 |  | Hard Times aka "The Streetfighter" |  |
Overall, a reasonably high quality, no frills, DVD. My main criticism is that the full screen format left out a lot of detail at the periphery, for instance in the scene when Chaney (Bronson) challenges Pettibon's Cajun fighter. In the dispute after the fight all we hear is the click of a gun, we are left to assume from the there is an armed man because he is totally invisible. Likewise when Chaney shoots up Pettibon's honkytonk, some of the time he is aiming at invisible targets like the old fashioned pay phone on the wall (I only know this because I remember seeing this film at a movie theater back in the 70's. To appreciate what you are missing you have to compare the wide aspect opening scene (when Chaney hops off a freight train) with the rest of the film. I imagine they only transferred the opening scene in 2.35:1 so that you can read the titles. A wide aspect ratio is important when there is a lot of dynamic action going on and lets face it it's the fight scenes that are the most important part of the movie. Had it not been for this "defect" I would have given this DVD five stars, despite the absence of any bells and whistles.
June 19, 2008Early Walter Hill film about street fighting in the 1920's with granite faced Charles Bronson as Chaney, James Coburn as huckster promoter Speed and Strother Martin as Poe, as a dope addict corner man. The best fight is a terrific battle in a cage between Bronson and movie bad guy Robert Tessier! It is actually better than the final confronation between Chaney and a top fighter brought in by a gangster. Fun fair.
May 30, 2008 | | "Hard Times" - A Bronson must see | |
Rock'em sock'em action. "Death Wish" with bare knuckles. A must see for Bronson fans. Excellent supporting cast (James Coburn, Strother Martin).
April 9, 2008Charles Bronson was a interesting guy,...born the son of a eastern European immigrant coalminer into a huge poverty stricken family in a dirt poor coal Mining town in western pennsylvania in 1921..his father dying of black lung at home when he was about 12,...his brother closest in age to him born frail and sickly died when Bronson was still growing up....like a lot of American families of that period it was a tough time to say the least..the only thing that saved him was that he was born with a artistic side to him and world war 2... the war got him out of that god awful town and opened his eyes to the rest of the country and the world. after the war with the G.I. bill he went to a art school in Philadelphia and got involved with a theatre company and ect...once he was in Hollywood around 1950 via new york city he got work right away...... he was a fixture in the movies in supporting roles thru out the 1950's and 60's.... for a number of years he worked exclusively in European films well into the 1970's until thanks to a low budget 1974 American film called [death wish] his star really took off when he was well into his 50's.... which leads us to hard times....hard times [1975] is a well made realistic looking film, a first class production all the way around with a solidly good performance by Bronson and everyone else....the whole film looks 1933 depression era real!...this movie was made when Bronson was about 54 years old and as one can see he was in really good shape for a guy that age....as actor's go Bronson i think probably was a little better than given credit,...his films such as [once upon a time in the west] and [breakheart pass] and [from noon til three] and even the first [death wish] movie were all solid acting performances by him.... and he made a whole bunch of other fairly good films also,.... as well as a whole bunch of stinkers!...and he appeared in a number of semi classics such as [the dirty dozen] and [the magnificent 7] and [the great escape] and so on.,... so on balance he had a body of work he and his family could be proud of....and so in a real sense his is a great American success story.
March 6, 2008| | | Bronson Hard as the times | |
This is a great movie.
Bronson is left with fairly minimal dialogue to worry about,
but that is not what his opponnents should be worrying about.
He is definitely lean and mean but desperate times call for these measires(sorry for the cliche) he fights for survival and the bare essentials he and his family need to live.
The depression era is portrayed in the way that it should be,hard,filthy and above all with a thick layer of mistrust coming from all of the actors,Coburn is great as the mouthy fight fixer and Jill Ireland and Bronson bring their real life love to the proceeding's.
The fight scenes are fantastic,
I never get the feeling that i am being subjected to watching Bronson stand in stunt men,
Bronson's bare knuckles talk more quickly and project more about the man than any amount of script could ever manage to do.
I have been watching The Mechanic at present and this will be my next stop for more than the first time..
Bronson is never to everyone's taste however if you enjoy tough,reality driven entertainment
and bare knuckles drawing blood,you will absolutely love this.
Bravo Bronson.
Ian.
February 27, 2008More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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