Scarecrow

Gene Hackman and Al Pacino are misfit drifters Max and Francis, who meet up on a stretch of country highway in northern California in this meandering 1973 road movie from director Jerry Schatzberg. Hackman's quick-tempered Max is just out of prison after serving six years for assault and Pacino's more easygoing Francis is a returning sailor who is ready to face the girlfriend he abandoned with their child five years before. The pair hitchhike, ride the rails, and walk the open roads, taking detours to visit a friend in Denver and Francis's child (he doesn't know if it's a boy or a girl) in Detroit, along the way becoming best friends and partners in a car wash that Max is planning to open, which turns out to be just another dream that these two directionless characters share. The two actors bring a dynamic onscreen relationship to their characters, setting a volatile undercurrent to most scenes in this gorgeous-looking road movie lensed by future Oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond. Scarecrow shared the top prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and Hackman cited it his favorite, but the film was largely overlooked in the careers of both actors until recently. Extras include a vintage featurette. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)