Straight Time is a 1978 neo-noir crime drama directed by Ulu Grossbard and starring Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kathy Bates. The film was adapted from the novel No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker; Bunker co-wrote the script alongside Jeffrey Boam, Alvin Sargent, and an uncredited Michael Mann.
Max Dembo (Hoffman) is a career criminal who has just been paroled after a six-year stint in prison. Although he's saddled with Earl Frank (Walsh), a boorish and condescending parole officer, Max is able to land a job working at a cannery and even manages to hook up with Jenny Mercer (Russell), an employment agency secretary sympathetic to Max's plight. However, Earl's abuse gradually pushes Max to a breaking point, and he eventually snaps and goes on a robbery spree throughout Los Angeles, aided by his fellow ex-cons Jerry Schue (Stanton) and Willy Darin (Busey).
The film contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: L&L Red and Aaron Billings. Augie Morales technically doesn't qualify, but only because he's briefly mentioned at one point.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Many of Max's worst traits from the novel are absent here. Whereas in the book Max was a crude, bigoted Jerkass, here Max is mostly amiable and friendly. However, he's still just as violent, impulsive, and short-tempered as his book counterpart.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- As mentioned above in Adaptational Nice Guy, Max, who is much more timid and amiable than his book counterpart.
- Earl Frank is much more sleazy and cruel than Joseph Rosenthal.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- In the novel, Joseph Rosenthal was a self-righteous Jerkass, but seemed to genuinely believe in his job and that he was doing the right thing. Here, Earl Frank is a controlling, sadistic Slimeball who deeply enjoys the power he has over Max and making him suffer. However, Frank lacks Rosenthal's worst moment, where he left Max locked up in the county jail for three weeks so he could go on vacation; instead, Frank "only" leaves Max locked up for a week because he was caught up with work.
- Jerry Schue's motives for turning back to crime are much more selfish here. While in the book he turned back to crime to pay for his wife's cancer treatments, here he does it out of sheer boredom with his new suburban lifestyle.
- Affably Evil:
- Max is an amiable, shy man who comes across as almost gentle in the first half of the film. However, after he reverts to crime, it becomes increasingly clear that he's a selfish, violent thug all the same.
- Jerry is a friendly guy, but he's still an unrepentant criminal who eagerly returns to a life of crime in spite of having a comfortable life and a legitimate job.
- Willy is jovial to a fault and a loving father, but he's unstable and very easily susceptible to bad influences, though he's nowhere near as bad as Max and Jerry.
- Anti-Villain: Max. He genuinely tries to go straight, he's a loyal friend even if he's something of a bad influence, and he genuinely loves Jenny, but he's also a violent criminal perfectly willing to resort to murder.
- Asshole Victim: It's very hard to feel bad when Max hands Frank a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and publicly humiliates him after behaving like an asshole the entire film.
- Bait the Dog: Max. The first half of the film portrays him as a gentle, shy man and a victim of bad luck and circumstances. However, after he snaps, it becomes increasingly clear that he's prone to extreme acts of violence and that he has a very nasty temper.
- Composite Character: Abe Meyers and Johnny Taormina are combined into a single character, Mickey. It also qualifies as Demoted to Extra, as Mickey only appears for a single scene whereas Meyers and Taormina were consistent presences throughout the novel.
- Cop Killer: Max guns down a police officer during the botched jewelry store heist.
- Creator Cameo: Edward Bunker also appears as Mickey, a criminal who gives Max information about a poker game to rob.
- Demoted to Extra:
- Augie Morales was a prominent supporting character in the novel, but here he's only mentioned once and has already been imprisoned prior to the events of the film.
- Abe Meyers and Johnny Taormina's equivalent character Mickey is a minor character, whereas Meyers and Taormina were consistent presences throughout the original novel.
- Downer Ending: Jerry is shot by the police, and Max kills Willy for abandoning them. Jenny subsequently abandons him after being disgusted at his violent ways, and Max resigns himself to being a fugitive and his eventual capture.
- Fat Bastard:
- Frank is overweight and a sleazy Jerkass to the core.
- Willy is out of shape and mildly overweight, and he's a criminal, though nowhere near as bad as the rest of the cast.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Max is prone to violent outbursts whenever he gets angry, and responds to most slights against him by beating the living hell out of the offender.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted. Max is able to evade the police and escapes punishment for the robberies and killing Willy, but Jenny leaves him and it's heavily implied he'll be captured or even killed by the police.
- Jerkass: Earl Frank is a condescending, sleazy Smug Snake who takes great joy in humiliating Max and is rather incompetent at his job to boot.
- Nice Girl: Jenny is a sweet woman who sympathizes with Max's plight and genuinely loves him. Unfortunately, it results in Max dragging her into his escapades until she finally has enough and abandons him, though Max willingly accepts it and they part ways somewhat cordially.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The film excises several of the multitude of characters from No Beast So Fierce, adapts out many of Max's more unsavory traits from the novel to make him more sympathetic, and gives Jenny a larger role in the narrative so the film can have a way to show Max's thought process and internal workings without the first person narration the novel had.
- Stepford Suburbia: Jerry abandons his comfortable middle class lifestyle to return to crime because he's bored out of his mind and feels trapped in his suburban lifestyle.
- Stupid Crooks: Most of the criminals in the film prove to be fairly incompetent and have fairly poor impulse control. Manny and Willy are incompetent morons, and Max's impulsiveness winds up making him a liability because he takes long enough that the police are able to arrive. Jerry somewhat averts this, but he still returns to crime out of sheer boredom in spite of having a very comfortable life.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Once Max returns to crime, he becomes increasingly vicious and short-tempered. Of course, it's less that he Took A Level in Jerkass and more that he returned to form.
- Villain Protagonist: Max, after he snaps and reverts back to crime.
