Straight Time (1978) - Exposing a different kind of high
Dustin Hoffman stars in this incredible crime-drama that's esoteric and familiar at the same time.
American movies in the 70s have a flavor of their own. Now, as most of you are aware, this was a time of renaissance (as in the 80s later brought in by Jim Jarmusch, Soderbergh and the kind) where new form of storytelling had come to the fore. The French had seen it more than a decade before, the beatniks had come and left to be morphed into hippies and television was bigger than ever. It was a time of impact, in general. And stories were being told everywhere. Stories of personal hustle, of desperation and of indulgence. Hitchcock wasn't around anymore and post-modernism had seeped into everything. Lou Reed wrote Transformer & Berlin in 1972 and 1973, Scorcese made Taxi Driver in 1975 and Hunter S. Thompson came out with Fear & Loathing. The exuberance of youth was never exposed better and with themes of hedonism and dark-intensity, stories of the individual became more apparent.
In the same course came a number of movies that were being made by filmmakers of all kinds. Films of all scale and impact came out like clockwork. Straight Time is one such film that, perhaps, has been overlooked but over time, has found the due respect it deserves. So much so that Taratino has cited this to be his influence for making Reservoire Dogs.
Straight Time has a very straight-forward plot. Dustin Hoffman plays Max Dembo, an ex-con/burglar, who's recently paroled after a six-year stint in prison. Now, this would mean him getting out, find bearings and make a respectable man out of himself who lives within the confines. The catch, however, is Max's self-respect and the importance of it in his own eyes. To his credit, he does try. He finds work, meets a woman and follows every detail in the rule book. But, he's pushed a bit too far by his parole officer and that sets him off on an overdrive. He feels cross, insulted and now wants to make up for the self-repression he had to endure. Even if that means throwing away whatever little he had earned since getting out.
What really makes this picture unique is the intensity with which it brings out the addict in Max - a junkie for crime, for being in the perils and for living life on his own terms. Ulu Grosbard, the director of the film, (although Dustin Hoffman is said to have shared the credit) makes an unflinching attempt at showing us this behavior. The mad desperation Max goes through to taste success, the lengths of his audacity and just the rush he feels while putting himself through constant risk - all this is beautifully explored in a first person narrative that's not embellished to anyone's liking. Even the team players - Theresa Russell as Max's lover, Gary Busey as his best friend, M.Emmett Walsh as the unkind parole officer and the ever dependable Harry Dean Stanton - are perfect in their placements. Every life in this picture seems bleak, hanging on to traces of hope until something exciting but out-of-reach comes along to cause more mess.
Note: Check out Harry Dean Stanton in Wise Blood (1979), John Huston's off-beat & tad controversial picture.
Straight Time would certainly be one of the most underrated films of the 1970s. This was a time when experimental filmmaking was thriving with many superstars of the time taking artistic risks - Gene Hackman in Night Moves, Warren Beatty in Shampoo and Jack Nicholson in pretty much everything he did. Filmmakers like Arthur Penn, Hal Ashby, Ken Russell, Robert Altman and many such were making movies about absurd and little things. On the whole, it was a generation that made movies without grandiose and frills. Instead, they made movies about the bit players in a society.
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel did a small report on more such films in their 1979 hit show Sneak Preview. I'll leave the links to the show and the 1978 review of Straight Time in the New York Times.
Sneak Preview:
Straight Time Review:
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