Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Amateur movie with Big budget

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Straight Time" is a movie that can function as a political touchstone, distinguishing the bleeding-heart liberals from the law-and-order conservatives, depending on one's reaction to it. For example, consider the first two sentences of the plot summary here on IMDb: "After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer." Well, I take exception to two parts of that summary, that Max attempts to "just go by the rules," and that the parole officer is "power-hungry." That is a bleeding-heart liberal interpretation.The first thing we see Max do is order a hot dog and then "forget" to pay for it. We make excuses for him, since he is not used to paying for food, having spent six years in prison. But if you are a law-and-order conservative, you quickly stop making excuses for him. He shows up late for his meeting with his parole officer, who wants to know where he stayed the night before, because he did not show up at the halfway house, which was required as one of the conditions of his parole, something Max agreed to upon his release from prison. Max says, "Because I just spent six years in prison. I just wanted to look at the lights. I wanted to feel free. I wanted to walk around and not have somebody tell me that I gotta get in bed at ten."Well, isn't that nice. Max believes that what he wants is more important than the rules. Of course, that's why he has such a long rap sheet in the first place, because he thought that the fact that he wanted something that belonged to someone else was more important than the rule that prohibits stealing. The rest of us know that we have to try to satisfy our wants while complying with the rules, but apparently six years in prison was not enough to teach Max that lesson.If I were parole officer Earl Frank, by this time I would be disgusted. He tells Max he has an attitude problem, which he most certainly does. But Max is either dense or purposely acting that way, because he asks what kind of attitude he is supposed to have. Frank patiently explains the facts of life to Max: "Well, you don't decide whether or not you go to a halfway house. I mean, you come to me, we discuss it, then I decide." Sounds reasonable to me, but I guess this is what the critic who summarized the plot meant by saying that Frank was a "power-hungry parole officer." I would have told Max to get his butt over to the halfway house, and that once he had checked in there, he could come back to my office and we could start talking about his finding a job. But Frank is more generous than I would have been, saying, "I'll make a deal with you, Max. If you find a place to sleep today and a job by the end of the week, you don't have to go to a halfway house. Fair?" More than fair, as far as I'm concerned.At the employment agency, Max is given some tests, one of which is typing. The employment agent who is testing him is Jenny. She tells Max three times that his time is up, for him to stop typing, but you know how Max is about the rules. He doesn't want to stop typing, so he figures that entitles him to keep going. Jenny finally has to rip the paper out of the typewriter.Max goes to visit his friend Willy, who has apparently also done time. After Willy leaves the room for a minute, his wife Selma tells Max that it would be best for him not to come around, because Willy has been doing well going straight, and she is afraid that Max might not be a good influence on him. And then she makes a further observation: "You're on parole now, Max. Well, you really shouldn't even be seen with Willy, right?" So here we are again. A condition of Max's parole is that he not associate with convicted felons like Willy, but I guess Max wanted to see Willy, and as we know, what he wants always trumps the rules.If Max had gone to the halfway house and not visited Willy in accordance with the terms of his parole, he could have made a go of it at the National Can Company, and everything would have been fine. And the proof of that, at least within the terms of the movie, is that Willy and Jerry have succeeded in holding down jobs and going straight. But Willy and Jerry don't want to work for a living and have an ordinary life like the rest of us. They throw it all away so they can become criminals again, just as Max throws his chance away by refusing to follow some simple rules.Put me down as a law-and-order conservative.

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.

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.

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.