This film comes from the 1970s auteur period of nakedly awful stories about the dregs and losers.  I remember enjoying my reaction to this as an undergraduate, the way that it kind of freaked me out, which is a substitute for experience in the young.  This time around, while I recognize its significance, fine acting, and relentless realism, I half wondered why I was putting myself through it.  OK, you endure it for the sake of art, but it is so awful that I may never do so again, which leads to the question, why buy it?