Cinema Revisited: Hard Times (1975)
Directed by Walter Hill. Cast: Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Strother Martin, Jill Ireland, Maggie Blye, Bruce Glover, Robert Tessier, Frank MacRae. Released October 8, 1975. Running time 93 minutes.
Notable as screenwriter Walter Hill's directorial debut, "Hard Times" establishes Hill's style immediately: fewer tracking shots, not much moving camera, but still a beautiful shot composition. It also features a strong presence as the center of the narrative who is partnered with a more gregarious, talkative type. These elements permeated most of Hill's work from this point. He was pretty young when he made this movie and remains at least semi-active today.
The story deals with bare knuckle fighting during the Depression era. The 1970s were good for throwback films, but often they were comical ("Paper Moon," "American Graffiti") or romantic ("The Way We Were"). Brutality was reserved for 70s movies about the 70s, save for a few, like this film and "Papillon." Charles Bronson is perfect as the stoic drifter who hooks up with enterprising James Coburn to successfully engage in a series of street fights. Strother Martin, fully in character as a cut man, chews the scenery as only he can.
Hill's screenplay originally called for a much younger actor to play the fighter, Hill himself indicating that he was considering someone like Jan Michael Vincent. However, the script ended up in Bronson's hands and he liked it and had his agent contact production. Bronson wanted to meet Hill, because he was a first time director, so that was arranged and the fledgling filmmaker was accepted by the established star.
The story examines the characters, giving them more dimension than the various fight sequences. Coburn is all bluster as the promoter who sets up fights but gambles away his money as soon as his fighter earns it. Strother Martin made a lasting impact on movie history with his "failure to communicate" line from 1967's "Cool Hand Luke," and spent his career playing similarly slimy character, even, as in this case, he is pretty much huddled with the comparative "good guys" of the narrative. Martin only lived to 61, dying in 1980.
Bronson taking on the fighter role caused the dynamic of the film to change. Bronson was already in his early 50s at the time of filming, but still in remarkably good shape. Thus, references to him as an "old man" by his opponents were added to the dialog. In a sense, the fact that Bronson was older offered another interesting layer to the character. He not only can win fights against the heretofore undefeated fighters, he does so from a more advanced age.
Robert Tessier made a career out of playing a frightening, imposing presence, and he comes off well here. But it is stunt man Nick Dimitri who appears in the climactic fight, performed privately as a high wager battle and not surrounded by violent-hungry viewers. With no crowd noise to augment the sound, the punches and kicks have greater emphasis on the soundtrack and add to the brutality.
"Hard Times" is a movie that is well acted, well written, and well directed. Because the 70s is such of a strong decade for cinema, this film is often overlooked. Even its year of release was able to produce such enduring classics as "Dog Day Afternoon," "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," and "Jaws." But "Hard Times" turned out to be a real sleeper, being shot for $3 million and grossing over $25 million.