Straight Time set the tone for future crime classics that explore the minds of criminals, particularly Michael Mann’s crime classics like Thief and Heat. What sets Straight Time apart from just about every other crime film before or after it is the honesty and detail it pays to the subject matter. It is bleak, hopeless and relentlessly grim. None of the characters you are presented with here are portrayed in a romantic or heroic way that will make you easily empathize with them or understand them.

 

There is no glamour present for these criminals. They don’t live in mansions, wear Armani suits and drive Porsches. All of the criminals in the film, especially Dembo, are unapologetic about what they do and seem to embrace their inevitable fate. Starting to wonder why a gritty, almost documentary like film about criminality as a lifestyle and job not to mention the angry obsessive compulsion about a criminal mind wasn’t well-received by audiences and was yanked out of theaters after just TWO weeks in release?

 

Most Hollywood films prior to 1978 and especially after involving crime and those who perpetuate it, almost always involved endings where you are literally beaten over the head with “A LESSON TO BE LEARNED”, the central figure has a catharsis and seeks redemption, or the central figure is either captured and or killed in the final reel. They also usually involve a heavy amount of psychological background that may or may not help you understand or even “like” these criminals.