Scarecrow
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Year Released: 1973
Rating: 3.0
Two drifters - a hardened ex-con (Gene Hackman) and a daffy sailor who abandoned his wife and kid (Al Pacino) - take to the road in an attempt to start up a car wash and find some stability in their lives. The performances are phenomenal (Hackman especially) and make this something of a must-see cult film - it's patient but enthralling, despite the occasionally loaded dialogue. It only becomes really problematic in the last third when the film's central metaphor gets taken too seriously and Pacino turns into a catatonic mess (that Catholic guilt is something formidable, let me tell you).
