Straight Time

This one follows the hard life of Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman (Mad City)) who’s newly released on parole after a six year stint.  He makes a real effort to do straight time and not get involved with dumb bullshit.  He finds a place to live, gets a legit job at a canning factory and even manages to snag a date with headhunter Jenny (Theresa Russell (Wild Things)).  It’s like a dream things are going so well.  But of course this doesn’t last.  When he reconnects with his old “bear hug” buddy Willy (Gary Busey (Drop Zone)) who likes to shoot heroin shit goes downhill fast.  Max doesn’t partake but the telltale sign of bent up matches are left behind for the parole officer (M. Emmet Walsh (Clean and Sober)) to find.  He throw’s Max’s ass right back in the can.  After a few days the parole officer lets him out because Max tests clean but presses hard for who was getting high.  Max flips out, escapes from the officer and goes on the run returning to a life of crime.

Hoffman is an actor I always enjoy (despite his less than stellar reputation off screen) because he brings so much intensity to his parts and this is a standout.  His stoicism and body language change before and after he gets busted the second time.  He goes from having a contented almost serene demeanor to shutting down and giving up on the world.  He’ll say he’s ok but inside he’s raging.  Hoffman puts on the layers and does a fantastic job.

Everyone else gives good performances as well.  Gary Busey is goofy but dials it back so he’s not bouncing off the goddamn walls.  M. Emmet Walsh is great at playing a bastard and in this one he’s the type that smiles while he’s screwing you.  Harry Dean Stanton (Fire Down Below) joins up with Max because he can’t stand the straight life anymore and Stanton is a lot of fun behaving like a kid in a candy store when he finally sees some action again.  Admittedly I’m not a huge fan of Theresa Russell who’s acting is wooden most of the time but she turns out a little more emotion than usual.  She also looks like she’s too young for the role even though she was twenty one at the time.  I found that to be distracting.

When Dembo looses it and grabs the steering wheel from the parole officer almost killing the two of them is when the movie kicks into a whole other gear.  Up until that point it’s been a heartbreaking tale of a man who made some poor choices for sure, but he’s also trapped in a system he can’t break free from.  He feels he’s left no other choice but to take control of his life despite that resulting in being hunted down by the cops for the rest of his days.  For him it’s better than being kicked around and treated like a piece of trash.

The last stretch of robberies are absolutely incredible sequences involving a bank job and a jewelry store being hit hard and fast.  Dembo and his partner are playing with fire when they stretch the self-imposed time limit to get in and get out.  They’re nail biters and exhilarating because you want to see these guys succeed.  We know their story so we’re on their side.  These crimes almost seem justified for a lifetime of abuse by cops, prison and society.  The issues are complex with no clear answers and criminal shit is all they know so how are they supposed to integrate into the outside world at the snap of a finger?

I get a lot of Heat vibes from this piece so I wasn’t surprised to discover Michael Mann wrote the initial screenplay.  However, other writers were eventually brought in and his name was dropped from the credits.  But the code of a con and the attitude Dembo takes on in the second half where he’d rather die than spend another second of his life in prison parallels Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro).  Stanton also reminds me of Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore) in that they get off on the juice of the score.  The tight and potent robbery scenes are another moment reminiscent in Heat where they basically combined the two ideas into one epic bank heist.

The movie is based on the book “No Beast So Fierce” written by ex-con Edward Bunker while still in prison.  It’s not an autobiography but most of the shit he writes about happened to him at some point.  Bunker’s personal experiences makes the story feel very authentic and tragic.  It gives the film a power that’s difficult to replicate without first hand knowledge.

Interestingly Bunker stuck around in the movie biz and went on to write Runaway Train and act in some big movies like The Running Man, Tango & Cash and Reservoir Dogs (which similarly involves a jewelry store heist, apparently Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of Straight Time).  He also has a small role in this picture as an old associate of Dembo’s turning him on to a poker game score.

It boggles my mind this film isn’t more well known.  I’ve never heard or read anyone talk about it.  Hell, I didn’t even know about the movie until like two months ago.  This thing is criminally underappreciated in my opinion.  It’s kind of one of the best urban crime dramas and character dramas I’ve ever seen.  You should really check it out next chance you get.