I know for me, hands down, my favorite scene is when Max knocks out his probabtion officer (M. Emmett Walsh) in the car, handcuffs him to the fence and pulls his pants down...one of the great scenes in cinema history! I chuckle just thinking about it...and thinking about the hundreds of people I would love to do the same thing to.
shareThere's a lot of great scenes of quite tension:
Asking his girlfriend to give him money under the table so it can look like he paid for dinner.
Kathy Bates letting him know he's not welcome.
Gary Busy lighting up, oblivious to Hoffman asking him no too.
Lying about things like the rent, not because he has too, but because that's the type of person he is. He needs to keep it in practice.
EVERY SCENE with M. Emmett Walsh.
Kathy Bates letting him know he's not welcome.
This was a great scene....brilliantly performed by Kathy Bates. She knows how much Hoffman's friendship means to her husband but she doesn't want her life rocked by her husband's past but doesn't want to hurt the man's feelings either.
My favorites were the robbery scenes...Max busting through the pawn shop wall late one night, and especially the heists with Harry Dean Stanton bitching at him the whole time. I vastly prefer these sort of scenes to the ultra slick robberies we often see in so many Michael Mann or Tarantino-ripoff flicks. I thought "Heat" was superb, and I don't mean to knock Michael Mann, but these uber-professional scores in lesser films like "The Score" are getting routine and dull these days. It was cool in "Straight Time" to see a couple of schmoes getting together to hit some place on a whim. No months and months of planning and painstaking prep work for these boys. It was precisely their walking the line dividing professionalism and amateurishness that made those scenes so tense.
"What did we get, 20's? 30's?"
"There's no 30's, man"
"Haha....any 1's?"
"What did we get, 20's? 30's?"
"There's no 30's, man"
"Haha....any 1's?"
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Heh heh heh...gotta love that Harry Dean Stanton.
I love the scenes with M Emmet Walsh - I think it's one of the finest supporting roles ever. My favorite scene has to be where Hoffman and Stanton are in the car waiting for the guy to bring the guns so they can bust the poker game. Hoffman is ferocious.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle needs to be released on DVD!
The scene you cited with Hoffman and Walsh is indeed a doozy. Other favorite moments of mine are Harry Dean Stanton singing "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane," the jewelry store heist, and - WARNING: Possible *SPOILER* ahead - especially when Hoffman shoots Gary Busey dead after giving him a big bear hug. That latter scene gives me chills just thinking about it.
shareI was shocked by that scene too. I knew Hoffman was angry with Busey and I knew their friendship was probably over, but I really didn't expect him to kill him.
shareI'm surprised nobody mentioned the final scene where Max pays a visit to his old buddy after the heist.
"Give papa a big bear hug..."
This movie is many times better than anything Mann or Tarantino have directed so far - and I really doubt they'll make anything remotely as good.
Do The Mussolini! Headkick!
"This movie is many times better than anything Mann or Tarantino have directed so far - and I really doubt they'll make anything remotely as good."
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Well, it must be said that the best time to make 70s style films was the 1970s, so Tarantino and Mann are saddled with a handicap right off the bat. Still, I think they both make excellent films and I applaud their stylistic efforts, even if sometimes (in Tarantino's case) blatant ripoffs masquerading as "tributes."
The first scene with Emmett Walsh is great, wherein Hoffman makes a bad first impression with his P.O. Walsh is the perfect cowardly sadist, the whiny, wimpy bureaucrat who nonetheless wields his power in a mean-spirited way. In fact, the character Walsh plays is the type of guy who is really dangerous -- the twerp who hides behind the law and relishes inflicting pain on lesser mortals. Of course, Hoffman's character is not exactly a wonderful guy, either. That's what is so cool about 70's movies like Straight Time -- the film is really a case study of deeply flawed human beings.
"The first scene with Emmett Walsh is great, wherein Hoffman makes a bad first impression with his P.O. Walsh is the perfect cowardly sadist, the whiny, wimpy bureaucrat who nonetheless wields his power in a mean-spirited way. In fact, the character Walsh plays is the type of guy who is really dangerous -- the twerp who hides behind the law and relishes inflicting pain on lesser mortals. Of course, Hoffman's character is not exactly a wonderful guy, either. That's what is so cool about 70's movies like Straight Time -- the film is really a case study of deeply flawed human beings."
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You got that right fluffer. I concur with every word you wrote.
Now, where the HELL is the DVD????? I wonder if it's tied up in legal entanglements, as some films have been in the past because of soundtrack copyright disputes and so forth.
You summed up beautifully one of the great things about this movie...there is nothing black and white about the problems faced in this film and the people involved...all of the characters are flawed human beings who make mistakes and suffer the consequences. I think anyone who watches this film can find at least one character in the film you can really relate to because these characters are vivid and believable.
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Firstly I guess it would be the jewellry heist scene...there is something quite comical and audacious about the calm way Hoffman puts his goggles on, asks the teller to stand back and just goes around calmy smashing every display cabinet in sight. It's his single-minded, oblivious manner that in which he does it that I find fascinating.
Or the scene where he viciously beats up the guy in the car that turns up late with the gun.
And of course the bit where he takes his revenge on the parole officer.
What all these scenes have in common is that they all take you by surprise first time you watch the film. Hoffman is a small, unassuming guy and usually plays either interesting, quirky characters, comedy parts or losers of some sort and you very rarely see him play violent characters - it's just not something he is normally associated with.
But that's precisely what makes the character scary, because you don't expect it - one minute he is mumbling under his breath, the next he is punching your lights out.
So many great scenes. One I didn't see mentioned was the great little exchange between Max and Jenny where they hammer out their relationship -- where she commits to staying with him until she can't handle it and he promises to leave his life of crime at the door. They then literally meet halfway in the middle of the room - that was interesting. Also the fact that they both break their promises - he involves her directly and she still tries to stay with him even when she's at her breaking point. You just don't see that kind of flawed, gray area nuance in the male/female dynamic in today's movies.
shareI love this observation..." Also the fact that they both break their promises - he involves her directly and she still tries to stay with him even when she's at her breaking point"
I've seen this movie a bunch of times and I guess i never really broke it down tht way, and its so blatant they they both broke their promises. Thanx for that.
One of my fave scenes is in the beginning, he's at the hot dog stand and tries to walk away w/o paying. Also, when he's taking the typing test, again, he tries to "cheat" by continuing to type after the buzzer goes off. Those 2 incidents speak volumes about who he is, and how he can't change.
Yes.....There's a lot of Favorite Scenes in this excellent movie. with Wonderful acting; wonderful "Dustin Hoffman" and Superb "Theresa Russell". Fantastic "Harry Dean Stanton" in his role "Jerry Schue".
shareThe jewel heist and aftermath was pretty amazing.
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