Hard Times

Especially when you consider that Hill went on to helm 48 Hours, Southern Comfort, The Driver, The Warriors and many more. He also co-wrote Alien.Walter Hill was an up-and-coming screenwriter with Peckinpah's The Getaway to his credit as well as solid thrillers like The Drowning Pool, The Mackintosh Man and Hickey and Boggs. There is no evidence in Hard Times that Hill was a novice behind the camera, either. This is one of my favorite films of the 1970s. The story is set in 1933. Chaney (Charles Bronson) is a middle-aged drifter who ends up crossing paths with Speed (James Coburn), a fast-talking promoter of "street fights" (no holds barred matches between local tough guys with no rules or regulations). Needing some quick cash, the soft-spoken, low-key Chaney forms a partnership with the mercurial Speed. In his first match, they win big when Chaney knocks the local champ out cold with one punch. They gravitate to New Orleans where Speed can put together some high stakes fights. They are joined by Poe (Strother Martin) an amiable quasi-doctor (he had two years of medical school) with a penchant for opium but who is skilled at patching up bruised and beaten fighters. Chaney quickly becomes a local legend and draws the attention of a local fight promoter/kingpin who insists that Chaney fight a seemingly invincible slugger he has imported from Chicago. When Chaney refuses, the kingpin kidnaps Speed and holds him hostage until Chaney shows up for the high stakes fight. The script, co-written by Hill, is a prime example of how less can be more, at least in terms of dialogue. Bronson says very little during the film, but conveys much emotion with a nod of the head, the blinking of his eyes or a wry smile. This is evident in Chaney's relationship with a local down and out woman (Jill Ireland), who he basically sees for easy sex. When she presses him to convert their trysts into a meaningful relationship, Chaney simply walks out. No drama. No speeches. Similarly, the superb performances of Bronson, Coburn and Martin seem inspired by the Sam Peckinpah school of men sticking together no matter what. When Speed is kidnapped, Chaney initially refuses to help him. He correctly points out that Speed is responsible for his own reckless behavior that sees him make enemies of the wrong people and foolishly gamble away money as fast as he earns it. Yet, in a crunch, Chaney comes to his partner's aid. There is no fanfare between Chaney and Speed, who knows that, by appearing for the bout, Chaney has saved his life. Instead, just a quick handshake a "thank you." By de-emphasizing overtly sentimental gestures and dialogue, Hill makes the relationship between the trio even more moving.Hill and his co-writers pack a lot of memorable scenes into the film's scant 93 minute running time. Aided by editor Roger Spottiswood (another future director) and legendary cinematographer Philip Lathrop, Hill makes every frame of the film count. There isn't a slow moment or a meaningless line of dialogue. Clearly the highlights are the action sequences. This is Fight Club for the Baby Boomer generation. Bronson, who was in his 50s at the time, performs all of his own gut-wrenching fight scenes, along with co-stars Robert Tessier and Nick Dimitri. They are brutal affairs that will quickly convince you that these men are actually beating each other up. The stunt coordination is among the best I've seen in any film. The film's more whimsical sequences are aided immeasurably by Barry DeVorzon's addictive score.With Hard Times, Bronson reached the pinnacle of his acting career. It's wonderful to see him reunited with Coburn, his co-star from The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. However, Coburn became even more interesting as an actor as he grew older whereas Bronson grabbed for the low-hanging fruit and began to concentrate primarily on by-the-numbers action movies. (That said, I'm a fan of Bronson's 80s Cannon films.) The film remains a testament to his abilities as an actor- and credit is due for Walter Hill for bringing those out in full force. Times comes on a 50 GB dual layer BluRay. The film is presented in a 1080 progressive widescreen. For this release a brand-new transfer has been created from a 4k digital restoration and the end result is a solid transfer. The image looks crisp, grain looks natural and there are no issues with DNR or compression. Superior to the Twilight Time release.This Eureka bluray (all region) comes with two audio options, a LPCM mono mix in English and a DTS-HD 5.1 surround mix in English. Both audio mixes sound, clean, clear and robust when they need too. Out of these two audio mixes, the DTS-HD 5.1 surround mix offers a slightly fuller audio experience. Included with this release are removable English SDH subtitles.Extras for this release include, a trailer for the film (2 minutes 23 seconds), excerpts from a 1984 interview with Walter Hill at the National Film Theater, London (31 minutes 32 seconds), three interviews – the first interview with co-screenwriter / director Walter Hill (20 minutes 40 seconds), an interview with producer Lawrence Gordon (14 minutes 20 seconds) and an interview with composer Barry DeVorzon and a twenty page booklet with cast & crew information, Pauline Kael’s original 1975 New Yorker review of the film, archival imagery and information about the transfer.Topics discussed in the audio interview with Walter Hill include, his thoughts about directing, action cinema, westerns, his favorite directors, the financial side of filmmaking, staging fight scenes, how he got into screenwriting, Sam Peckinpah, why what is written in a screenplay does not always end up onscreen and he also discusses various films that he worked on.Topics discussed in the on-camera interview with Walter Hill include, producer Lawrence Gordon, making the transition from screenwriter to director, Raoul Walsh, Sam Peckinpah, Hard Times and what type of film was he trying to make, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Strother Martin, cinematographer Philip H. Lathrop and what he learned from him as a filmmaker and his thoughts about Hard Times.Topics discussed in the interview with Lawrence Gordon include, the origins of Hard Times, Columbia Pictures and how they got involved in distributing the film, Walter Hill and why he decided to hire a first-time director, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Strother Martin, Jill Ireland, cinematographer Philip H. Lathrop and his thoughts about Hard Times.Topics discussed in the interview with Barry DeVorzon include, Dillinger and his experiences working with director John Milius, how Dillinger’s score lead to him being hired to do the score for Hard Times, Walter Hill, his creative process as a composer, his thoughts about Hard Times and the score for this film was one of easiest scores he ever worked on.Included with this release is a DVD that has the same content included on the Blu-Ray included as part of this combo release. Overall Hard Times gets a definitive release from Eureka Video, highly recommended.

The title says it all. This movie shows you the code of being a man and staying strong in hard times.

Most movies are entertaining but forgettable but this film has got to be a classic because after watching ityou find yourself reflecting on how good this movie and all of the major actors were.

Wonderful old movie with a great actor.

There is something about this guy. His calm. smoldering coolness INSTANTLY transfers to the camera. Ok so Walter Hill knows how to direct, this is a wonderful movie to watch and the fight scenes are exciting, you know who is going to win but it is still thrilling. Bronson is MAGNETIC, I had not watched this film in a few years and I enjoyed it from start to finish! In a few years I will watch it again. I love Walter Hill and his body of work and he KNOWS how to work with Charles Bronson and I quote. " There is a great poetry in Charlie's face. With just a look, he can suggest moods that are quite interesting. He's always on time, he always knows his lines, and he never misses a mark. " Enjoy this film please, I always do. AND I don't give a flip about the widescreen or the problems you all had with the DVD or the VHS or your grandma's ass. I would like these forum to BE about the movie, so tell your story walking, I don't want to hear it.

Enjoy watching old movies. Good music and enjoyable movie. On a personal note it's more about memories than anything else. I just remember seeing movies with my dad and for me theses movies bring back memories.The DVD player fine. Again it's a good movie.

I've lately been buying dvd's to fill-in my Charles Bronson favorites, and watched "Hard Times" (1975) last night.I suppose if you're a fan of Charles Bronson, this period piece from the Great Depression, about a bare-knuckles fighter trying to earn a few bucks from fights (to "fill in the inbetweens") doesn't need either another review, or any particular recommendation. The following comments are just to "fill-in" a few things about this relatively little-known film, from the perspective of a life-long Bronson fan, who always has thought Charlie could have been an even bigger motion-picture star than he was, given the right vehicle for his unique acting talents.The plot of "Hard Times" has been well-outlined by the 70+ other reviews already posted to this site, so I won't detail that with more than a brief summary. Suffice it to say, the story is very simple, the outcome rather predictable, and the story also rather brief ( 93 minutes total), and other than for Bronson fans, is likely to have some appeal to boxing fans, and those who enjoy a well-crafted period piece. Chaney (Bronson) arrives hitching a freight-train, and quickly hooks up with Spencer Weed, aka "Speed"- James Coburn doing his usual excellent job of yet another suave, rakish opportunist: this time as a promoter of illegal bare-knuckle fights. The rest of the story consists of no more than 4 separate fight scenes, with a concluding one against a hired-gun fighter from Chicago. In between is a side-story of Chaney's relationship with Lucy Simpson (Bronson's real life wife, actress Jill Ireland, who appeared with him in many of his films), a lonely local woman with a husband serving some jail time, and a parallel side-story of Speed's troubles with the local loan sharks, who are after his hide, as he is always in debt from his semi-successful hustling.Many feel this is Bronson's best acting role, even though I think the Chaney character is rather underdeveloped in this film. This is quintessential Bronson: tough guy with a heart, and VERY few words. For my money, as far as Bronson's acting chops go, I thought "Death Wish" allowed him to display a much wider, more believable range of emotions that what he is asked to do in "Hard Times". However, Bronson's physical persona has always been his strength as an actor, and in "Hard Times", the then 54 year old Bronson displays as amazing quickness of foot, along with a pretty devastating right hand. He's a very believable pugilist, though the two main fight scenes are a bit heavy on the every-punch-hits-the-guy-right-between-the-eyes-yet-he-stays-up thing. What would have made this film a 5 star prospect for me was if the director had made this movie about 20-30 minutes longer, and devoted more time to developing not only Chaney's enigmatic, appealing character, but also those of the several other principal actors as well.As an example: Poe (the accomplished character actor Strother Martin) is employed by Speed to be Chaney's "ring-side doctor"- we are told in Speed's introduction that he is a good cut man, etc- yet for the rest of the movie, we never see Poe do a single thing for Chaney, during any of his fights. We are told he is an opium addict (like his literary namesake), yet that also never figures into either his character or the story, in any way.Lucy Simpson (Jill Ireland) is given almost nothing to say or do, in her relationship with Chaney. We are led to believe there must be some romantic attraction between the two, but we are never shown any actual romance. We are led to believe they eventually separate because of Chaney's stand-offishness, but that isn't developed very well in their scenes together either. I thought the whole sideline story of their brief relationship could have added a lot of depth to both Chaney's character and this movie, but unless it's lying somewhere on the editing room floor, those scenes jusy never happen in this film.The additional supporting actors, filling out the roles of Chaney's and Speed's fighting/promoter competition (Michael McGuire as wealthy-looking promoter Chick Gandil, Robert Tessier and Nick Dimitri as Chaney's two most formidable ring opponents) are done well enough, ironically. The main characters (other than Coburn's admittedly engaging take on Speed) could have used a lot more work, though.In all, I'd rate this a 3.5 star movie, mainly for the atmospheric recreation of the Depression Era, and the shots of New Orleans, where most of the story takes place, and yes, the acting of Bronson and Coburn, and to a much lesser extent Ireland and Martin. It's worth watching once, but probably worth purchasing only for Bronson film fans, like me.What I'd really like to see, if it in fact even exists, is a "director's cut" of "Hard Times", with about 30 more minutes of run time. With a little more flesh and blood tacked onto a few of the main characters, this would have potential to be a real classic.

Cxxxx

An oldie I saw years ago. Was called "Streetfighter" back then. Not sure the reason for change of name? If you are a Bronson fan, get it. Laid back as usual and nice scenes from old New Orleans.

A un excelente producto, contiene:Idioma original en inglés (mono)Subtitulada en españolRegión 1muy recomendable para la colección, la entrega como siempre excelente, gracias.

I love this film, one of my favorite Charles Bronson movies, period! From what I've read it's a lot more shallow than the original screenplay, after being meddled by the studio to make it more action packed, but nevertheless, the film is excellent, can't recommend it enough.

Another angle on American life. You just can't win.