Hard Times
- Jun 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 7
Of the action movie stars who dominated the big screen during the 1960s and 1970s, there is one who was bigger, stronger, tougher, more imposing than any other. Before Clint Eastwood came along, that is. His name: Charles Buchinsky, a.k.a. Charles Bronson. With a weathered slab of a face and a muscled physique that looked like it was chiseled out of the Pennsylvania coal mine where he toiled as a child, Bronson stepped up and took care of business no matter what movie he was in. And for my money he never starred in a better movie or gave a better, more powerful performance than in his 1975 movie Hard Times.
“I knock people down.”
Set in Depression-era New Orleans, Bronson plays Chaney, a man who comes to town—homeless, hungry, broke—and quickly finds work fighting other men in brutal, bare-knuckle illegal street fights. When someone asks what he does for a living, Chaney simply replies: “I knock people down.” And, man, does he ever. His fists are powerful. His ability to take a punch unbeatable. When he teams up with a manager/gambler named Speed—played with slick charm by the great James Coburn—Chaney starts betting and making good money as he wins every fight he’s entered into. And the wonderful character actor Strother Martin is along for the ride as a fallen medical student named Poe whose job is to fix Chaney’s wounds.
In no time, the sun is shining bright on the three men—that is, until Chaney defeats the champion of a big-time gambler named Gandil, and Gandil sets out to get his revenge and settle the score.
Gandil kidnaps Speed over some unpaid gambling debts, then threatens to hurt him unless Chaney fights again, this time against a dangerous champion that Gandil imports from Chicago. Will Chaney skip town and let Speed deal with his own problems? Or will he have a change of heart and fight the other hitter in a gritty, brutal, winner-take-all slugfest? I give you one guess. This is a Hollywood movie, after all.
While Hard Times sounds like a somewhat routine action picture, the artistry with which the film is made by first-time director Walter Hill elevates it to a classic worthy of a close look. The extremely minimalist dialogue, the hard-boiled primitive tone, the Edward Hopper-like set pieces, the intentionally sparse character exploration—all of it combines to create an almost existential, fable-like tale about a mysterious man who comes to town and upends the isolated lives of those he happens to touch—or hit.
By the way, Bronson does all his own fighting in the brilliantly choreographed fight scenes. And his real-life wife Jill Ireland is in the cast as well.
Hard Times is a sure bet, four-out-of-four-star winner.
