Just some absolutely beautiful 70s seediness. Stacked with excellent, understated performances, including one of the few correct usages of Busey. But the game ball has gotta go to M. Emmet Walsh as a petty, low status parole officer. He’s pathetic and never not sweating. He’s so close to being a full on clown but he knows you almost feel bad for him and weaponizes it. Absolute leech. Completely nefarious. Hoffman’s great and Harry Dean Stanton is never anything less than stellar but Walsh is really playing a game only a few other actors can even glance at. 

I usually try to make these reviews funnier but there’s a lot going on these days and I’ve been getting the sense that the people on here who burst into flames when you try to have any fun have been growing in number. Not sure why that is. Probably a politics thing.

Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey get into a car to go rob a jewelry store. Right there, you owe it to yourself to see Straight Time. But it's also a gripping genre piece and gut-punching character study both at the same time, smack dab in the 70s golden age of paranoid crime pictures. If you consider yourself an avid fan of heist movies about volatile criminals, if Reservoir Dogs is your cup of tea, if you've seen and liked The Driver or Dog Day Afternoon, and you haven't seen or heard of Straight Time, then you're in for one of the more under-appreciated highlights in the genre and you should familiarize yourself with it, pronto.

Dustin Hoffman is absolutely mesmerizing in this, what might just be his best role. Such an amazingly realistic depiction of crime and prison life, STRAIGHT TIME immediately rockets up near the top of the best crime films I've ever seen. Pretty ungodly in its harrowing intensity, with Theresa Russell, Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey all absolutely bringing it. M Emmett Walsh plays a total prick like nobody's business, and the scene where Dustin Hoffman makes an unbelievable choice that affects the outcome of the rest of the movie is so shocking, I'm not even sure Walsh knew what was going to happen despite having read the script. Fucking phenomenal.

What a gem this one is.

this was excellent. for the first time made me realize how thoroughly stressful it must be to rob a store. no one is more bummed than I am to love a dustin hoffman performance that no doubt wreaked his method acting havoc on innocents, but here I am! none of us perfect!

In honor of Dustin Hoffman's 80th birthday... 

Pleasantly surprised with how much I loved this one! Although flawed and messy-- the outstanding performances, entertaining and engaging plot(s), and Dustin Hoffman's subtle (and uncredited) directorial touch makes this one worth watching. I didn't feel bored for a second and the thrilling action sequences stressed me out enough to bite my nails and want to pull my hair out so uh yeah this is criminally underrated and you need to watch it!!

Roger Ebert had a rule that stated “no movie featuring either M. Emmett Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton in a supporting role could be altogether bad.” This movie has both of them! And Dustin Hoffman! And Gary Busey! And like a 5 year old Jake Busey! And like a 25 year old Kathy Bates! 

Not sure why this doesn’t get mentioned with the other great 70s antihero classics, it’s just terrific. And for fans of Raising Arizona (i.e. people of taste), you’ll be AMAZED by how much the Coens took from this, right down to Nicolas Cage’s moustache n’ mutton chops look.

dustin hoffman not only pulled off that hideous moustache but he ate this role. harry dean stanton and his guitar!!!! i wish he'd gotten more screen time.

the final bit before the credit rolled with the mugshots made me want to cry like the film was as devastating as it was aesthetically pleasing.

this is exactly what i think of when i think of 70s cinema and i mean that in the best possible way

dustin hoffman not only pulled off that hideous moustache but he ate this role. harry dean stanton and his guitar!!!! i wish he'd gotten more screen time.

the final bit before the credit rolled with the mugshots made me want to cry like the film was as devastating as it was aesthetically pleasing.

Takes a little while to get going but it’s also using that time to establish character. Michael Mann wanted to direct this and when he couldn’t, he made both Thief and Heat instead. This would be a great double bill with Thief. But imagine Mann’s version of this. 

I should add that Teresa Russell’s character doesn’t seem to be explained well enough to explain why she hooks up with a loser like this.

Dustin’s look in this 🥵

Dustin has a phat ass damn 
Waiting for Harry Dean Stanton then finally makes a beautiful entrance an hour in
When Stanton plays the guitar and singing with the camera shot panning up above them = goosebumps - Harry Dean Stanton is a 🐐 
Same with Dustin

*The 70s seediness seeping from this. All the casting ingredients you could ask for: Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey. Kathy Bates briefly! Oh momma

*Brilliant characters. The parole officer is delightfully bastardy. Jenny seems far too young, but Hollywood I guess

*Doesn’t feel the need to apologise for Max being a convict, we’re plunged into the grittiness and know regular life just ain’t for him. Saying that, he pets a very nice dog 😌

*Not the most uplifting movie in the world, but does really well to create suspense and who doesn’t love a good heist. A nice addition to the ‘he just doesn’t know when to fucking stop’ subgenre

This is like the platonic ideal of a 70s movie.

Such a fascinating film all around and so shockingly underrated. Hoffman is locked-in as an ex-con ready for a fair shake at a square life and unprepared for parole’s restrictions post-incarceration. Walsh, Busey, Bates, Stanton, and Russell are each wonderful, particularly Russell whose plain dealing with Hoffman laying out the parameters of their relationship makes for gripping scene in its directness. The film’s latter half tracing Hoffman’s criminal vengeance on the system’s indignities is captivating but ultimately tragic, ending as a sober discovery of his own delusions where he is literally and figuratively left holding the bag. Criminally neglected as a masterpiece of ‘70s crime cinema.

If only it was possible to reform convicts.

"No hay bestia tan feroz que no sienta algo de piedad"

Magnifica adaptación cinematográfica de una gran novela de Edward Bunker que tuve el placer de leer. Este escritor participó también en el guión e incluso hace un cameo.

Soberbia actuación por parte de Dustin Hoffman y del resto de secundarios, como por ejemplo Harry Dean Stanton.

Como curiosidad se trata de una crónica autobiográfica de la carrera delictiva del actor y escritor Edward Bunker que hizó de Sr. Azul en "Reservoir Dogs".

Realista y dura.

8,5 sobre 10.

STURDY. 

All actors here are fantastic. 
Theatre director but these are all so internal(?)(!)

Not much to say beyond, really really good. 
Don’t make em like this anymore, etc etc

Michael Mann Gang.

1970s Dustin Hoffman is untouchable. Probably my new favorite performance of his,

The camera work in this is incredible. Not a shot or cut goes to waste, and that lack of cuts for long stretches was so refreshing for this kind of movie. Definitely an adrenaline rush in the second half, which the first half beautifully builds to.