Le Bagarreur

Saw this movie when it first came out and I loved it. I watched it again last night and my opinion has not changed at all. It's just a fabulous movie and definitely my favorite Bronson flick. Fine work from Bronson, James Coburn and Strother Martin. The dialog is sharp and the fight scenes are excellent. This is no "Rocky" fantasy, but a tough look at a brutal game. The film really conveys what a desperate place Depression-era America was. The final fight scene is great. No roaring crowds, no dramatic music, just two tough guys pounding away at each other. Coburn is great and Strother Martin has some of the best lines in the picture. ("Some are born to fail...") Also we get to see some great New Orleans locations,which are painful to look at now in light of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Hard Times is one of Charles Bronson and Walter Hill's best films. This movie is rugged and has a great feel. Bronson looks in great shape in the film and the direction from Hill is terrific. In the genre of street-fighting pictures, this one ranks as one of the best.

A desperate hobo boxes to make some extra money in the Depression. No love story, no cute little kids, no happy ending, no redemption. Just a hard man doing what he has to in order to survive. But on his terms.

To understand why HARD TIMES is a masterpiece, compare it to other films from around this time.

BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE STING, and PAPER MOON were all massive box office hits, set in the Depression. All three movies "strain" for a sense of desperate characters in a dog-eat-dog world, but every one of them cops out with Hollywood glitz and glamor. Here's giggly Warren Beatty pretending he knows what it's like to be poor. And here's Faye Dunaway, the dead-end girl, wearing scrumptious couture while she robs banks. Here's Robert Redford, the ultimate preppy blonde pretty boy, delicately hobnobbing with down-to-earth "Negroes" and glowing with his own virtue. Here's Ryan O'Neil, tough as nails and a real fighter, but hey, it's okay -- he's got a cute little girl along for the ride! One close up of Charles Bronson's face takes you to a place no other Depression picture dares to go. The ugly violence and the hopelessness in this film are so real that they actually build up the character even more than Bronson's natural authority and physical presence. It's the perfect vehicle for the perfect star.

Bronson is enough -- but there's so much more. James Coburn as the manager Speed, so dishonest yet completely likable and in his own way a real hero. Maggie Blye and Jill Ireland, both sexy and authentic as Depression women -- Jill too sickened by failure to ever love again, Maggie too aware of how short life is to ever let a minute go by without a laugh. Either one of them could wipe the floor with "Bonnie" from Bonnie and Clyde. Strother Martin as Poe, the dope addict cut man who adds his own humor, sadness and resignation to a movie utterly packed to the brim with memorable characters.

This is the most powerful and honest movie ever made about hard times.

Great role for Bronson.

Compare Bronson's fighting style with almost any other fight movie like Kirk Douglas in 'Champion' or Stallone in the 'Rocky' series. Bronson slips and ducks his opponent's punches like a real fighter does, putting as much effort into not getting hit as he does hitting the other guy. Any fighter taking the hits that most movie boxers take would be unconscious or dead in a matter of minutes, and even sluggers like Rocky Marciano and George Frazier were constantly moving, never offering a good target.

This depression era movie is similar in flavor to the Lee Marvin Ernest Borgnine vehicle 'Emperor of The North'. Both movies have unsentimental, tough, taciturn heroes who communicate more with glances and gestures.

With this, his first directing job, Walter Hill showed his tendency for archetypal characters (see the later "The Driver" - where the characters didn't even have proper names - and, of course, "The Warriors"). Here, Bronson is 'The Fighter'...Coburn is 'The Hustler'...Martin is 'The Addict-Medic'...and so forth. Bronson's final opponent is simply named 'Street' while the big guy who damages The Hustler's automobile with a big hammer is just called 'Hammerman.' They all present striking, impressive figures; you don't easily forget any of them. They stride or shuffle through a page of history, in this case Depression-era New Orleans, nicely atmospheric as shown here. Times are hard. People need to be hard, as well. One way to make good money is in pick up fights, street fights in warehouses, on docks or, in one case of rich atmosphere, in the bayou.

Chaney, aka The Fighter, as played by Bronson, true to director Hill's method of archetypes, first appears on a slow moving train from places unknown. We never learn anything of his past history, even though there's about 50 years worth there. We learn only of his incredible hitting ability in the current time frame of the story's progression. In a way, Bronson was born to play this role: he's certainly not a young man here but he looks so tough we have no trouble believing he can wipe out men 20 years his junior. With the archetype of The Fighter, the story plays out like some Depression times fable, the tale of a mystery man or warrior arrived in a city to astonish all the onlookers with his formidable fighting abilities. The fights themselves are quite memorable; the viewer has the good fortune to witness these with the shouting hordes of betting men from the safety of a couch at home. We're a part of the spectacle, a guilty participant in a brutal spectator sport, a much more gritty version of modern boxing, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

The rest of the cast is super: Coburn was never better as Speed 'The Hustler' and Chaney's front-man/manager. It's mostly through him that we hear all the phrases and quips common to those places & times, and Coburn delivers them all with a gusto & panache few are capable of. You really believe he was born as the 19th century was ending, grew up in the twenties and adjusted to the Depression accordingly. You'll always remember his retorts to the bayou residents and his last insult about fish to Gandil, the bigshot. Speed and Chaney need each other and their relationship is another strong point; Speed is all about the money, sure, but you sense he has a strong admiration for Bronson's power and quiet nobility (this is confirmed at the end). As Poe, Strother Martin created & added another indelible character to the long list on his resume. Other actors would've been saddled with some of the odd dialog he has to deliver, but he just breezes through it like a song. Glover (Crispin's dad) is also very good as a loan shark, as is McGuire as the rich Gandil. Mention should also be made of the top two fighters (Tessier & Dimitri). The film needed characters who could pose a threat to Chaney and these two looked just as tough. Now if only Chaney would explain more about those 'in-betweens'... but he doesn't say much.