Hard Times (1975)

Featured Audience Ratings

• danny d

  
  fantastic fight flick

• AJ V

  
  Sure it's a tough violent movie, but the story is familiar and predictable. It has a good cast, but it's pretty boring for the most part.

• Ken S

  
  Coburn and Bronson together again? Under the direction of Walter Hill? What's not to love?

• Stella D

  
  a gritty film about bare knuckle boxing in depression era new orleans. nice atmosphere, coburn is entertaining, and bronson is alright as long as he keeps his mouth shut. strother martin is interesting as the philosophical cut man

• Lady D

  
  I have very little to write about this film other than it is dull and boring and very one-dimensional, without much of a story at all.

• xGary X

  
  Charles Bronson plays Chaney, a drifter who chances upon small time bare knuckle boxing manager James Coburn and they form a partnership to make some money in depression era New Orleans. A great sense of period in a similar vein to Bonnie And Clyde permeates this compelling… More
  Charles Bronson plays Chaney, a drifter who chances upon small time bare knuckle boxing manager James Coburn and they form a partnership to make some money in depression era New Orleans. A great sense of period in a similar vein to Bonnie And Clyde permeates this compelling streetfighting drama, directed with the usual no-nonsense approach of boy's own favourite and Peckinpah protege Walter Hill. To be sure, it's a veritable testosterone fest, but it's by no means your typical Van Damme style action nonsense. Bronson has never been better as the laconic fighter who sees his bouts as pure business; there's no malice in him and there's a total absence of the kind of glorification of violence you see in most boxing films. In this way it has far more in common with the likes of Raging Bull or On The Waterfront. Coburn is also excellent as the smart mouthed hustler he befriends and Jill Ireland's unsentimental love interest has never made the down at heel seem more glamorous. A simple but effective story that highlights Bronson's consummate badassery without the usual trashiness that accompanies most male-orientated tough guy films and easily one of Hill's best moments.

• Adam M

  
  Bronson seems to have 50 extra muscles in his face for minute changes in expression; like he became the best at one very small part of acting

• Danny R

  
  A hard-hitting powerful drama and richly textured film by Walter Hill in his auspicious directorial debut, a engrossing tale about a middle-aged drifter and bare-knuckle street-fighter named Chaney, who is a quite man of great integrity and few words, and an absolute master when comes… More
  A hard-hitting powerful drama and richly textured film by Walter Hill in his auspicious directorial debut, a engrossing tale about a middle-aged drifter and bare-knuckle street-fighter named Chaney, who is a quite man of great integrity and few words, and an absolute master when comes to his amazing fighting skill, he is memorably played by Charles Bronson in one of the finest performances of his long career. Chaney gets caught up in the brutal illegal bare-fisted fight game of New Orleans during the Great Depression, he is out to make some quick money the only way he knows how, with his fists. Chaney approaches a slick small-time hustler named Speed, played by James Coburn who delivers a wonderfully colorful performance, and convinces him to be his manager and arrange bouts for him for a piece of the action, by knocking out his opponent in first few seconds of the first round, of his very first fight, impressed by Chaney fighting ability Speeds plans for a big money fight with the local champion, a grinning muscle bound giant nicknamed Skinhead, superbly played by character actor Robert Tessier, in a sensationally choreographed fight sequence in a steel-mesh inclosed bull pen at warehouse, Chaney wins more than a few fights, but Speed's carelessness with his money and indebtedness to a gang of cutthroats, put his very life on the line, if Chaney does not have one last fight with a monstrous fighter named Street, played by Nick Dimitri in a chilling cold-blooded performance who they have brought in special from Chicago just to take on the unbeatable Chaney.The final bone crushing climatic match between Chaney and Street is truly spectacular, it is one of the best hand-to-hand combat sequences in cinematic history, brutal and intense. There are two terrific supporting performances by Strother Martin, as opium addicted ex-medical student named Poe, and Jill Ireland as a lonely street walker named Luby Simpson. Marvelous cinematography by Phillp H. Lathrop, and a splendid score by Barry DeVorzon, a compelling and utterly winning motion picture. Highly Recommended.

• Christopher B

  
  Bronson kicking ass in the depression. Great film that works dramatically and as an awesome duke it out film.

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