{ "id": "ep9193zdzj", "slug": "straight-time", "title": "Straight Time", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: 1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Straight Time (1978) is a Ulu Grosbard crime drama starring Dustin Hoffman as paroled burglar Max Dembo, adapted from Edward Bunker's novel No Beast So Fierce, with Bunker co-writing and acting.", "snippet": "Straight Time (1978) is a Ulu Grosbard crime drama starring Dustin Hoffman as paroled burglar Max Dembo, adapted from Edward Bunker's novel No Beast So Fierce, with Bunker co-writing and acting.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "markdown": "# Straight Time\n\n**Straight Time** is a 1978 American crime drama directed by Ulu Grosbard, starring [Dustin Hoffman](https://www.edgepedia.org/dustin-hoffman) as Max Dembo, a paroled burglar who tries to go straight but is pushed back into crime by his parole officer and his own temperament. It is based on the 1973 novel *No Beast So Fierce* by [Edward Bunker](https://www.edgepedia.org/edward-bunker), a former convict who also co-wrote the screenplay and appears in the cast.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | 17 March 1978, New York City and Los Angeles openings; 114 minutes; R rating[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) |\n| Source | *No Beast So Fierce* by Edward Bunker (New York, 1973)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) |\n| Director | Ulu Grosbard, who replaced Hoffman as director on 28 March 1977 after Hoffman stepped down[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) |\n| Screenplay | Alvin Sargent, Edward Bunker, and Jeffrey Boam; Nancy Dowd and Michael Mann wrote uncredited additional material[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078326/fullcredits/) |\n| Principal cast | Dustin Hoffman (Max Dembo), Theresa Russell (Jenny Mercer), Harry Dean Stanton (Jerry Schue), Gary Busey (Willy Darin), M. Emmet Walsh (Earl Frank), Kathy Bates (Selma Darin)[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078326/fullcredits/) |\n| Production | SweetWall Productions and First Artists; distributed by Warner Bros.; filmed in Technicolor with Panavision equipment[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) |\n| Reception | 82% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 11 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_time) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nMax Dembo, a career criminal, is paroled and determined to go straight. He takes a job in a cannery and begins a romance with Jenny Mercer, a sympathetic woman from the employment office, while enduring the abuse of his parole officer, Earl Frank. When Earl erroneously busts him for drug abuse, Dembo cracks: he assaults Earl and sets off on a reckless crime spree, drawing the reformed crook Jerry Schue into helping him. A climactic big caper goes tragically awry, in large part because of the flaws in Max's personality.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_time) • [4](https://watch.afi.com/movie/straight-time)\n\nThe [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute)'s synopsis describes the film as a probe into the sociopathic psyche of the career criminal, in which neither Max nor his fellow ex-cons can survive looking for legitimate work.[4](https://watch.afi.com/movie/straight-time) The Australian Centre for the Moving Image notes the film's gritty urban feel, placing it among 1970s American films addressing urban isolation, lack of personal freedom, and the demise of American ideals of free will and choice.[5](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/93370--straight-time/)\n\n## Origin of the novel\n\nThe source novel grew out of its author's own imprisonment. In the early 1960s, during his time serving a sentence at San Quentin State Prison, Edward Bunker got in touch with Armitage Watkins, a literary agent based in New York, who consented to give him guidance on his writing; by that point Bunker had been given a typewriter by Louise Wallis, an ex-actress married to producer Hal B. Wallis, and he subsequently took part in the Creative Writing Workshop that fellow inmate Robert Dellinger had started at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terminal Island, California. Watkins submitted Bunker's manuscript about a paroled convict to W.W. Norton & Co. in January 1972, and *No Beast So Fierce* was published the following year.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\nMirroring his fictional story, Bunker was paroled in June 1973 but re-entered prison after participating in a bank robbery. He was released again on 23 December 1976, which allowed him to work on the film's set as a consultant and dialogue writer, in addition to his credits as a screenwriter and cast member; he plays Mickey. Behind-the-scenes footage of this work appeared in a 2007 DVD featurette titled *Straight Time: He Wrote It For Criminals*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\n## Production\n\nProduction began on 9 February 1977, with locations including Folsom, Los Angeles, Burbank, San Bernardino, and Sylmar, California.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\n**Hoffman's one day as director.** Dustin Hoffman originally intended to direct the film himself, juggling the duties of director, star, and uncredited producer. According to his first assistant director Jerry Ziesmer, writing in a 1998 New York Times editorial, the first day of filming at Folsom involved a basic establishing shot of the prison; Hoffman requested constant resets, and by that evening the crew had not completed a single frame. Hoffman spent only one day in the director's chair before stepping down by choice, and Ulu Grosbard took over beginning 28 March 1977.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\nIt was the second film Hoffman and Grosbard made together, after *Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?*[4](https://watch.afi.com/movie/straight-time) Following Grosbard's involvement, news items referred to the film as *Straight Time*, a title Grosbard called, in the 2007 DVD commentary, a simpler representation of the story's theme than the literary name *No Beast So Fierce*, which survives as the film's alternate title.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\nThe credited crew includes Owen Roizman as director of photography, Sam O'Steen and Randy Roberts as editors, Stephen Grimes as production designer, and [David Shire](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-shire) as composer; Shire's jazz-infused score is at its best under the robbery sequences and the opening credits.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) • [6](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/straight-time-wac-2022-bd) Production costs were covered by an arrangement between First Artists and Warner Bros.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film opened in New York City and Los Angeles on 17 March 1978.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062) In *The New Yorker*, Penelope Gilliatt, the magazine's film critic, reviewed it on 27 March 1978, describing Hoffman's Max as an emptied man whose real self belongs back in prison, and praising Grosbard's direction of the character.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/04/03/1978-04-03-093-tny-cards-000325454) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 82% Tomatometer from 11 reviews, with an average of 8.3/10; Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy called it one of the most unflinching movies ever made about the criminal mindset, and David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews described it as a slow-moving yet completely captivating character study.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_time)\n\nThe film was released on home video by Warner Home Video on 26 October 2006, and later issued on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.[8](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-Time-%281978%29) • [6](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/straight-time-wac-2022-bd)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Straight Time (1978), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57025-STRAIGHT-TIME?cp=1&pos=0&sid=ea5a346a-bd7e-48d6-a57a-06a2f39e90c8&sr=3.4545062)\n2. [Straight Time (1978) Full cast & crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078326/fullcredits/)\n3. [Straight Time, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_time)\n4. [Straight Time, American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/straight-time)\n5. [Straight time, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/93370--straight-time/)\n6. [Straight Time (Blu-ray Review), The Digital Bits](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/straight-time-wac-2022-bd)\n7. [Penelope Gilliatt, \"The Wish to Go Back,\" The New Yorker, 27 March 1978](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/04/03/1978-04-03-093-tny-cards-000325454)\n8. [Straight Time (1978), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-Time-%281978%29)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1970s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Straight Time\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Straight Time](https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time](https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Straight Time\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-time. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Straight Time is a Ulu Grosbard crime drama starring Dustin Hoffman as paroled burglar Max Dembo, adapted from Edward Bunker's novel No Beast So Fierce, with Bunker co-writing and acting." }