GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

adonis98-743-186503 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. Scarecrow is one of those films that was overlooked by both critics and audiences back in the 70's and stars Gene Hackman and Al Pacino as 2 men who go on a trip and have a dream to open a Car Wash together of course both men are excellent and they both have 2 amazing scenes where they shine first Hackman's sort of "striptease" and Pacino's speech with the kids are the best moments from the film there's also a pretty shocking sequence in the Jail with Pacino. The film of course does have it's flaws for example it does drag sometimes like the scenes in the house with the girls and the ending cuts a bit fast but the 2 men are incredible and they have amazing chemistry together and unfortunately the movie was highly overlooked by everyone and it's definitely on Pacino's best alongside The Godfather Trilogy, Serpico, Scarface, Carlito's Way and Heat and the same goes for some of Hackman's most iconic films such as Superman, Superman II, Behind Enemy Lines and Mississippi Burning. (8/10)

DKosty123 This movie kind of remains under the radar today. TCM just ran it as part of star of the month Gene Hackman package. It is a really good solid film.In a way, there is a bit of a stretch in how Hackman and Pacino meet in the films beginning as there is no explanation why both of them are in the middle of nowhere. Once this prelude is over, the film is very solid. Pacino wants to go to Detroit to see his child. Hackman wants to go to Pittsburgh to open a Car Wash. For some reason I can visualize Hackman drinking a cold Iron City Beer.They do not have a car and keep hopping freight trains to make their way across the country. Shocking scenes - Hackman doing a male strip act in a bar. Pacino getting raped by a male inmate on a prison farm. Both scenes show how much talent these guys have as their acting makes them seem very real.There is plenty more to watch as Hackman has more hair in this movie than many of his films. He is a Scarecrow here, and a young Pacino pulls off a substantial dramatic role quite well. Pacino is told his son died in child birth and he goes off the edge into a mental state.The interaction of these actors raise this movie into a B+ film, when it would have originally been a B. It is a very well made film.

classicsoncall I liked the story about scarecrows, it gave resonance to the title of the movie. Lion's (Al Pacino) insistence that they're actually intended to make crows laugh instead of being scared was something I thought about for a while. Between the two principal characters, I think we might have witnessed both versions. Lion found himself scared or bewildered much of the time while partnering up with hitchhiking comrade Max (Gene Hackman), who's reckless attitude toward life echoed the laughter of crows in response to his often violent outbursts and bouts of forced solitude.The fountain scene near the end of the story turned out to be a harrowing harbinger of Lion's catatonic state, coming on the heels of his former gal Annie (Penelope Allen) telling him that their real live son was never born. It was that harsh and mean spirited lie that pushed Lion over the edge, but did you notice? - it was a statue of a lion that Francis clung to when he cracked. It made me wonder if that was just an inadvertent coincidence or whether the scene was specifically planned that way.The conflicted resolution of the story is reminiscent of 1969's "Midnight Cowboy", reminding the viewer that life often doesn't present happy endings. Max's round trip ticket conveyed the idea that he would be back to look in on his road buddy, but one is left with the impression that Lion's condition was more despairing than hopeful. I'd like to think the car wash idea eventually came about, but somehow I have my doubts.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Touching better-sweet and finally tragic film about two drifters hooking up and going through life in the early 1970's America to start up a car wash in Pittsburg that one of them Max Millan, Gene Hackman, has been saving up for his whole adult life. The other half of the duo merchant marine Francis Lionel "Lion" Delbuchi, Al Pacino, is far more modest in what he want's from life: To see his 5 year old son or daughter, he doesn't know the child's gender, who was born while he was away at sea. The two meet up and become good friends hitching for a ride and stay together throughout the whole movie until Lion suffers a complete nervous breakdown and is left in a hopelessly comatose and hospital in a vegetated state.While on the road the two ends up in a prison farm after Max slugged a policeman during a bar fight that Lion took part in. It's at the prison farm that the boyish like and sensitive Lion is brutally attacked and possibly raped by closet queen Riley, Richard Lynch. Riley who after spending a year deprived of any carnal outlets just couldn't hold it on any more and and catching Lion alone and unguarded attacked and ravaged the poor guy; Thus leaving him a bloody mess and having Max, later by beating the cr*p out of Riley, take revenge for his friend.***SPOILERS*** It's finally when both Max & Lion reached Detroit where Lion's wife and child lived Lion's wife Annie, Penelope Allen, getting a call from him to see about their child he's told that first it was a boy and that the boy died at childbirth and even worse wasn't, in Lion being a practicing Catholic, even baptized! This left Lion in a state of shock and ridden with guilt! But as we saw that Annie really lied to Lion, the boy was actually alive and well,to punish him for leaving her. Actor Al Pacino's reaction to Annie's lie was almost exactly like the one he had in the upcoming "Godfather II" movie when he finds out that his child was purposely aborted by his wife Kay that had him, as Mafia Boss Michael Corleone, beat her black and blue! The sadistic Annie, who was married to the Joey "The Banana King" Gleason, got her wish in destroying Lion's life by having him slowly crack up with the false news that she gave him that sent him straight to the hospital psycho ward in a vegetated sate that, as the doctor told his good and concerned friend Max, he'll remain in for the rest of his natural life!P.S A heart broken Max now all by himself buys a bus ticket-With money hidden in his shoe- to his home town of Pittsburg to open up his car-wash business but without his good friend and traveling buddy Lion who was to be his partner in this business venture now a distant memory.