Hour of probation
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Hour of probation |
| Original title | Straight time |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1978 |
| length | 114 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Ulu Grosbard Dustin Hoffman (anonymous) |
| script |
Jeffrey Boam Edward Bunker Nancy Dowd (anonymous) Michael Mann (anonymous) Alwin Sargent |
| production |
Stanley Beck Tim Zinneman Dustin Hoffman (anonymous) |
| music | David Shire |
| camera | Owen Roizman |
| cut |
Sam O'Steen Randy Roberts |
| occupation | |
| |
Hour of Probation (Original Title: Straight Time ) is an American film by director Ulu Grosbard from 1978. The story of an ex-convict who has been released on parole is told, who tries to be honest this time, but after initial successes quickly gets back on the wrong track, partly due to external influences, partly due to one's own inability.
The pessimistic film, in which stars of the 1970s such as Dustin Hoffman , Theresa Russell and Harry Dean Stanton play the leading roles, is the film adaptation of the autobiographical novel Wilder als ein Tier ( No Beast So Fierce , 1973) by Edward Bunker .
action
Max Dembo, a young man in his early 30s, has been in prison for six years for armed theft and is now being paroled . His strict, suspicious probation officer Earl Frank quickly makes it clear to him that he must obey him unconditionally. Max promises to obey and rents a cheap room as instructed.
Max reports to the Los Angeles Employment Office. The attractive young employee Jenny Mercer found him a job as a simple handyman in a factory. Max suggests they go out to eat together. Later he visits his old friend Willy Darin. He comes to Max's room and injects heroin despite Max's warning .
The next day Max starts his new job. When he's finished, he calls Jenny and invites her to dinner. Max has to borrow money from her when paying and uses this for another appointment the next evening. He lets her give him the money under the table and touches her hand.
When Max comes home from work the next day and actually only wants to change for the meeting with Jenny, he finds his probation officer Earl Frank in the apartment. Frank wants to control Max's way of life, finds matches that Willy Darin has forgotten and immediately suspects Max of having fixed them. Frank does not believe his client's assurances, he handcuffs him and has him arrested.
Although Max's drug test turns out negative, he has to wait a week in jail. When Frank pulls the increasingly frustrated Max out of jail, he apologizes for being too busy. To compensate, he wants to drive Max home, but now pressures him to reveal the name of the fixer. Then Max bursts his collar, he attacks Frank in the moving car, slaps him, rams his elbow in his face and into his chest. Max ties the probation officer with his own handcuffs to a fence on the median of the autobahn, pulls his pants and underwear down, drives away in his car. Frank remains half-naked, cursing and screaming back.
Max has to go into hiding. He gets a gun and raids a small shop with it to get some money. He visits Jenny. Although he openly tells the girl that she is committing a crime, she takes him in and lends him her car. Max meets up with his old buddy Mickey. Mickey tells him about an opportunity to rob a poker game and recommends Jerry Schue as a partner. Max doesn't come back to Jenny's until dawn, he crawls into bed with her and they sleep together.
The following night Max and Jerry Schue wait for Max's friend Manny in the car in front of the house where the poker game is taking place. Manny is late and without a promised shotgun . Max attacks him in a beating; only the much more sensible Jerry can bring him to his senses. On the way home, Max steals a shotgun. Jenny is concerned about Max's criminal activities.
Max and Jerry raid a bank with the now sawed-off shotgun. Max stays in the bank too long, but they still escape and have stolen a lot of money. Max later visits a jewelry store with his girlfriend to scout him out. He persuades the reluctant Jerry to rob this place with him. When the attack is about to increase, Max surprisingly brings Willy Darin with him as the driver of the getaway car. The jeweler's robbery initially goes according to plan, but then Max desperately wants to find a particular watch for Jenny and again exceeds the agreed time. Jerry yells at him that it is always the same with him and that this was their last robbery together. When they come out of the shop, Willy has disappeared with the car and they have to flee from the police on foot. There is a shootout in which Jerry is fatally injured.
Max escapes and picks up Jenny from her workplace without explanation. They flee in Jenny's car. Max drives past Willy Darin's on a pretext. He reproaches Willy for escaping with the car and fixing up in his room and starts to beat him up. Willy can calm him down at first, but is then shot from behind by Max.
Max continues to flee with Jenny. On the radio he lets her hear the news about the attack and the shooting. Jenny gets sick, she yells at Max. At a gas station, he sends her back to Los Angeles on the bus. She's disappointed that he doesn't want to take her any further, but Max refuses. He says resignedly "I want to be caught" and drives on alone in her car.
Details
- Even when Max has just been released from prison and is eating a hot dog at a kiosk, he "forgets" to pay. You can already guess that Max, although he really tries to stay "clean" at the beginning, will have a hard time on his way further. Even when he invites Jenny to dinner, he doesn't have enough money with him and only half-jokingly suggests that she kick the bill.
- To steal the shotgun, angry Max breaks a hole in a massive brick wall with a hammer. When he comes home, Jenny asks worried: "Why are you so dirty?" Max: "I had to break through a wall." Jenny: "Why?" Max: "She was in the way."
- The last frames of the film show Max Dembo's police arrest photos from 1972, 1966 and 1954. The latter shows Hoffman as a teenager. This is obviously a nod to the early criminal "career" of Max Dembo's real-life role model, Edward Bunker, who was once the youngest prisoner of San Quentin .
- Bunker was serving his final prison term when the production of Parole Hour was being prepared. He plays the role of Mickey in the film .
Reviews
“Brilliant portrait of a born loser. A brilliant achievement by Dustin Hoffman. "
“Despite the minor flaws," The Hour of Probation "is a film that is absolutely worth seeing, with an exciting plot, an interesting and good cast without major failures. For the most part absolutely worth seeing, because of Hoffman, of course. The film does a lot of things right and luckily doesn't leave you with a happy ending cliché [...] 8 out of 10 ""
Individual evidence
- ^ Portrait of the author by Edward Bunker
- ↑ Review of Nelloxx-Filmblog ( Memento from November 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
- Straight Time in the Internet Movie Database (English)