Parolee Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) gets off on the wrong foot with his parole officer Earl Frank (M. Emmet Walsh) in Ulu Grosbard's 1978 gritty film about the hopelessness of a career criminal trying to make it in the real world. Based upon career criminal Edward Bunker's novel No Beast So Fierce." the screenplay credits include Bunker, Jeffrey Boam Alvin Sargent (story) and Nancy Dowd and Michael Mann as uncredited writers. Supposedly Michael Mann's 1995 crime movie "Heat" was strongly influenced by Bunker's book. This simple, but right on the money scene is an example of Hoffman's and Walsh's ability to portray incredibly real people dealing with real life issues.
