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.

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 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.

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.

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!!

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!

I dearly love gritty, downbeat crime dramas from the 1970s, and this is one of my all-time favorites from that genre. Believably doomed characters and motivations, a ridiculously stacked cast, excruciatingly taut action sequences, and grubby LA atmosphere for miles make this a definite must-see.

So I was looking up M Emmet Walsh and saw he appeared in this movie which I saw back in January, but did not log. I DID NOT LOG.

I know I saw it after I'm Your Woman, because that film is one of the reasons I checked it out. I know it was around the same time I watched The Getaway and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Could've been the 27th or 28th. I'm picking 28th essentially at random, and it pains me.

This is bugging me a lot for no reason, goodbye to my sanity I guess, thanks Letterboxd. Anyway, The Getaway is the best of the three.

No es mucho, pero es trabajo honesto...

“Yeah, I know Lumpy.”

I had no idea this existed until a few days ago, but what an underrated gem. 

Great cast with solid performances all around. Especially M Emmet Walsh and a guitar-playing Harry Dean Stanton - quite possibly the best character actors of the 70/80s - which already gives it an advantage above most films. Meanwhile, David Shire composes, Michael Mann co-writes, a young Kathy Bates stars and also an Edward Bunker cameo to top it off? Needless to say, for something consisting of that much talent, Straight Time was going to be good.

Plus, Dustin Hoffman feeds a dawg ice cream.

The failson counterpart to the success daughter of Michael Mann’s Thief.

One of my favorite films from the 70s.

A new favourite. Criminally under seen.

A ballsy film in that it has one of the most unlikeable main characters in 70s cinema - and that is saying something. It has the grit and edge of similar European crime films of that era, and a stunning cast of brilliant actors. It is also flawed: Theresa Russell's Jenny is ludicrously naive, a mere men's fantasy, there to support "her" men while she herself is completely flat as a character. It's also a missed chance to lose M Emmet Walsh's character early on.

It's a wonder how a movie so gritty and unsparing manages to avoid being mean and judgmental of its characters. Straight Time accepts and explores their flaws, daring to ask whether the individual is really at fault, or the system grinding on and making decisions for them in ways seen and unseen.

Wow, good movie.