Scarecrow is a 1973 American road comedy-drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. The story involves the relationship between two men who travel from California seeking to start a business in Pittsburgh.
At the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, the film tied for the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (now Palme d'Or), the highest honor, with Alan Bridges' The Hireling.
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Plot
Two vagabonds—Max Millan, a short-tempered ex-convict, and Francis Lionel "Lion" Delbuchi, a childlike former sailor—meet on the road in California and agree to become partners in a car-wash business when they reach Pittsburgh. Lion is traveling to Detroit to see a child whom he has never met and make amends with the child's mother, Annie, to whom he has sent all of the money that he had earned while at sea. Max agrees to take a detour on his way to Pittsburgh, where the bank to which Max has been sending all his seed money is located.
While visiting Max's sister in Denver, the pair's antics land them in a prison farm for a month. Max blames Lion for their incarceration and shuns him. Lion is befriended by an inmate named Riley, who eventually tries to sexually assault and physically ravage him. When Lion resists, Riley beats him, breaks his teeth and blinds him in one eye, which emotionally traumatizes him. Max rekindles his friendship with Lion and becomes his protector, eventually exacting revenge by fighting Riley.
