Welcome to Hard Times

It is very hard to like Henry Fonda's character as the pacifists antihero which is the role he is playing as a lawyer named Mayor Will Blue in the tumbleweed town called Hard Times. Watching how the seasoned tough guy actor Aldo Ray play the bully/rapist overpower the entire townsfolk as a one man out of control mob, how could anyone like the "character: Mayor Will Blue who refuses to confront the mean SOB who is terrorizing his small town.

Just a few years later in 1973 Clint Eastwood played another antihero stranger without a given name in the classic film "High Plains Drifter" with the audience accepting much greater empathy when the town was also burned to the ground and Clint went after the bad guys with a vengeance. I understand why many viewers did not enjoy this Burt Kennedy directed film, and I am sure director/actor Clint Eastwood learned from the mistakes from Henry Fonda's 1967 film Welcome to Hard Times.

My one criticism of this film was the fact that there seemed to be only one young boy in the entire town and how can any town flourish without a school and a church? Very few westerns are acknowledged as classics without a make believe town having school aged children, a church as well as the always standard livery stable.

Even without the bare necessities of a small western start up town I still liked and understood the message which is that one way or another, bully's have to be confronted and ultimately defeated even if it means the sacrifice of a few good men to save the lives and livelihood of many.

I give the film a decent 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

One thing about Henry: he was versatile. From dottering old Norman Thayer in "On Golden Pond" to the child-murdering gunman in "Once Upon a Time in the West" and everything in between, Henry Fonda showed us his multi-faceted talent over and over again, as he does here as a waffling, semi-cowardly man initially unwilling to confront a bully that terrorizes a small community in the old west.

Aldo Ray's is ideally suited for his character as well, as the murderous brute intent upon destroying a small town and anyone who tries to stop him.

As usual, mild-mannered Good eventually triumphs over seemingly unstoppable Evil, but then, by 1967 Clint Eastwood already had a lock on the other outcome. Still, I enjoyed it quite a lot, and recommend it highly, for among other reasons, to see Aldo munch on a giant green onion as he drinks coffee, in celebration of a murderous rampage he just finished.

Dramatic and decent Western magnetically performed by Henry Fonda as main cast and just look at the extraordinary support casting . A town can be killed by a bullet , just like a man! . Welcome indeed to this weird Western dealing with a little town determined to become modern , there are stores as hardware , livery stable , undertaking and saloon . A sociopathic stranger (vicious as well as marvelously wicked Aldo Ray) takes advantage of the frightened townspeople and burns down the saloon , destroys the small hardscrabble village but the 'mayor' Will Blue (Henry Fonda , his role mentions he is 49 years old at one point and turning 50 at another and yet Fonda was well over 60 at the time of the filming) doesn't stand up to crazed murderous . After that , Blue convinces its survivors to stay and rebuild it . As Blue swears to rebuild the small Western town after the stranger rides on , but the townsfolk give up and abandon . Afraid for the city's future and even more afraid of the fact that the maniacal Pistolero seeks revenge , Blue , then , promises to make a new town . A wagon load of whores led by "entrepeneur" Zar (Keenan Wynn) shows up and together with Blue, and Maple (John Anderson) they rebuild the little town . All of them decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the angry diabolic gunman . As Will has to take a last stand when the powerful gunslinger take over his town , again . What happens in the ending makes one of the most dramatic climaxes of any story you've ever seen!

This passable , meaty Western contains interesting plot , intrigue , thrills , shootouts and results to be quite entertaining , though slow moving . It is a riveting mixture of the psychological flick and the basic Western action pic . Well-paced as well as rare Western balances action , suspense and symbol-laden drama . It's a classical recounting about a veteran as well as hesitant leading citizen of the runtown of ¨Hard Times¨ who at first doesn't stand-up to ruthless killer , a peace-loving and surrounded by cowards and frightening people ; being probably one of the strangest Western of the sixties . This is an atypical but thought-provoking western with a lot of reflection , distinguished moments and dramatical attitudes , in addition a multitude of enjoyable situations . The picture profits Henry Fonda's portentous interpretation , he gives a top-drawer performance as a Mayor who fails to stand up to the gunfighter , Fonda is an awesome expert in the art of conjuring sensational , terrific acting . Originally made for television in 1966, but released to theaters instead, before being shown on TV because of its violent content . Engaging screenplay from the novel "Welcome to Hard Times" by E.L. Doctorow , author of ¨Ragtime¨ . The traditional story and exciting script was well screen-written by Burt Kennedy though clichés run through-out , the agreeable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the relationship between Henry Fonda and Janice Rule . The highlights of the film are the climatic showdowns , the peculiar love story among protagonists , and , of course , the final gundown . The casting is frankly nice . Here are reunited a top-notch plethora of secondary actors , most of them playing the frightened townspeople as Keenan Wynn , Janis Paige , John Anderson , Warren Oates , Fay Spain , Edgar Buchanan , Paul Fix , Denver Pyle , Lon Chaney Jr. and Royal Dano who is exactly right as Indian medicine man . Atmospheric cinematography in Technicolor is superbly caught by cameraman Harry Stradling . Thrilling as well as atmospheric musical score by Harry Suckman .

This hard Western picture was professionally directed by Burt Kennedy . He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott . Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac, although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script . In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western , ¨The Canadians¨ (1961) , but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962) . He returned to films in 1965 with the successful ¨The Canadians¨ (1965), directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name and subsequently made ¨Support your local gunfighter¨, ¨Support you local sheriff¨ that resulted to be two of his best Western . And directed two with John Wayne : ¨Train robbers¨ and ¨The war wagon¨ , Robert Mitchum : ¨Pistolero¨ , ¨The good guys and the bad guys¨ , Frank Sinatra : ¨Dirty Dingus Magee¨ , Raquel Weich : ¨Hannie Coulder¨ and a sequel ¨Return of the magnificent seven¨ . His last films were TV products and mediocre productions such as : ¨Wild wild west revisited¨, ¨More wild wild west¨, ¨Big bad John¨, ¨Dynamite and gold¨¨ , ¨The trouble with spies¨and ¨Suburban commandos¨ . This violent Western ¨Welcome to Hard Times¨ is a Henry Fonda vehicle , if you like his particular performance ,you'll enjoy this one .

This is a gritty and well directed film. Unfortunately, the entire premises strains belief. We are supposed to believe that one man rides into a town and kills people and burns it to the ground while everybody just sits around and watches. In the real world this guy (Aldo Ray) would have been shot down about five minutes after he walked into the saloon. In 19th century America, everyone was armed and would have taken any action needed to protect their lives and property. I thought it was a silly movie when I saw it as a child and it remains silly today.

'This sparse and grim epic of the plains is loaded with character and with allegory as well. The bad man who comes down from the hills and destroys the town is analagous to Moby Dick, more about dark fate than satanic evil. The excellence of the film comes from its relative faithfulness to the book, a masterpiece by E. L. Doctorow, the storyteller who gave us Waterworks and Ragtime. I give the movie four stars out of the five, and the book all five. Henry Fonda is the big name star, but this is really an ensemble movie. Catch the late Aldo Ray acting up a storm. (If you have seen the movie, read the book. It adds some dimensions including graphic violence that wasn't put into film when this one was made.) I saw this film on TV late one night many years ago, and it stuck with me like a haunting.