Straight Time

Paroled criminal Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) is compelled to withstand the calculated cruelties of slimy parole officer Earl Frank (M. Emmet Walsh). The more Max tries to go straight, the more he is defeated by circumstance or hectored by the sadistic Frank. It becomes clear after a while that ...more

While it rolled in and out of theaters quickly during its brief release in 1978 and hasn't gained much of a reputation since, Straight Time was one of Dustin Hoffman's best films of the 1970s, and seen today it still stacks up as one of the finest performances he's ever given onscreen. Hoffman is a fascinating bundle of misdirected energy and guy-wire tension as Max Dembo, an ex-con whose efforts to go straight seem doomed to fail, though his own impulses hardly keep him on the straight and ...more