David O'ConnellDustin Hoffman does Straight Time
May 20th 2008 04:55
Max Dembo has just been released from prison after 6 years, determined to go straight and establish a normal life for himself with a decent job, a place to live and a woman who can love him. He seems very sincere in the early scenes of Ulu Grosbard’s forgotten gem from 1978, Straight Time. Dembo is a quiet, controlled man and defends himself with dignity when confronted by his hard-nosed parole officer Mr. Frank, played by M. Emmett Walsh.
He easily finds a seedy little room to rent and a job possibility at a can factory thanks to a young woman in an employment agency, Jenny (played by a very youthful Theresa Russell), who he promises to take out on a date if successful in getting the job, which he does.
But before long, the past begins to intrude with dire consequences for Max and his new sense of optimism in the form of former cellmate Willy (Gary Busey) who’s been living on the outside for a while now with a wife and young son. After a night of reliving old times, they go back to Max’s room where Willy takes drugs, and it’s the evidence of this activity which Mr. Frank will discover upon inspection of Max’s room the next day, changing things forever and setting in motion a downwards spiral which Max cannot recover from.
Back briefly in L.A county jail until proven to be clean (and missing the date he’d set up with Jenny), Max simmers with rage, and it soon becomes clear that upon release he won’t be able to put this setback aside and start afresh once again. He takes out his rage on Mr. Frank as he’s driven back to a halfway house which they’ll never arrive at.
Humiliating Mr. Frank and breaking his parole, Max Dembo is now a fugitive once more, desperate and before long falling back on all his old connections on the outside. From this point on, he sets up a number of robberies, mostly with the assistance of another old friend, Jerry, played by a legend of character-acting in Harry Dean Stanton. The naïve Jenny has fallen for Max too, and she provides him with shelter, at the same time scared of what he’s doing during the day but attracted to his basic decency. Max is no psychopath despite some scary moments of hotheaded, rash violence - he’s simply a product of his social circumstances, which doesn’t excuse him in any way of course, but does makes him a sympathetic anti-hero of sorts.
The film is loosely based on the criminal exploits of Edward Bunker who has a small cameo as another old connection on the outside, and who went on to similar small roles in Hollywood for many years afterwards.
The title of the film is an ironic one considering how minimal Max’s ‘straight time’ amounts to. Circumstances quickly thwart his simple hope of establishing a sense of normality and once he begins to feel cornered and unjustly punished by the system, it’s as though a primitive instinct kicks in, assuming control as he instantly resorts to surviving the way he has since he was a juvenile. This is made especially clear in the closing frames which sadly hint at the inevitable, unbreakable cycle that Max has once again become a part of.
Dustin Hoffman gives one of his typically great performances in an era where he appeared in so many influential films. Perhaps because of this, Straight Time has gone mostly unnoticed but it bears all the gritty hallmarks of America’s greatest decade of cinema – including the bleak naturalism, the gritty subject matter, and a reluctance to give a final crowd-pleasing, redemptive spin for the sake of it. Of course nothing will erase the dodgy fashion and music of the time!!…………but nevertheless this is a minor classic worth revisiting, with strong performances all round and qualities that are missing from many films of today which tackle similar stories.
He easily finds a seedy little room to rent and a job possibility at a can factory thanks to a young woman in an employment agency, Jenny (played by a very youthful Theresa Russell), who he promises to take out on a date if successful in getting the job, which he does.
But before long, the past begins to intrude with dire consequences for Max and his new sense of optimism in the form of former cellmate Willy (Gary Busey) who’s been living on the outside for a while now with a wife and young son. After a night of reliving old times, they go back to Max’s room where Willy takes drugs, and it’s the evidence of this activity which Mr. Frank will discover upon inspection of Max’s room the next day, changing things forever and setting in motion a downwards spiral which Max cannot recover from.
Back briefly in L.A county jail until proven to be clean (and missing the date he’d set up with Jenny), Max simmers with rage, and it soon becomes clear that upon release he won’t be able to put this setback aside and start afresh once again. He takes out his rage on Mr. Frank as he’s driven back to a halfway house which they’ll never arrive at.
Humiliating Mr. Frank and breaking his parole, Max Dembo is now a fugitive once more, desperate and before long falling back on all his old connections on the outside. From this point on, he sets up a number of robberies, mostly with the assistance of another old friend, Jerry, played by a legend of character-acting in Harry Dean Stanton. The naïve Jenny has fallen for Max too, and she provides him with shelter, at the same time scared of what he’s doing during the day but attracted to his basic decency. Max is no psychopath despite some scary moments of hotheaded, rash violence - he’s simply a product of his social circumstances, which doesn’t excuse him in any way of course, but does makes him a sympathetic anti-hero of sorts.
The film is loosely based on the criminal exploits of Edward Bunker who has a small cameo as another old connection on the outside, and who went on to similar small roles in Hollywood for many years afterwards.
Dustin Hoffman and Harry Dean Stanton
The title of the film is an ironic one considering how minimal Max’s ‘straight time’ amounts to. Circumstances quickly thwart his simple hope of establishing a sense of normality and once he begins to feel cornered and unjustly punished by the system, it’s as though a primitive instinct kicks in, assuming control as he instantly resorts to surviving the way he has since he was a juvenile. This is made especially clear in the closing frames which sadly hint at the inevitable, unbreakable cycle that Max has once again become a part of.
Dustin Hoffman gives one of his typically great performances in an era where he appeared in so many influential films. Perhaps because of this, Straight Time has gone mostly unnoticed but it bears all the gritty hallmarks of America’s greatest decade of cinema – including the bleak naturalism, the gritty subject matter, and a reluctance to give a final crowd-pleasing, redemptive spin for the sake of it. Of course nothing will erase the dodgy fashion and music of the time!!…………but nevertheless this is a minor classic worth revisiting, with strong performances all round and qualities that are missing from many films of today which tackle similar stories.
Debasement L.A County style!
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I love this film! IMO Straight Time is Dustin Hoffman's finest performance alongside Lenny. Add to that the tremendous script and authentic tone and it becomes an essential prison film.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic