Straight Time
|
List Price: Our Price: $19.69 You Save: $0.29 (1%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Straight Time
Movie Review: Dustin Hoffman as he ie rarely seen
Summary: 5 Stars
Tootsie, The Graduate, his whole catalog has nothing like this! See it then believe it! Thresa Russell, Gary Busey ... Stellar support! Not for the squeamish!Movie Review: Very good, but flawed
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading all the "greatest unknown film ever" reviews here, I gave this a shot. The first 30 minutes or so are truly engrossing, but once Walsh disappears from the film it all gets rather routine. The main problem is that Dembo starts out as likeable, but then you see that we've been given a false impression; the guy is really just a violent and rather stupid prick. There is a promise of redemption that quickly fades and all we're left with is a semi-realistic portrayal of a pretty boring hoodlum with no imagination and no love for anything but the rush of the next caper.
I say semi-realistic because Hoffman is certainly solid but I just can't buy him as Dembo. There is too much intelligence in Dembo/Hoffman's eyes for him to be this selfish and stupid. As for this being his best role ever, give me a break. Not even close. The character offers nowhere near the levels of complexity that Dustin reaches in many other films.
The supporting cast is excellent; two of the great character actors of their generation, Stanton and Walsh, are both tremendous. [Spoilers coming] The best thing in the film is the look in Harry's eyes just before he croaks; subtle and so much more real than most Hollywood deaths.
Russell is good but offers no discernible reason for putting up with Dembo's bs. And Walsh's character could EASILY find Dembo by finding her after he escapes; Dembo told him who she was! That's the biggest flaw in this script, which is ultimately an above-average 70s character study but no masterpiece.
It was a great decade for this introverted, European attitude towards examining motivation, but Straight Time left me feeling kind of cheated by the end. It starts so strongly and ends so pointlessly. Maybe that's the point, but it feels rather hollow.
Sure, it may be more realisitic than most cop/crime flicks, but that hardly makes it the masterpiece that other reviewers here claim it to be.
It's very good, but it's a long way from genius.
Movie Review: Stellar Hoffman role
Summary: 4 Stars
Anyone interested in a very fine study of the seedy middle world of ex-convicts and the tug of the thrill of the crime will appreciate 1978's Straight Time. Though Dustin Hoffman is great in the lead, the whole ensemble is excellent. The direction and pace keeps a low key tone and a consistent tension built around the main character Max Dembo's (Hoffman) attempts to go "straight" and settle into society as a free man. He meets a young woman, tries getting a job and moves into an apartment. But the pressures mount against him; his parole officer is a hard case, his ex-con friends slip up and his options appear bleak. Without furthering the story's details, know that Hoffman is fantastic, in a role that stands out as one of his most impassioned, tight and angry. Despite his obvious slightness, he is able to impose himself with a fury onto others, capturing a directness that rings true for a lifetime criminal and hustler. Hoffman doesn't establish a series of mannerisms or yelling jags, there are no forced or illegitimate histrionics.
Straight Time stands as a part of an era of filmmaking that centralized Character. Who these people are spoke to a part of society, and the way that the characters were not only treated, but behaved was respectful in the way that Art must be, namely it was Honest. Supporting actors Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, Kathy Bates (!), M. Emmett Walsh and a very young Theresa Russell make up this low down world, where the tug at settling down; marriage, home ownership, parenthood, backyard BBQ's, stability in general is more of a danger to some of these people than prison or robbery.
Two scenes of note that captured very well the ex-convicts struggles: Busey and Bates at dinner with Hoffman and a young Jake Busey as well as lunch at Harry Dean Stanton's home, where the camera's stillness lets these characters show us what is going on with them.
Recommended.
Movie Review: Psychological Profile
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember when "Straight Time" came out. I assumed I was going to see it but I never did until last weekend. Certainly Dustin Hoffman was near the top of his career at the time but "Straight Time" seemed to disappear after its' initial release. I actually was only able to see it by renting it. It's too bad that it has faded away because this is a good movie. It didn't really hit me until after it was over and I reflected on the odd personality variations in Hoffman's character, Max Dembo. Dustin Hoffman, the writer, and director all put together a very compelling portrait of a career criminal. I wasn't expecting it so I don't want to give anything away but the main character goes through a lot of subtle and not so subtle changes. He reverts back and forth often enough that we don't know which Dembo we're looking at. The supporting cast assists in this personality profile with special kudos to Harry Dean Stanton.
I don't profess to know the career criminal mind but I could buy into the subtle schizophrenia that I witnessed in "Straight Time". To some extent the role of the parole officer is designed to suggest Dembo as a victim but ultimately, Dembo becomes a victim of himself. Hoffman in "Straight Time" may not be the equal of Cagney in "White Heat" or Bogart in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" but "Straight Time" is definitely worth watching because of his performance.
Movie Review: Film Doesn't Live Up To It's Early Promise
Summary: 4 Stars
The enigma of "Straight Time" is that it starts off so swimmingly but at the halfway point of the film it begins to wane. The early scenes portraying burglar Max Dembo's(Dustin Hoffman)efforts to reform himself are powerful. What really gives the film it's kick is the heated conflict between Dembo and his sadistic parole officer played by M. Emmet Walsh. There is such intensity to these scenes that they empower the film. It's at the point where Dembo skips parole that the film starts to lose a little bit of it's panache. Not to say it meanders but the film doesn't have the intensity level of it's introductory scenes. Harry Dean Stanton as one of Dembo's partners in crime does enliven the proceedings, however. I highly recommend "Straight Time" with slight qualifications. Not only are Hoffman, Walsh, and Stanton great but so are Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, and Kathy Bates. Noteworthy, is the appearance of Eddie Bunker in the film, whose autobiographical novel "Straight Time" is based on. Bunker later had an abbreviated appearance in "Reservoir Dogs". Busey's son, Jake, also appears in the film. On a real trivial note, Walsh and Jake Busey later appeared in "Christmas With the Kranks". Just thought you'd like to know.