On Blu-ray: Dustin Hoffman Plays a Struggling Ex-Con in Straight Time (1978)

Straight Time (1978) offers a complex take on the life of an ex-con. It recognizes the failure of the system and a man. I recently watched the film on a new Blu-ray release from Warner Archive. 

Dustin Hoffman is Max Dembo, an ex-con on parole after six years in prison. With his first taste of freedom he is optimistic, pursuing employment, romance, and community with a weary sort of enthusiasm. Almost immediately he finds himself in trouble again though, partly because he doesn’t follow the terms of his release, but significantly also because his parole officer (a perfectly cast M. Emmet Walsh) doesn’t trust or believe in him.

Based on No Beast So Fierce, a book by ex-con Edward Bunker, Straight Time has all the imprecise messiness of real life. It is a world of rundown apartment buildings and beat-up cars. Existence is uneasy and made more difficult by the choices of its essentially well-meaning characters. It’s  also a great showcase for the early work of the kind of actors that always deliver: in addition to Walsh there is Harry Dean Stanton, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, and Kathy Bates all moving in early roles. 

Max meets up again with his old friend Willy (Busey) and his wife Selma (Bates) immediately senses trouble. She tells Max not to come around anymore; she’s hopeful that her husband has finally gotten himself together, but she also seems aware that it is far too easy for him to be led astray. There’s a scene where they’re seated around the kitchen table and Willy lashes out at their son (his own child Jake Busey) and is immediately regretful. You feel the hopelessness of this man with no self-control. 

Max is also this way. He constantly makes bad decisions, driven by his refusal to accept any point of view but his own. When he flirts with employment office counselor Jenny (Russell, too young and attractive for the role, but mesmerizing), you know she is being set up for heartbreak. When he suggests they skip out on a dinner check because he doesn’t want her to pay for it and he’s broke, he is telling her who he is, but she doesn’t see, or refuses to see the red flag. 

Through it all, Max isn’t a terribly sympathetic character. You feel for him as he is battered by a dehumanizing system, but it’s clear he is incapable of considering the needs of others until it is too late. The one notable exception to that is a relief, because it shows that Max is not a total monster. It’s mild comfort in a bleak, but engrossing film.

Special features on the disc include a commentary track with Dustin Hoffman and director Ulu Grosbard, the vintage featurette Straight Time: He Wrote It for Criminals, and a trailer. 

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review.

Book Review--Seduced by Mrs. Robinson: How The Graduate Became the Touchstone of a Generation

Seduced by Mrs. Robinson: How The Graduate Became the Touchstone of a Generation

Beverly Gray

Algonquin Books, 2017

I had a great time reading Seduced by Mrs. Robinson, a new book by Beverly Gray that traces the production of Director Mike Nichol’s classic film The Graduate (1967) on its 50^th anniversary. Though I have heard stories about the making of this movie for years, in reading this lively history I’ve learned how much richer, entertaining and even touching the full story is.

Gray was a college student when the film was released and well understands the youthful angst that inspired her generation to embrace it. As a longtime part of the entertainment industry, including ten years working with Roger Corman, she brings industry savvy and connections to her story. In addition to looking at the film’s effect through her own lens, she explores that of other generations, mindsets and cultures.

The book is divided into three parts: a production history, plot rehash and analysis of the film’s effect on society. I most enjoyed the first part, which was full of behind-the-scenes tidbits, including the new-to-me fact that Eddra Gale, the quirky actress who played seaside temptress La Saraghina in Fellini’s 8 ½ (1963) made a

cameo appearance in a bus scene (not that bus scene), and that the filmmakers deemed her appearance significant enough to give her a credit. The blow-by-blow of the plot in the middle of the book felt unnecessary, though Gray does offer some interesting commentary. Objectively, the final section, with its expansive review of The Graduate phenomena and the impact it has had over the last five decades is the strongest and most thought provoking.

Gray writes in a lightly humorous tone, weaving a diverse array of facts and anecdotes into an airy, enjoyable read. It is for the most part an upbeat history, though there are some sober moments, including memories of Nichol's heartbreaking childhood and the way his feelings of being an outsider led him to choose the emphatically non-WASP Dustin Hoffman to play a privileged Californian loafer. For the most part it appears that The Graduate brought joy to most who were involved with the production in addition to being almost universally beloved among audiences.

Another bit of trivia about the cultural effect of The Graduate that amused me was learning about this commercial Dustin Hoffman made for Audi that riffs on the famous final scene of the movie. Meant for overseas audiences, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I thought it was sweet:

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for providing a copy of the book for review.