Based on ex-convict Eddie Bunker's novel, No Beast So Fierce, pic pitches Dustin Hoffman as ex-con Max Dembo, who after being released from prison has every intention to go straight. Easier said than done, though...

It's hard to believe that Straight Time is often thought of as under seen, a hidden gem of the 1970s, this given that it stars Dustin Hoffman and the advent of the internet years has seen it garner votes and reviews aplenty. Yet it does seem to be a pic that doesn't get its due credit, annoying since it's one of Hoffman's greatest performances.

Hoffman loved the material and heavily sought to direct and star in it. Something which proved too hard for him to do. He was humble enough to recognise this fact and brought in friend Ulu Grosbard to direct while he concentrated on the acting side of things - result!

There is absolutely no glamour on show here, Max is surrounded by weasels, slime balls, junkies and perpetual thieves, while his own mental fortitude is suspect at best. It's both gripping and disturbing, this world he inhabits, no excuses are put forward, no "woe is me" tales, he ultimately accepts his lot.

Hoffman is backed by superb performances from Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh and Gary Busey, and Theresa Russell gives quality turn as the naive woman in Max's life - no token here, she's in the grip of a homme career criminal and not merely here to look pretty and doe eyed.

As a character study it positively bristles with brains and foolish brawn, and Grosbard directs with unfussy skill whilst showing a very good eye for a dramatic action scene. Studio interference would hurt the pic upon release, but now this can be seen as a film of great worth. 9/10

Dustin Hoffman gives one of his finest, scrappiest and least sappy performances as Max Dembo, a cagey, scuzzy, ferociously self-reliant sociopathic ex-con who gets sprung from the joint and makes a game, albeit futile attempt at going legit, only to wind up resorting to his old criminal ways after his browbeating, grossly unfair and overzealous parole officer (a superbly slimy M. Emmet Walsh) fouls up his chances at becoming a decent, law-abiding citizen with some trumped-up bulls**t drug charge.

Under Ulu Grosbard's tight, no-frills, naturalistic direction, this marvelously gritty and hard-hitting semi-verite crime drama makes for a terrifically tough-minded adaptation of real-life reformed hoodlum Edward Bunker's exceptional semi-autobiographical novel "No Beast So Fierce" (Bunker co-wrote the rough, resolutely unromantic no-nonsense script and has a funny bit part as one of Max's connected underworld pals) as well as a savagely trenchant indictment of our society's cruelly ineffectual prison reformation system and a provocative meditation on the struggle for redemption. The supporting cast makes the grade with flying colors: the gorgeous Theresa Russell as a guileless, but headstrong welfare worker who gets more than she bargained for when she hooks up with Max; Gary Busey as a deplorably craven, heroin-addicted wheelman with a backbone of jello, a then unknown Kathy Bates as Busey's loving wife, and, best of all, the ever-awesome Harry Dean Stanton as an uncomfortably mellowed-out erstwhile jailbird who gladly chucks away his hideously banal suburbanite existence in order to embark on an exciting robbing spree with Max. Further strengthened by David Shire's sprightly blues score, Owen Roizman's agile, but scruffy cinematography, a suitably harsh and unglamorous depiction of brutish low-life crooks and the grimy, seedy, and dangerous down'n'dirty milieu they inhibit, a lively, adrenaline-pumping jewelry store heist sequence, and a rigorously grim, downbeat, unsentimental tone that stays bleakly true to itself to the literal bitter end, this extremely powerful knock-out undeservedly tanked at the box office, but has rightfully amassed a sizable cult following which correctly proclaims it as one of the single most remarkable and shamefully underrated sleepers from the 70's.

In Los Angeles, Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) is released from prison on parole reporting to strict parole officer Earl (M. Emmet Walsh). He's trying to go straight after a lifetime of thieving. At the employment agency, Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell) gets him factory work. They go out on a date. Then Earl sends him back to jail. Blood test proves that he's clean and he's released. Earl picks him up to drive him to the halfway house. He hits Earl and escapes. With no way to go straight, he returns to his criminal past.

Dustin Hoffman started as the director but had to hire Ulu Grosbard to take over. It allows to concentrate more on the acting. It does meander for the first half. It's a slow jog with some tense action later on. The directing is functional. It does have some interesting acting talents beside Hoffman. Theresa Russell is a fresh-faced newbie in this. A little tighter would make this even better.