Based on Edward Bunker’s 1972 novel No Beast So Fierce, Ulu Gosbard’s Straight Time is the tale of a man who gets paroled but is unable to go straight. The man also gets involved with a woman who doesn’t mind his criminal ways, if she doesn’t get involved in them.
Max Dembo (screen legend Dustin Hoffman, Dick Tracy, Tootsie) is a life-long criminal who has been paroled and given the most minimal of freedoms when all he wants is to get a job and lead a normal life. He meets a girl, Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell, Eureka) at an employment agency and gets romantically involved with her.
Dembo’s probation officer, Earl Frank (veteran actor M Emmet Walsh, Blood Simple) arrests him once again when he believes Dembo is involved with drugs. This causes Dembo to lose both his job and his home. On the way to a halfway house, he attacks his parole officer and returns to a life of crime and goes on the run with Jenny. Reuniting with his friends and robbery partners robbery partner Jerry Shue (Harry Dean Stanton, Escape from New York) and Willy Darin (Gary Busey, The Buddy Holly Story) they start to commit crimes like they had done in the past.
Straight Time is an enjoyable, nearly 2-hour film with compelling characters and story. The film starts slow but picks up the pace when the criminal activities start taking place. Dustin Hoffman is excellent as Max Dembo and Teresa Russell as his love interest have great chemistry together. It’s also interesting to see some of these screen legends in some early roles. In addition to Hoffman, Busey, Stanton and Walsh, Kathy Bates from Misery is in what was only her second film!
Warner Archive presents Straight Time on Blu-ray. The image quality is nothing short of fantastic which completely enhances the film’s color palette. There is an abundance of details and rich textures to the picture. Colors look strong, especially reds and blues. The cinematography for this film by Owen Roizman will never look as stunning as it does here. In a nutshell, Straight Time still maintains the look of a 70s film but with a stronger resolution.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack is also superb with easy-to-understand, clear dialog that is balanced with David Shire’s musical score. Basically nothing in the audio is too overpowering. No audio issues such as hissing, cracking, or syncing were detected
This release of Straight Time has a couple of extras that were ported over from the DVD release, one of which is an audio commentary featuring Dustin Hoffman and director Ulu Grosbard who reflect and reminisce about the film. The commentaries were recorded separately and are spliced together. The other extra is a theatrical trailer.
Straight Time is a tremendous neo-noir with a great cast. Now it can be seen and heard in the best picture quality to date. Along with a couple of good extras, this release is highly recommended and is another stellar Warner Brothers release!
Straight Time
Director- Ulu Grosbard
Cast- Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Warner Archive / Warner Home Video
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 10/24/21