if he gets a job within a week. Max goes to an employment agency and the attendant Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) helps him to get a job in a can industry. Max is decided to begin a new life straight and visits his old pal Willy Darin (Gary Busey) and his family. When Willy brings Max home, he injects heroin and leaves his spoon under Max's bed. Max dates Jenny and on the next day after hours, he finds Frank waiting for him snooping around his room. Frank finds the spoon and sends Max to prison for tests to prove whether he had a fix or not. Despite the negative result, Frank leaves Max for a week imprisoned. When Max is released again, Franks gives a ride and presses him to tell who had a fix in his room. Max hits Frank, steals his car and seeks out his former friends to restart his life of crime. Jenny lodges Max at her place and has a love affair with him. Max and his best friend Jerry Schue (Harry Dean Stanton) successfully rob a bank; but after a jewelry heist in Beverly Hills, where Max loses Jerry and Willy, he leaves California and Jenny and heads alone elsewhere.

"Straight Time" is a small gangster film that shows how impossible is to a smalltime thief to regenerate and begin a straight life in insensitive the American correctional system with abusive parole officers and no assistance to the ex-cons. Dustin Hoffman performs a criminal that is trapped in the underworld, supported by an excellent cast of veterans and promising stars. The twenty-one year-old Theresa Russell in her second movie is incredibly beautiful. I have always been a fan of this talented but underrated actress that has an adorable voice and today I have recalled how gorgeous she was in the beginning of her career. M. Emmet Walsh performs his usual role of a despicable police officer. Gary Busey (with his son Jake), Kathy Bates and Harry Dean Stanton complete the great cast of this quite unknown film that has been just released on DVD in Brazil. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Liberdade Condicional" ("Parole")

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.

"Straight Time" is by far the most honest and accurate look at the criminal mind that I have ever seen. Dustin Hoffman's performance as Max Dembo is perfectly detailed and developed from start to finish, as he charmingly deceives others, and himself, into believing that he can leave the adrenalin-rush life of crime that he is ultimately most comfortable with. The film is also an indictment of our penal system, which pretends to offer a way out of crime, but only perpetuates and intensifies it, practically guaranteeing high rates of recidivism. The end result being that the parolees are offered many roads back to crime, but very few, if any, out of it.

Max Dembo is doomed from the start, knowing that the only thing that makes him feel truly alive is crime and being among other criminals. He pretends to want "out", and to lead a normal life, but like a mountain climber without a mountain, he's lost if he's not either committing a crime, or being punished for it. Dembo is a brilliant, but lost, hedonist for whom crime is not only all he knows, but all that he needs. And both Hoffman and director Ulu Grosbard captured this beautifully.

This is truly a great film on every level.

Although it was almost certainly not intended as such, this film is a virtual remake of the 1937 Fritz Lang classic "You Only Live Once". It was actually based on the novel "No Beast So Fierce" which was written by Edward Bunker, a career criminal who might just have known his subject matter. Bunker managed to break with his life of crime and died at the age of 71 after a successful media career. The subject – or perhaps that should be the victim – of this film, was never going to have such a happy ending.

Max Dembo comes out of gaol, and like Eddie Taylor in "You Only Live Once", he makes a determined effort to go straight, even like Taylor finding himself a high quality but low maintenance love interest. And like Taylor he realises the world is a conspiracy against him, and that there will be no redemption, especially with the creep of a parole officer who is assigned his case. Though there is little humour in this film, this odious character gets a particularly fitting comeuppance.

Like "You Only Live Twice" it too is a social document, and a realistic if pessimistic one with a similarly sad resolution. Alas, another thirty and more years on, nothing has changed.

So skillfully directed and acted, "Straight Time" deserved much more recognition than it received. After I saw "Straight Time" in a movie theater soon after its release, I considered the film the best of its kind that I had seen. When I rented the video of "Straight Time" some 15 years later, my opinion of it remained unchanged.

As a study of the mindset of a lifetime delinquent, "Straight Time" has no rival. While many crime dramas reveal the heinous things that some psychotic or emotionally disturbed people do, in my estimation only "Straight Time" completes the profile of the more common situationally normal yet menacing person whom one should not completely trust.

When I have seen "Straight Time," rather than feel that I am dealing with some arrogant and unrepentant Mafiosos or some clinically crazy street dwellers, I have the experience that I am witnessing the struggle of a few deeply conflicted adults for whom adequate self-sufficiency demands a daily conscious effort and for whom lawless behavior has become compulsive. Some films, as much as they may shock viewers with the graphic violence that exists in the world of the mobster or the serial killer, lack the element of realism that makes "Straight Time" a simpler yet more powerful story.

Ironically, "Straight Time" benefits from what IT is lacking. The story does not include a spectacular shootout, an unbelievable escape from police, mesmerizing explosions and destruction, or characters so imposing or physically endowed that they no longer seem all that human. It does include very impressive work, especially by Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dustin Hoffman, who so convincingly took on the personalities of the antisocial people they portrayed.

Spoilers. There are so many things that seem (to a viewer, anyway, if not an ex-inmate) exactly right. I won't go over the story, since that's been adequately limned. But let me mention the makeup and wardrobe. What unspeakable sleaze. Hoffman's mustache looks like it belong on some grubneck posing for a mug shot. And Gary Busey's long hair is combed straight back in a most unkempt way. And -- this is splendid -- his KID'S hair is cut and groomed exactly the same way! The wardrobe reeks of those kinds of stores one finds in the tenderloin sections of LA, where the cheap colorful shirt, made in Thailand or Ceylon or someplace, hang from a wheeled bar out on the sidewalk, and the shop window has a sign taped on it in red letters -- SALE 99 CENTS. The locations were equally well chosen. Hoffman finds a room in a kind of single-room-occupany place that passes for a dump in LA. (It would be a mansion in New York.) The room is neat and sparsely furnished and the sheets are clean, but you can practically smell the stale odor of peeling paint and aging varnish, and everyone who lives there is a loser. One imagines a lot of bottles of cheap vodka stashed in a lot of bureau drawers in this place, and the bathroom is always down the hall.

The performances are uniformly first rate, with the possible exception of Theresa Russel, who is a hottie, no doubt about it, but doesn't bring much in the way of expressiveness to her role. Hoffman is superb as a slightly dumb, impulsive, but street smart thief. Gary Busey couldn't be better as his well-meaning but unreliable friend. And Harry Dean Stanton is equally good, as usual, as the poor guy whose soul cries out to be illegal while he soldiers on in his bland Southern California upper-prole simulacrum of a home, eating the most unappetizing grilled hamburgers you can dream up, and wistfully playing his guitar and signing, "Hand me down...my walkin' cane." Oh, how desperately he needs that cane. "I gotta get outta here," he moans. I've always kind of like Emmet Walsh's performances, whether he's a heavy or not. He comes through quite well here as a P.O. whose surface friendliness conceals, not the mean streak we might expect, but a "just business" attitude towards his clients. The writers must have disliked his character because they have him humiliated by winding up handcuffed bareassed to a freeway fence, a fate he didn't deserve. What do you expect from a parole officer, Father Flannagan?

Iconography and performances aside, the movie has interesting points and an interesting theme. There are basically two family scenes: first, when Hoffman visits Busy, and second when Hoffman visits Stanton. Both exude a sense of ordinary everyday life -- routine and boring. Busey's family is the more interesting. He apologizes to his little boy for something he said or did earlier. We don't find out what he's apologizing for; we're left to think it over. Nice touch. A more barbaric writer and director would have spelled it out. "Remember last night when I whupped you and called you a wuss? Well, I didn't really mean it." Of course that's not the way life works. Hoffman, like the rest of us, enters a family in medias res, walks into an ongoing domestic play somewhere maybe in the middle of Act Two, Scene Three, without knowing what's preceded the current goings on. Kathy Bates, her weight more closely approximating the ideal that our narcissistic culture now demands, has a sensitive and nicely executed exchange with Hoffman while her husband is out of the room, telling Hoffman it would be better if he didn't come around anymore, and showing genuine regret while saying so.

But the more dramatic moments are well done too. Hoffman trying to hold up a Korean grocer with an old faulty revolver that is falling apart while he holds the owners at bay. (The thing looks more like a cap pistol than a real gun, about as threatening as an angora pussycat.) Hoffman smashing and smashing and continuing to smash glass cases in a jewelry store while Stanton throws up his hands in disgust and shouts about how unprofessional Hoffman is. The backyard chase after the robbery and Hoffman shooting blindly through a wooden fence. I can't think offhand of any other movie that has made me feel quite so thoroughly sucked into a life of thievery and murder, that has made the progression from ex-con trying to hold a straight job, to fugitive murderer, seem so inexorable.

And yet we never feel exactly sympathetic towards Hoffman's character, except at the very end when, before the end credits, we see a succession of mug shots of Hoffman, a half dozen or so dissolving into one another, each face looking younger and more innocent than the last, but each equally without hope. I think one of the reasons we don't feel sorry for Hoffman is that the whole botched affair is really his own fault. Asked earnestly not to visit Busey again, he nevertheless not only contact him but draws him into the final robbery, without informing his partner Stanton. And, after all, if Hoffman had adhered to the original plan of the robbery, he and Stanton would in all likelihood have gotten away with it, even in the face of Busey's failure. Hoffman sees none of this. He blames Busey for everything, including the Stanton's death, and murders him coldly. And for all his street smarts, he's not very clever in dealing with secondary institutions like the Bureau of Parole. On the freeway, Walsh is trying to wheedle some information out of him, and Hoffman suddenly turns with a feral rage and begins punching Walsh in the head and forcing the car off the freeway. That's no way to treat people.

This is a good crime story. It isn't a simple caper flick. There is a good deal of character built into the people we see here. Grosbard hasn't directed in a flashy, gory style, either. There is virtually no blood. No trick shots. No car chases. No stunts. No exploding fireballs. And no automatic weapons. There is only Hoffman, emerging from the prison shower after being booked for violation of his parole, one pink naked body in a line of unpleasant pink naked bodies, waiting to be deloused with a powder spray, everybody's privates now made public. That one scene of the prison shower tells us volumes more about the world Hoffman calls home than any number of squib charges could.

Dustin Hoffman is surprisingly serious, surprisingly gritty playing a recently paroled thief named Max Dembo who can't seem to straighten out his life. After meeting a new lady who is very supportive of him, Dembo reverts back to the only thing he really knows: robbery. Tough and vivid character study based on real-life convict Edward Bunker's novel "No Beast So Fierce" gives Hoffman a wonderful chance as an actor to stretch some technical muscles (he hadn't been this focused in years). Ulu Grosbard's atmospheric direction aids in Hoffman's triumph, as well as some flavorful dialogue (worked on by several writers). Theresa Russell is lovely as the smitten secretary in Max's life, supporting work from M. Emmet Walsh also good. The picture is marred by gaps of logic or credibility, not to mention by a tepid finale, but otherwise it's quite gripping. *** from ****

****SPOILERS**** Being a criminal all of his adult life trying to go straight wasn't all that easy for ex-con Max Dembo, Dustin Hoffman. In the movie Max tries to make it as a law-biding citizen after doing his latest stretch, six years, in the can for burglary with a deadly weapon.

Reporting to his parole officer Earl Frank, M. Emmer Walsh, you could see just how honest Max was in trying to follow all the rules to make him a decent and productive member of society. First getting himself a room at a local hotel to live and then with the help of his new and somewhat naive girlfriend Jenny, Theresa Russell, who worked for an employment agency to get a job at a neighborhood can factory Max looked like he was on his way back to civilization. But like a bird flying south for the winter Max just couldn't stay away from his fellow criminals and ex-convicts and it was that compulsion that turned out to be his downfall in the movie.

Getting in touch with friend and ex-con Willy Darin, Gary Busey, to talk over old times Willy, who does some carpentry, tells Max that he'll get him a bed-board for his bed at the hotel room that Max is staying at. After putting the board in Willy takes out a spoon and fills it with dope and lights a book of matches under it and then shoots up.

Max glumly tells his friend that doing that in his room with him present can get him three years in jail if his parole officer ever found out about it. Max follows the same pattern throughout the movie; He chooses the wrong friends and those friends cost him his freedom and turn him into a criminal and fugitive from the law.

Even his caring girlfriend who I at first thought would have a very good effect on Max, by making him see the light and straightening him out for her sake as well as his, did nothing at all to make Max go legit. Jenny instead looked up to Max for being outside the law as some kind of hero as well as an adventure for her that she wanted to be part of. Jenny could have, if she didn't by the time the movie was over, ended up being behind bars herself for harboring a fugitive which Max himself told her that she was doing.

After breaking his parole as well as his parole officers nose and leaving him stranded on a heavily traveled LA highway with his pants down Max had only two choices left to him: jail or crime and of course Max took the latter.

It was interesting to see in the movie how Max's friend Willy came full circle by being responsible for Max breaking his parole at the start of the film and then having something to do with the death of Max's friend and partner in crime, in their short career as a armed robber, Jerry Schue, Harry Dean Stanton. Jerry was gunned down by the police at he end of the film by Willy leaving both Max and Jerry holding the bag as he sped away with the getaway car instead of waiting for them after they committed a jewelry heist.

Even though you couldn't really blame Willy since Max was too greedy and kept Jerry in the jewelry store long enough for the police to respond and Willy had no choice but to drive away to save himself from getting caught due to Max's uncontrollable gluttony. Unable and unwilling to take responsibility for Jerry's death Max brutally murders Willy instead who did everything right in the jewel robbery.

With the assaulting of his parole officer followed by a string of armed robberies and ending with the murder of Willy as well as the shooting death of his friend Jerry who was killed by the police because of Max's compulsive stupidity he also gets his innocent girlfriend Jenny to become a fugitive from the law. It was a diamond watch that Max promised Jenny that made him forget to leave on time from the jewelry store. In the end the thought by society of Max going straight from his crooked path turned out to be a twisted idea.

This film is inadequate on so many levels - not *bad* mind you, but inadequate; it posits a very strong and promising story - following ex-con Max Dembo (great name, that) from the moment of his release from prison and chronicling his attempts at re-integrating himself to the outside world, ending in the wasteful tragedy of him returning to a life of crime. A powerful premise, obviously, as it contains the possibility of exposing the prison system as caring solely about locking up, rather than rehabilitation; it would let a character like Max whither on the vine for years and years, then release him coldly into the world with no props, no survival skills, no real knowledge of anything but crime, violence, and institutional thinking. The *indignity* of the parolee's existence, belonging neither to the jail nor really to the outside world, comes through here in several of the opening scenes - particularly those between Dembo and his imposing parole officer (underplayed superbly by M. Emmet Walsh), and they are striking. But there's just not enough of it before Max jumps back into the convict's life: the latter two thirds of the movie involve his attempted scores with old buddies, leaving the examination of the whys and wherefores of his defection from the law-abiding life to simply drift into the wind. Indeed, I'd say the film throws away its true strength and uniqueness early, in order to settle into being a fairly routine and unspectacular caper thriller. It's too bad because it's such a great premise - that of the put upon ex-con - and one that's been used in such '90s films as "Heat", "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Carlito's Way" to yield penetrating insights into human nature. But "Straight Time" - probably one of the first films to ever deal with the subject head on - never really uses it to much benefit.

What makes the film something to see, though, in spite of itself, is the toweringly great performance by Dustin Hoffman as Max. This may very well be his single greatest performance -even taking such classics as "The Graduate", "Tootsie" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" into account. For one thing, he eschews the mannered gestures and speaking patterns that tend to bring a staginess to even his best performances; in "Straight Time" Hoffman is a model of stillness and calm - and yet, with a ferocious electricity in his eyes and a wiry tension in his body that at all moments practically scream, "Kill!" Though his character has relatively little dialogue (that is, for a leading role), you can't take your eyes off of him, because you're perpetually scared at what he might do. As it happens, the violence in the film is fairly minimal, but Hoffman sears the screen with such coiled intensity that you are kept afraid and off guard at every minute (and, of course, when the worst finally comes, it packs quite a punch - no pun intended). I truly believe this performance bears comparison to that other great mid-70s showcase of quiet angst and intensity - Robert DeNiro in "Taxi Driver" (and, while we're making comparisons, even Pacino in "The Godfather Part II").

Though he can't make up for lackluster direction and a lazy script, Hoffman does as much as any actor could reasonably do to fill in the blanks of Max's personality. His flat, deadened voice suggests a man who has been beaten down so long that all passion and volume has been removed from his larynx; his stony and expressionless face registers neither joy nor sorrow, letting us know all excitement and expectation have been drained from this man. Even his affair with the fresh-faced and pretty Theresa Russell (a hackneyed and unconvincing sub-plot, in any case) can arouse no great feeling in him; when he has to, he abandons her with no greater thought or regret than one would feel for a misplaced duffel bag.

Again I say, the first part of this film - which establishes Max's desire to fit in on the outside and his frustrated attempts at doing so - is so strong and Hoffman's performance so focused and intense (cementing our connection to him almost immediately) that it leaves you breathless for a great movie that, alas, never comes. In fact, the film gives up on its own greatness relatively early on. But, even after all the disappointment at the wasted opportunities, still there remains the memory of Dustin Hoffman's fantastically controlled and harrowing performance. And you know what? That turns out to be - just barely - enough.

Very realistic crime movie, based on No Beast So Fierce, the first book by Eddie Bunker, whom you probably know as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs.

Bunker was a career criminal with an impressive track record: he was San Quentin's youngest inmate ever and made it all the way to the FBI's most wanted list in the early seventies. During his last stay in prison he wrote No Beast So Fierce, about an ex-convict named Max Dembo, who has a hard time adjusting on the outside.

According to Bunker, No Beast So Fierce is supposed to show that most ex-cons who go back to a life of crime don't choose to do so. They're forced by the system and the circumstances.

Well, I haven't read the book, but in Straight Time the reason for Max Dembo's inevitable return to crime lies mostly in his character, not in the system. Sure, his parole officer (a superb M. Emmett Walsh) is a complete asshole. But who hasn't had an asshole for a boss? We take the abuse and move on. But not Max Dembo. He just can't. Too proud, too stubborn, too ill adjusted to civilian life. When Dembo attacks his parole officer and there is no way back for him, we see not only panic in his eyes but also relief. His attitude changes as well: while he was clearly uncomfortable trying to adjust to life outside, he is quite resolute and efficient as soon as he is back doing the things he does best, which is robbing banks.

It's a great role for Hoffman who had Bunker and another ex-convict called John Carlen advise him throughout the production. That probably added to the realism of this great crime film.

In most movies about bank robbers, the criminals are mostly outsiders by choice, with their own set of principles. Straight Time is no different. But unlike The Getaway or Charley Varrick, this one shows us the very tragic consequences of that life.

Without a doubt, Dustin Hoffman does the very best portrayal in all film of an ex-con who can't get free of that low life and its hold over him. Hoffman becomes Max the sleazebag in this film, he was that good, a criminal lowlife with high hopes of a better way but no real chance of real personal freedom due to old habits that would not die, even though he wanted them to die in the worst way but just could not find the way to do it.

See this film for the very best look ever at a criminal's inner thinking and the horrible lives they choose to live when they have been told all their lives that they are worthless crud losers and no good to the core.

The innocent and true love of a pretty young woman eventually brought out some long-hidden decency in Max, and he showed her and us that he would rather die first than bring her down with him on his sure road back to the pen or, more likely, death. What a great performance.

Jimmy Cagney, eat your heart out.

Little seen late 70's Dustin Hoffman film which I was pleased to catch airing on TCM and which shows its star was more than up to the "challenge" of playing "street", a la the younger competition De Niro and Pacino in a tough urban tale of a small-time thief released back into society but who drifts back to crime with disastrous results.

The film moves us deftly through the key relationships that Hoffman's Max Dembo character enters, which all inform the narrative, starting with his petty tyrannical parole officer M Emmet Walsh, strung-out driver/buddy Gary Busey, young female interest Thelma Russell and cut-from-the-same-cloth fellow hoodlum Harry Dean Stanton, none of whom really profit from the experience (Busey & Stanton in particular!) before he heads out on the run to L.A., all chance of a "normal" life blown to bits.

Looking a little Latino with his handlebar moustache, I've rarely seen Hoffman act better than this and it's something of a revelation seeing him here on top of his game given how much he's mellowed into his avuncular old age in recent years. He captures the edginess and essential loneliness of his character, erupting into rage when pushed just too far but just about capable of tenderness with the hero-worshipping Russell. His return to old ways starts small but inevitably builds up to violence and murder as his life spirals out of control.

The film readily captures the mundaneness of Hoffman's ill-fated attempts to fit back into society and these are contrasted well with the action set pieces. The four main supporting roles mentioned above are all excellently played, by Walsh, Busey, Russell and Stanton and there's no time in the film when you don't believe you're seeing real-life characters. What humour there is, is sparing and grim, (it's doubtful that pesky parole officer will be able to hold his head up again in public, for one thing) and there's also a fluid, sympathetic musical soundtrack too to maintain interest, with themes a little reminiscent at times of "Midnight Cowboy".

I didn't quite accept however the phot-montage ending which seemed to indicate that Dembo always was the proverbial leopard unable to change his spots from youth, as with the right breaks, one has to hope in modern society that offenders released back into the community can be rehabilitated.

As an indictment of the U.S. parole system of the time however, this gritty, uncompromising movie makes its point effectively and further confirms me in the belief that the genre of Hollywood 70's contemporary drama was a rich one indeed.

Straight Time (1978) Dustin Hoffman plays Max Dembo, a convict, at the mercy of his parole officer to set him free. While on parole for the first time, Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) helps him get a job which is a requisite for ending the parole. They both fall in love. When the parole officer makes a search at Max's home he finds evidence of a dope being used. Max lets his friend Jerry use the dope in his room earlier. So, Max is arrested again & a urine test is taken. When found not guilty Max is let out in parole again. Completely irritated by the officer Max runs away from him. Soon, he comes to know that the only thing he could do well is burglary. While robbing a jewelers shop, a mistake leads to the death of his close friend & confidante. However, Max escapes & absconds with his girl friend Jenny. At last, completely disgusted with the world, Max sends his girl friend home to L.A & admits that he knows he will get caught again! Awesome performance from Hoffman. I am unfamiliar with director Ulu Grosbard but it is a powerful lean stage play. Kind of a slice life/realism type thing. Reminds me of the 50s TV & film noir crime (gangster) dramas. This is a strange movie in that the character we fully identify with turns out to not be such a good guy - & stays that way. This film could be the high point in Dustin Hoffman's career, perhaps his greatest performance. The film does not romanticize the violence & makes the viewer feel pity the Dembo & his bad choices. This is one of Dustin Hoffman's greatest roles. It is one of those performances where I forget I was witnessing a great performance by an actor. It felt like a real life documentary. Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, & Theresa Russell were all fantastic as well. Kathy Bates here in an early role. Great direction by Ulu Grosbard The film is not about raising anyone's spirits but just the fascination with the low class criminal crime rat. Dembo is not a smart or attractive criminal. One of the great movies of the 70s. 4 stars

Dustin Hoffman gives as intense a performance as we can expect from him as ex-con Max Dembo, who might have a harder than expected time ditching his past. "Straight Time" hits you like a kick in the gut, and they pull no punches. Maybe it's not the greatest movie ever, but it's definitely worth seeing. I would certainly say that whenever Ulu Grosbard directed Dustin Hoffman, there was always a good result (the previous time was "Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About Me?").

So, this is one that you should see. Also starring Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmett Walsh and Kathy Bates.

In what could have been a gem of a film, an A-list cast, solid

performances, top-notch scripting, and gritty direction are

ultimately wasted because of a fatal flaw: the movie's abrupt,

180-degree switch from ex-con-trying-to-go-straight film to pure

caper flick. Either approach would have worked well had the

director picked one and stuck to it. As the film is, however,

Hoffman's character--as well as everyone else's, with the

exception of H. D. Stanton's Jerry--becomes completely

unsympathetic in the end. Some movies successfully deal with

self-destructive characters; the 2nd half of "Straight Time" could

have also been that type of film, as well. But Max, once pushed,

dives back into the criminal world with far too much gusto for the

viewer not to feel chagrined for having sympathized with him in the

first half. In today's three-strikes-and-you're-out society, one could

easily assume that was the point all along. But the dehumanization of the first half is depicted too effectively for such a

theme. Still, "Straight Time's" merits are strong enough to be

enjoyed on their own.