Episode 021: Straight Time (1978)

Dustin Hoffman, at the height of his movie star powers, gives his most intense performance in this nihilistic crime drama based on Eddie Bunker’s novel “No Beast So Fierce”.

Straight Time (1978) Directed by Ulu Grossbard. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, Theresa Russel, M. Emmett Walsh & Eddie Bunker

How is the world wrong about this film? People don’t talk enough about how great an actor Dustin Hoffman is, nor about what a large shadow his stardom cast over the years in film between The Graduate in 1967 and Rain Man in 1988. Hoffman was supposed to direct “Straight Time” before handing that role to Ulu Grossbard but his producorial hand can still be felt all over this understated character driven crime drama that clearly influenced much better known films like Michael Mann’s “Thief” and Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs”.