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Straight Time
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $17.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmett Walsh, Theresa Russell
Directed By: Ulu Grosbard
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0012569753129
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-05-22
Running Time: 114
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1978
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Editorial Reviews:
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A paroled burglar tries to get a job and keep on the straight-and-narrow. His hard-core parole officer has different ideas and sends him back to jail. When he gets out again, he goes after the parole officer, steals his car and returns to a life of crime.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Comes very,very close to being worthy of cult status
Comment: Straight Time is a "would be" cult classic that just misses the mark. The curious riddle being; it's very difficult to suss out exactly WHY it doesn't quite reach the finish line. Still, the excellent script, performances, atmosphere add up to a great little film that absolutely deserves a serious cinematic re-evaluation. Many others agree, and I recall Roger Ebert touting it the same way I do here. Hoffman,Busey,Russell, et all deserve kudos for great,great acting!Walsh too as a creepy probation officer. Why do critics gush and gush over tripe like PULP FICTION and ignore films like this? A worthy addition to your dvd library.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great criminal-character study.
Comment: Where to start......i remember my 1st viewing and i was shocked by all the great secondary roles. Harry dean stanton,m emmet walsh,kathy bates and gary busey(and his son playing his son)in their 1st film roles. I don't include theresa russell because she is'nt in the same league. Written by eddie bunker(reservoir dogs) and directed by ulu grosbard(last exit to brooklyn) it's an unflinching look at the everyday life of a career criminal.The camera meanders and ponders these questions at a smooth pace. If you think this is slow,then you can't appreciate why 70's films were so great.No big explosions or gunfights,just great storytelling.I almost forgot.....(my opinion),dustin hoffman's greatest performance ever. Harry dean stanton is a revelation.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great, great, great movie
Comment: dustin hoffman, is one hell of an actor, this is one movie , one movie i would recomend to any body, make sure you watch this one , from 1978, thanks a milion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dustin Hoffman as he ie rarely seen
Comment: Tootsie, The Graduate, his whole catalog has nothing like this! See it then believe it! Thresa Russell, Gary Busey ... Stellar support! Not for the squeamish!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good, but flawed
Comment: After reading all the "greatest unknown film ever" reviews here, I gave this a shot. The first 30 minutes or so are truly engrossing, but once Walsh disappears from the film it all gets rather routine. The main problem is that Dembo starts out as likeable, but then you see that we've been given a false impression; the guy is really just a violent and rather stupid prick. There is a promise of redemption that quickly fades and all we're left with is a semi-realistic portrayal of a pretty boring hoodlum with no imagination and no love for anything but the rush of the next caper.
I say semi-realistic because Hoffman is certainly solid but I just can't buy him as Dembo. There is too much intelligence in Dembo/Hoffman's eyes for him to be this selfish and stupid. As for this being his best role ever, give me a break. Not even close. The character offers nowhere near the levels of complexity that Dustin reaches in many other films.
The supporting cast is excellent; two of the great character actors of their generation, Stanton and Walsh, are both tremendous. [Spoilers coming] The best thing in the film is the look in Harry's eyes just before he croaks; subtle and so much more real than most Hollywood deaths.
Russell is good but offers no discernible reason for putting up with Dembo's bs. And Walsh's character could EASILY find Dembo by finding her after he escapes; Dembo told him who she was! That's the biggest flaw in this script, which is ultimately an above-average 70s character study but no masterpiece.
It was a great decade for this introverted, European attitude towards examing motivation, but Straight Time left me feeling kind of cheated by the end. It starts so strongly and ends so pointlessly. Maybe that's the point, but it feels rather hollow.
Sure, it may be more realisitic than most cop/crime flicks, but that hardly makes it the masterpiece that other reviewers here claim it to be.
It's very good, but it's a long way from genius.
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