Hard Times (1975)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Walter Hill

Writers:

Walter Hill (screenplay) and
Bryan Gindoff (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 September 1975 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

New Orleans, 1933. In those days words didn't say much. [DVD]

Plot:

In the depression, Chaney, a strong silent streetfighter, joins with Speed, a promoter of no-holds-barred street boxing bouts...

Plot Keywords:

New Orleans | 1930s | Shirtless Men Fighting | Gambling | Reference To Napoleon

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Chaney
James Coburn	...	Spencer 'Speed' Weed
Jill Ireland	...	Lucy Simpson
Strother Martin	...	Poe
Margaret Blye	...	Gayleen Schoonover
Michael McGuire	...	Chick Gandil
Felice Orlandi	...	Le Beau
Edward Walsh	...	Pettibon
Bruce Glover	...	Doty
Robert Tessier	...	Jim Henry
Nick Dimitri	...	Street
Frank McRae	...	Hammerman
Maurice Kowaleski	...	Caesare
Naomi Stevens	...	Madam
Lyla Hay Owen	...	Waitress

Also Known As:

Street Fighter (Philippines: English title)
The Streetfighter (UK)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:AA (original rating) | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 (video rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

In a 2006 interview director Walter Hill mentioned that he had been critical of the performance of Jill Ireland, who was Charles Bronson's wife at the time. When Hill went to Bronson's home to discuss this, Bronson wouldn't shake Hill's hand -- he just showed Hill in and poured him a drink. Hill said that he would have liked to work with Bronson on other films, but that Bronson refused to work with Hill again.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Cheney rides into town at the beginning of the film on a train pulled by a diesel electric locomotive that did no exist at the time the film is set. Later Speed and Cheney ride back to New Orleans on a steam train that would be correct for the time.

Quotes:

Speed: [making a toast] To the best man I know. To the Napoleon of southern sports: me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fight Club (1999)

Bronson's best film

Bronson teamed with James Coburn in the ensemble casts of two other great films: "The Magnificent Seven," and "The Great Escape." Of all the films Bronson has made, "Hard Times" is by far the best, and probably the only truly "serious" film. Framed in the gritty reality of the Great Depression, with great background music --1930's string band--Bronson found the role of a lifetime. I rate this film an 8 out of 10.