june-sasser
This is Harry Dean at his finest. Hoffman is brilliant and so are Busey and the most captivating Ms Russell. The camera bees lovin some Theresa. She is so physically attractive it's almost distracting. This is one of those "Wonder Boys", "Nobody's Fool", kind of movies you never heard of that are so great. I think it's everyone's involved best work. The Blue Falcon is given because if I were Harry Dean's character, my dying act would have been to put as many rounds into Hoffman's character as I could before I expired.
PimpinAinttEasy
A lot to appreciate here. The film is a great character study of a man (Dustin Hoffman) who has been in and out of jail since he was 12. Now he is out on parole and wants to live a decent life but he locks horns with an inefficient and sadistic parole officer which puts him back on the path of crime.The film boasts of some really tense heist scenes. And some realistic car chases. A lot of scenes are shot around fast food joints, cafes and bars.Theresa Russell is easy on the eyes as the jailbird's square girlfriend. Gary Buesy, Harry Dean Stanton and M.Emmet Walsh form the stellar supporting cast. A young and attractive Kathy Bates plays Busey's wife. Hoffman plays the tough hero in his own unique way.I love the sentimental score by David Shire.I read in the trivia section that Michael Mann worked on the script. I wonder whether the book inspired Thief. I have read the novel by Edward Bunker - No Beast So Fierce on which this film is based. It was also quite good.I have a soft corner for films like Straight Time and Sherry Baby where the protagonist is out of jail and trying to fit back into society.(8/10)
jimbo-53-186511
Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) is released on parole and initially gets a minor reprimand from his parole officer Earl Frank (M Emmet Walsh)for breaching some of the terms of his parole. Frank informs Dembo that he needs to get a job and find a place to live and keep his nose clean and in return Frank will make sure that Dembo isn't sent to a 'halfway house'. Dembo is compliant in the early stages and does everything his parole officer asks him to do, but Dembo loses it when he ends up back in jail and turns on Frank after he learns that Frank wrongfully lands him in jail. This leads Dembo to go back to his old ways....Straight Time is a very slow film, but this is forgivable in the early stages as we see Dembo attempting to re-build his life after being let out on parole. What isn't forgivable is the fact that the film feels laborious and dull at almost every moment in its 108 minutes or so running time. His relationship with Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) was uninteresting and it didn't help that the couple had no chemistry and Russell's bland performance only made matters worse. I was also rather unimpressed by the lack of commentary that the film had to offer; more of an effort could have been made to explore corruption and failings within parole officers and The Department Of Corrections. Commentary on these things would almost certainly have made the film slightly more interesting, given it more depth and would have made it feel more complete. I think the worst aspect of this film is the dour serious tone that it adopts throughout its running time, the dull romance, a bunch of characters with all the charisma of a cabbage and a continual string of boring set-pieces. Predictably Straight Time is also hindered by lifeless direction and a pedestrian script.The film has other flaws such as why Jenny would choose to stay with Dembo even after she gets to know him and how Dembo escapes justice twice without a hint of anybody looking for him? To me though, these are things I can overlook in the name of entertainment, but there is nothing in the way of entertainment on offer here.
jparker-985-769124
Wow, I am reading all the glowing reviews and I am completely flummoxed. This film just did not take me to the place. Try as I did, I just couldn't imagine Hoffman as a true 'tough guy'. Maybe it's my familiarity with his person but all I could see was a soft spoken, intellectual type of guy trying to act tough. Didn't work. The parole officer M. Emmet Walsh, who typically comes across as cartoonish in films, ends up tied to a fence sans pants. Really? The scene is so unreal in a film that tries desperately to be real. Two key roles, friend Jerry and friend Willy never really get developed. Why is a fellow criminal such as Willy so incompetent. And why would Jerry risk so much when Max is also time and again shown to be incompetent at crime. Hoffman is miscast. Screenplay is porous and predictable.
AD
