MovieChat Forums > Straight Time (1978) Discussion > Have to feel sorry for Max (spoilers)

Have to feel sorry for Max (spoilers)

posted 13 years ago by Zoomorph
7 replies | jump to latest

He tried his best to get along and be friendly and cooperative with the PO. It was my impression, as it was Max's, that the guy was a complete *beep* refusing to budge and out to get him over the smallest things. The final straw was when he babbled non-stop about the most trivial stuff in his personal life while driving Max to the halfway house. It was so ridiculous it makes one wonder if he was trying to get Max to snap or if he was really just that ignorant. Max could not sit by and watch his future go down the drain at the hands of an an arrogant brainless fat *beep*. He was too proud for that. He did his best, he showed humility and put forward a strong effort, but he was continually treated like *beep* until he couldn't bear it any more.

Max was forced on the run because the guy in control of his freedom was an ass and Max was too proud to submit to it. Since his attempt to subjugate himself to the law to avoid the negative consequences was a failure, he returned to crime as his only method of survival.

The entire film is a character study on Max, and later on reveals some of his character flaws. In particular Max was too greedy which got them in trouble with the cops to begin with. He extracted vengeance upon the accomplice he perceived to be at fault for the failed job, but we know it was largely his own fault although he refused to accept it. We also saw that he genuinely loved the girl and wanted the best for her, even if that meant sending her away from him at the end for her own good.

At the end of the film, Max is completely alone and the system is out to get him more than ever before. His one friend died party because of his fault and he had to kill his other friend for abandoning them at a crucial moment. His lover is cut loose because he doesn't want to drag her into trouble.

All of his actions leading up to this were genuine, his best shot given in the circumstances he found himself. Yes he robbed a few stores but ultimately it is simply a war against the system, none of the individuals were harmed more than was necessary and will all be compensated. His greed was probably a personality flaw, but I don't think it's actually very relevant at all, just a minor nuance. His pride and sense seemed like a strength to me, but that's where the system sees things differently. It wanted him to live in total submission, something he was incapable of.

This film is not about misplaced empathy or such, as I read in some other posts. You don't misplace your empathy. If you feel that the PO was a jerk it's because he was, and if you feel that Max was severely wrong to have broken petty rules of his parole and deserves the treatment he got for it, then you are also a jerk.

This film is just a portrayal of the spiral of crime. Max is released from prison, tries his best, ends up breaking a whole lot more laws and if he is caught the process will repeat itself again. At the very end we see 3 shots of Max over the years showing that he has already gone through similar spirals several times and there is no hope for his future, no way out other than to escape with the loot to somewhere where the system no longer oppresses him.

~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~

[–] dgates64 13 years ago

Wow, you read this movie completely wrong. The first act of the movie is set up to make you feel for Hoffman, and make the PO seem to be the adversary. But the second and third acts slowly reveal Hoffman's character for what he is. A career criminal with no conscious.

It's only AFTER the movie is over that you realize the parole officer actually WAS cutting him some slack, given his LONG record.

The system gave him plenty of chances, but he just didn't care.

[–] Demarates 12 years ago

I agree. Max is an a-hole. When one of his partners screws up, he beats on them or even shoots them, but during both heists he is screwing up way more when he keeps going after the agreed time frame is up.

He deserves no sympathy, because he sure as hell doesn't show any himself.

When I'm gone I would like something to be named after me. A psychiatric disorder, for example.

[–] Gmork76 9 years ago

Yeah I agree. But the PO could've behaved better instead of being an condescending a$$

[–] lamoza-786-44667 9 years ago

I got a bit more here - definitely Max was trying at the beginning to go straight, to get his "life", such as it is, together. But it's all working against him from the get-go.

True, the PO is an a-hole, but then he's not allowed to be around kids; and obviously the only job he can get is no great shakes - he spends his day pushing around empty cans; and to top it off he ends up back inside for just living (and having a junkie friend).

And yes (to the OP) all that blathering during the car ride definitely put him over the edge, but I don't think it was just the babble - I think at this point Max realizes that THIS is the great world that's being opened to him if he stays straight, an eternity of mediocrity and boredom.

So the system is working against him, and never quits. The only bright spot is his new girl friend (about this whole side story, I have some criticisms, but I won't go into that now).

And in the end, we see his endless mug shots (shades of The 400 Blows, if Antoine Doinel had continued a life of crime?) - he never was anything but a career criminal, and those few minutes of respite at the beginning were the pipe dream, the promise of the abuser never to beat his lover again, the drunkard's cross-my-heart-I'll-never-take-another-drink, the self-centered mother's solemn oath that NEXT time she'll be at the school play...

I do have some sympathy for him - mostly because that stone face shows that there's nothing really there, no matter what he does his life is already predetermined, he's let himself become just another cog in the wheel.

[–] ccr1633 9 years ago

lamoza-786-44667 wrote:

And yes (to the OP) all that blathering during the car ride definitely put him over the edge, but I don't think it was just the babble - I think at this point Max realizes that THIS is the great world that's being opened to him if he stays straight, an eternity of mediocrity and boredom.

Not only that, it's quite possible that the PO was lying to Max, and, after baiting him into revealing who his junkie friend is, would have tossed Max back in prison on those grounds of parole violation. I actually think this thought is what drove Max over the edge, that his PO was looking to use any sleazy means necessary to bust him, under the guise of mere curiosity.

[–] lamoza-786-44667 9 years ago

good point, cc.

Although at first sight this is a very straightforward "wrong time, wrong place" movie, where the protagonist gets screwed over by society, there's a darker no-way-out vision. One of the threads that most affected me is the one about Max's flat eyes, that nobody's-in-there feeling.

And though we have a disagreement on another thread (last line spoken), I totally agree with you on this one.

[–] ccr1633 9 years ago

One of the threads that most affected me is the one about Max's flat eyes, that nobody's-in-there feeling.

I agree. I find that feature of Max interesting because it leaves ambiguous whether Max could have stayed on a law abiding path even with the most sympathetic parole officer in the world. Was Max looking for excuses to turn back to crime or was he nudged back into it by an uncaring, hypocritical system? Ultimately, Max has free will and has to answer for his decisions, but POs shouldn't be adding obstacles to an already difficult rehabilitation process. But as with bad cops, a bad PO must be tough to root out absent explicit evidence and the will to punish them. No doubt, many must feel that a PO should be a hard ass exactly as Earl Frank was, that ex-cons not only deserve the belittling but actually need it.