MovieChat Forums > Straight Time (1978) Discussion > Parole officer

Parole officer

posted 17 years ago by kcflanagan
23 replies | jump to latest

Great to see that this film is finally out on DVD. It's on my list, although I haven't seen it anywhere. It has to be the absolute best portrayal of how petty criminal's mind works that I've ever experienced.

Which leads to this: I have a question for others who have seen the film. The parole officer is always described as a bad guy. I certainly felt he was an SOB when I first watched the film. But is he? Exactly what was it the PO did to make him the bad guy? Here are the facts: No sooner is Max let out of prison than he breaks the conditions of his parole by not going to the halfway house (Sure he'd been in prison. But if I was to be released on parole and one of the condition was a halfway house, I think I could have gotten through the day without breaking it). And yet the PO gives him a break and let's him live outside the halfway house. Max is not supposed to associate with other felons. So what does he do? He immediately looks up Gary Busey. The PO busts him for the burnt matches, sure. But it's not as if Max is innocent. He DID allow someone to shoot up in his room. And a burnt book of matches in that context is a pretty good indication someone was cooking smack. And he's not supposed to do that either. So how was the PO out of line?

But our misplaced empathy for Denbo and antipathy for the PO is precisely what makes this film great, I think. We get the opportunity to share his attitudes. We blame the PO, society or whatever for Max's problems, but his inability to follow any rule is the real trouble.

I'm wondering what others think?

[–] MovieAlien 14 years ago

While the parole officer wasn't a villain, he certainly wasn't a good parole officer. It's not a PO's job to make deals or be lenient. A parole officer's job is to supervise an inmate's release from prison under the conditions of his parole. In simple terms, to transition the released convict back into society.

As we saw at the end of the film, Max Dembo (Hoffman) had a criminal history going back to his youth. Earl (Walsh) was well aware of this and said Dembo's most recent crime included firearm possession. The PO therefore knew Dembo had a potential for violence, but he kept turning his cheek to Dembo's transgressions, allowing him to be late for a meeting, and allowing him to check into a seedy motel rather than a court-ordered halfway house.

To me, the PO just wanted to make his job easier by awarding "perks" if Dembo "apologized" for his misbehavior or bowed down to the PO's condescending attitude. While the Walsh character's self-indulgence could be interpreted as "villainous", he was much more of a "naive victim" of Dembo's.

[–] vbelyshev 14 years ago

the film is supposed to show us a circular system, that just doesn't work. from either the Po's side or the people that get released. i talked to a woman who was a PO for many years, and well, there is a certain way you want to approach the ex cons, especially when they got out after many years in prison.all around, the system just doesn't work. this brings on about a question whether max was "rehabilitated" after leaving prison. would anyone be?

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[–] ridge-m-1 12 years ago

The one redeeming quality of Max Dembo was his sense of loyalty. Although it was obvious that Max enjoyed being a part of Willy Darin's family life, he understood and accepted the wife's request not to come around anymore. He would never have murdered Willy if he had had the courage to stay put until Max and Jerry exited the jewelry store.

Max was loyal to his best friend Jerry to the point that he killed the individual who, in his mind, was responsible for his death.

Try to put yourself in Max's shoes for a moment. How difficult would it be to part with Jenny Mercer, who seemed willing to be with him up to the very end. Instead, he sacrificed that opportunity and traded it for her well-being out of his love for her and his sense of loyalty for all that she had done for him.

When the P.O leans on Max to rat out his friend Willy, that is when Max reaches his breaking point. As the author of the book the movie is based on has stated, criminals of that era had a certain code of honor. Informing on a pal is one of the most serious violations of that code. Earl knew this of course but put the squeeze on Max anyway. Typical law enforcement behavior, perfectly legal and potentially advantageous for the P.O. to obtain the name. That being said, there is no "honor" in attempting to learn the identity of an individual that is, as far as the P.O. knows, nothing more than a low level drug-user.

[–] thesnowleopard 9 years ago

the film is supposed to show us a circular system, that just doesn't work. from either the Po's side or the people that get released. i talked to a woman who was a PO for many years, and well, there is a certain way you want to approach the ex cons, especially when they got out after many years in prison.all around, the system just doesn't work. this brings on about a question whether max was "rehabilitated" after leaving prison. would anyone be?

Well, it depends on which "system" and what it's intended to do. In terms of incarceration and keeping dangerous people off the street (which Dembo certainly is by the end of the film), the prison system today likely works better than it ever has in U.S. history. If you look at the history, say, of incarceration in the Old West, it's a hot mess. Men and women are housed together (which results in lots of sexual exploitation) and if you manage to escape the noose for prison, you could be out after two years of hard labor, even for cold-blooded multiple murder. If you manage to skip the territory, you could escape punishment entirely.

The 1970s had major problems with this, though, in the interests of trying to reform the prison system and increase the rehabilitation rate. As we see in the film, it was poorly set up for that and the recidivism rate stayed high. It also ensured that some very dangerous people (particularly some notable serial killers who graduated from aggravated rape to murder thanks to sentences that were essentially pled or paroled down to slaps on the wrist) ended out on the street when they should have stayed in prison.

The problem is that the real way to "fix" Dembo was not to create him in the first place, or at least help him go straight when he first entered the system at 17, not 18 years later, once he'd become a hardened criminal who didn't really want to change. We don't know at what point Dembo became a hopeless case, but while we are led to believe he could still change at the beginning of the film, we discover by the end that point of no return had passed long before.

But the whole point of rehabilitation is that some people can reform, and quite late, so we have to at least try. Helping out troubled children and parents, and things like free prenatal care, would help considerably in stopping the cycles of poverty and criminality that usually create Max Dembos, but that pesky human free will probably ensure that some people will go permanently "wrong" very young, may even be doomed from birth, while others might get out after a very long stretch and go straight. And that we may not ever be able to tell, just lower the recidivism rate with sociological solutions as much as we can and support the ones who really do want to change, while protecting the rest of society (which includes prisoners in for non-violent offenses) from the really dangerous cons.

I like that this film starts out apparently one of those 70s films about the plucky, misunderstood ex-con just trying to get by and stay out of trouble (like Steelyard Blues (1973), which I initially mistook this one for, when I started watching it on TCM), and slowly introduces us to the reality that nope, ol' Max is a stone-cold sociopath.

For a complete flip on this, try the excellent British miniseries "The Sins" from 2000, with Pete Postlethwaite. Postlethwaite's character, Len Green, is your typical Brit gangster/bank robber who's been in and out of prison most of his adult life. When he gets out this time, he's determined to go straight, but it's not as easy as all that and every week, his struggles to keep his nose clean are framed in the context of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. He does eventually win through, but it's a long, hard road and you see how tough it is for him.

Regarding the OP's question, I think this is a toughie. The entire film is from Max's POV and, at least on the surface, presents everyone and every situation around him the way he sees it. You have to look under that surface to see how things really are going. So, of course the PO is going to look like a creep because that's how Max sees him. But when you look at his actions (rather than Max's portrait of him), he comes off as maybe being too lenient on Max, not too harsh. And that makes the rest of his portrayal questionable--is he really like that or is this just more of Max's self-justification?

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[–] sageonelove 10 years ago

I don't think it mattered what kind of parole officer Dembo had, he was not going to better himself by tiny increments in a law abiding way. He wanted to feel powerful and he wanted money without working for it. He knew how to live the thug life, the straight life wasn't for him. I adore Walsh as an actor and thought he played the part perfectly. I never thought Dembo was on the road towards a law abiding life. He could have had the kindest PO in the world, it wouldn't have made any difference. That's my take on it, anyway. I had zero pity for Dembo. I felt sorry for the people he victimized.

[–] ccr1633 9 years ago

I guess you can't call the PO a bad guy for doing his job, basically, but he certainly was a jerk who appeared to enjoyed humiliating the parolees who were the subjects in his petty little kingdom. It's correct that Max put himself in the position to be hassled by failing to go the halfway house the first night (though he did leave a message with the PO's service) and by allowing his pal to cook and shoot up in his room. But the PO was basically a creep who played head games. The evidence:

(1) Refusing to show any empathy in the first meeting and hinting that Max's parole was in jeopardy until Max groveled at his feet and apologized. Max was being obstinate, but the PO acted as if his ego were more important than the minor violation itself.

(2) After Max told him he got a job and had a date that evening, the PO immediately asked "is she white?" That's basically saying to Max, "You're a pathetic loser ex con. I'd be surprised if a decent white girl would go near you." In addition to being racist, it's totally unnecessary humiliation. It suggested to me that he didn't actually want Max to succeed in living a halfway decent, reasonably happy and autonomous life unless HE provided it for him.

(3) Letting Max rot in prison for 3 days after his urine test came out clean. That surely jeopardized Max's new job, and probably the PO took some pleasure in screwing up the budding relationship with Jenny. All because he was "too busy" to come get Max or at least call the prison and tell them he should be freed. That's just plain immoral and unsympathetic.

(4) When driving Max to the halfway house, he kept pestering him unnecessarily about his suspicion of drug use in his room. When Max is looking through his belongings, the PO outrageously asks, "Is the cooking spoon there?" That's another petty attempt to humiliate Max. The PO is clearly upset that he wasn't able to nail Max for drug use. Not being satisfied with that, the PO then pesters Max about revealing who shot up in his room. He tries to trick Max into revealing it, falsely claiming that it's just between the two of them, and he just won't let up. Why? It's clear that Max wasn't the one shooting up. The matches might even have belonged to a previous tenant in the room. And even if it was somebody Max knew, which it was, then what? Send Max back to prison because he didn't have the balls to prevent his junkie friend from using? Is that really good reason to send Max back to prison for 3 years? How about just saying this: "Max, I'm convinced somebody shot up in your room. I know it wasn't you, but let this serve as a warning. I don't want you consorting with drug users or criminals of any type. I want you on the straight and narrow path back into decent society. I'll give you a break this time because I want to help you out, but don't test my patience again." Just giving Max a little break would have gone a long way toward building the trust that he supposedly wanted between PO and ex-con. But no. He had to be a jerk about it. Max sensed correctly that the PO was a petty man who probably wanted to see him busted again. Thence the beatdown and subsequent highway humiliation.

Yeah, the PO was a real jerk. No sympathy for him from this viewer.