SCARECROW (1973)

Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Writers: Garry Michael White
Stars: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan
Runtime: 112 minutes    

PLOT: Max, an ex-con drifter with a penchant for brawling is amused by Lion, a homeless ex-sailor, and they partner up as they head east together.

REVIEW: Jerry Shatzberg's "Scarecrow" is a stunningly made movie with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino giving the performances of their lives as two drifters who team up in the hope of setting up a carwash business in Pittsburgh. It is simply a masterpiece of the American new wave, a rangy, freewheeling tragicomedy in which Hackman and Pacino give effortlessly charismatic performances. Max (Hackman) has just been released from prison; he's itching to start the business he's been dreaming about in the joint – and all too obviously itching to get into another of the fights that put him in prison in the first place. Francis (Pacino) has been away at sea, sending money home to the mother of his child and now, muddled and penitent, he yearns to visit them. It's a wonderfully muted performance from Pacino: Dustin Hoffman would have cranked it up far higher. The guys ride the boxcars; they get drunk and into trouble. They even wind up in prison – briefly. And their chaotic, fragile friendship is all that they have. This is a jewel of American cinema.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam