Merging the best of the naturalistic 70s style with buddy elements inspired in equal parts by "Waiting for Godot" and "Midnight Cowboy", Schatzberg manages to create an amazingly fluid, fly-on-the-wall-esque restrained portrait of two at once strikingly different and - at their core - very similar bums trying to make it in a world seemingly hellbent on stopping them. The opening - the first five minutes - is one of the most enviably simplistic character introductions ever.

I didn't like the directing in the movie but Pacino and Hackman are so great that they make you forget.. What a story..

There were moments here [many, in fact] when I was thinking this was damn near perfect. The ending, with Lionel, is not one of them.

72.750

Great opening, nice ending (fountain scene, specifically). Pacino plays an emotional clown to devastating perfection, and Hackman matches him blow for blow. The well of stunning American films from this decade just doesn't run dry.

Really, really good this forgotten road/buddy movie. And it's a curiosity in that never in Al Pacino's career has he played this much of a sensitive wuss. This has got everything I love about the early 70's New Hollywood stuff - superb writing, naturalistic dialog, acting and directing that's just great without ever being pretentious.

Great film.