This movie creeps up on you, gets a kind of emotional hold on you and digs in through the end. Really, a terrific 70s style film (should have been made in 1973). Dustin Hoffman is outstanding. He gives an understated performance that fits the atmosphere of the movie, the story and himself perfectly. It is one of his best performances. Theresa Russell, and Harry Dean Stanton also deliver excellent performances. A very good example of how story, and acting that is true to the story, matter so much in making a good film. Urls Grosbard does a good job of establishing the mood of the film and carrying it all the way through, without hitting you over the head with unnecessarily forced dialog or drawn-out action sequences, etc.

I wasn't expecting much from this film especially since it's only 6.9 on IMDb, and barely any posts about it, but don't let that fool you, this is probably one of the most under-appreciated movies i've ever seen in my life.

I really see why Dustin Hoffman is sometimes regarded as one of the best actors of all-time.. he had such a strong performance, so congruent and alpha. It's really a movie where you just GOT to keep watching to see what happens next, and it's well worth watching, you'll love it. I think if more people see it, it's going to be a "cult favorite".

8.5/10 GO SEE IT!

We meet Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) as he is getting out of prison on parole after six years. He has an arrogant condescending parole officer (M. Emmett Walsh) but yet he seems determined to go straight. He is supposed to go to a halfway house, but the parole officer gives him one week to find a place to live and get a job. He does that - modest ones for sure, but they qualify. He also meets a girl at the employment office in whom he gets interested, a very young Theresa Russell as Jenny Mercer. Jenny seems intrigued with Max, given that he is upfront about his criminal past.

The parole officer puts Max back in jail for suspicion of drug abuse, and after his urine test comes back clean he is released, but he has lost his job and his room. Max decides to get even with this guy and, on the way to the halfway house, commandeers the car, drags out the parole officer, and handcuffs him to a fence next to the highway with his pants around his ankles. Max takes off in his car and it is clear LA hasn't changed that much in 45 years as nobody comes to the officer's immediate aid. Max is now forced to go back to a life of crime, but it doesn't seem like he needs that much prodding. Complications ensue.

You're not sure who the real Max Dembo is. You meet all of his friends, ex-cons themselves, and they are as complex as Max is. They have working class lives with kids, wives, and cookouts, but don't need the hard sell to decide to go back to crime. It's not a hard decision for any of them. And you can see how they all got apprehended in the past - they all have their rash, greedy, and violent sides.

You never meet any of Max's family of origin. Being in his 30s you have no idea if he ever had enough time on the outside to make some kind of family of his own. Neither is ever mentioned. So he is a complete enigma, known only by what we see in this film and his criminal history, which is shown in the end credits. It's a very gritty crime film and character study, and a good example of what kind of films could be made after the production code completely collapsed that would have been hard to make just ten years before when it had only recently been disposed of.