Others won’t understand why Max’s friend Jerry, who despite being an ex-con has on the surface, achieved the perfect straight life. He has a house in Burbank, a pool, a patio, a wife, a business, etc. Yet, the first moment he gets Max alone he tells him “Get me outta here. I can’t make this scene anymore.” He doesn’t care WHAT it is Max has planned for a score; he just wants to do it, preferably with a shotgun.

 

Why would he throw it away, you ask? You almost certainly won’t understand Max Dembo, the character through which we see and hear everything. You certainly don’t like him at the end of the film. He is by definition a sociopath. You see him do horrific, unspeakable things. Yet, you STILL feel sorry for him and what his inevitable fate will be. And that is precisely because he DOES try so hard to adjust to society after getting out.

 

He does all he can but STILL ends up back in prison for basically no fault of his own. He is shut out by society and thus falls into recidivism. He knows nothing else. The straight life got him nowhere so what else is there for him to do but go back to scoring? That’s the only thing that makes him feel safe and secure.

 

At one point, you see him break through a wall to steal a shotgun from a pawn shop and literally coo to himself like a happy baby after he snatches it from the wall and holds it powerfully in his hands. That speaks volumes as to who this man is.