Straight Time (1978)(DVD) Directed by Ulu Grosbard (The Subject Was Roses (1968), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971), True Confessions (1981), Falling in Love (1984)), starring Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy (1969), Straw Dogs (1971), Papillon (1973), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and many other excellent films), Harry Dean Stanton (Cool Hand Luke (1967), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), Paris, Texas (1984), The Green Mile (1999) and many others), Gary Busey (The Buddy Holly Story (1978), Point Break (1991), Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)), Kathy Bates (Misery (1990), Primary Colors (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008)) and others. Dustin Hoffman, also producer of the film, is excellent as Max Dembo , a rather small-time criminal, with a record going back to when he was 12 years old, who, after getting out of prison for a six-year stint for burglary, gives going straight a very brief attempt, and succumbs, of course, to his usual ways. Harry Dean Stanton, as one of Dembo’s partners, is excellent, Gary Busey earns his fate, as another of Dembo’s partners. Kathy Bates, in a small role as Busey’s wife, is just fine.
Ulu Grosbard, an assistant director on such great films as Splendor in the Grass(1961), West Side Story (1961), and The Hustler (1961), also directed Hoffman in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? and Robert DeNiro in True Confessions and Falling in Love (with Meryl Streep).
Straight Time is most definitely a film worth seeing, despite it being rarely cited as one of Hoffman’s best. (PR)
See our previous post on Straw Dogs, starring Dustin Hoffman.
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