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This '72 mob movie impressed me when I was ten. I didn't see it at Melbourne's long extinct Chelsea cinema, though; I saw it at the drive-in with my dad. He was a big fan of Bronson, McQueen, and Sean Connery

There are some glaring continuity errors in the movie, but I still appreciate Bronson's performance, and there are some brutal sequences (relatively speaking).


I recently watched this again after I'd watched Dirty Little Billy, one of my favorite American westerns.

I still like it.

Wayne, as usual, is fantastic, possessing a swaggering authority no other actor has ever possessed.

Great poster. Great movie. I saw this for the first time at the Burwood Drive-In in Burwood, Victoria. I called to my dad, held the newspaper up where this poster was ripped from, and pointed to it. He smiled and said: "Saturday night, son."

It wasn't so easy to get him to EuroTrash.

Extremely gritty, enjoyable western based on a novel by Elmore Leonard.

Lancaster is utterly wonderful in this.

I saw this at Melbourne's Metro cinema (as per above ad mat) and wasn't terribly impressed.

Since this screening to my nine year old self, I haven't seen what I'd call a good condition print on VHS or DVD. Perhaps one exists and I'm not aware of it.

What I liked most was the circus setting. Although better exploited in Vampire Circus, I never tire of anything gritty if it's married to Big top shenanigans.

Is Bronson, Is Good

I don't want to say anything that will spoil the experience of seeing it for the first time, but I do want to say that this film is fuckin' excellent.

It is hard and funny and riveting. It is based on the life of the man who is still Britain's most dangerous prisoner. He changed is name to Charles Bronson because it suited him. I'm happy to report that he lives up to it, thereby giving the late and great actor his due.

Director Nicholas Winding Refn previously made the Pusher films, which I didn't like much, and Fear X, a film I liked a lot. Bronson is his tightest piece of work.

Refn cites Kubrick as an influence. The smears of the late filmmaker are all over this piece. It is A Clockwork Orange that it most closely resembles. The juxtaposition of orchestral and ball-ripping electronic music with violent imagery, extreme slow motion, rigid composition, and barked streams of dialog feel very Kubrick-ian.

The film consciously or unconsciously references Sexy Beast, too, and you'll know what I speak of when you see it. Ben Kingsley's 'Don Logan' appears to inhabit the body of Charles Bronson in a couple of exchanges...


... and, composition-wise, there are further parallels.

Although Bronson borrows its presentation style from another portrait of a criminal, Chopper, it still manages to feel fresh and heartfelt.

Don't miss it.

Tom Hardy is magnificent as Bronson

An example of how fucked-up the world of cinema has become is the fact that this film is playing in just one cinema in Los Angeles while Couples Retreat plays in thousands. And this... in the so-called film capital of the world. Das Kapital of Krap perhaps!

Dalliance in the Dark

Some movies have a breathless, intangible, mystical re-watchability factor.

No matter how many times you've seen them, seeing them again is like reliving an important, pleasurable moment in your life.

These movies are as rare and precious as such moments.

1975's Hard Times, the directorial debut of Walter Hill, is a perfect film to me, one with a strong re-watchability factor.

Although it was justifiably praised at the time of its release for its expertly staged fight scenes and solid action sequences...

...it is its central protagonist, 'Cheney' (Charles Bronson), who holds the key to the film's power.

Cheney is a genuine man of honor who teams up with 'Speed' (James Coburn), a fight promoter, to make a little dough in Depression-ridden New Orleans.

Although Speed, a rascal by any name, attempts to take advantage of Cheney, even he develops a respect for the guy's integrity that can't help but enrich his own humanity.

Speed's partial transformation is one of the film's exquisite pleasures.

Bronson, one of the greatest, most charismatic "Quiet Men" to ever grace the silver screen, is electric as the humble bare knuckles fight champion whose morality is defined by direct, honest action.

He is a Hero in the purest sense. His ultimate victory, which is an act of utter selflessness, spares his opponents humiliation and leaves those fallen or standing with an example of a man who lived life on his own terms, but didn't trample or betray others in order to achieve that state of being. And while negotiating the sticky streets of a potential romance, he remains a "gentleman" while surrendering none of his integrity or personal power.

He is Walter Hill's version of Ayn Rand's 'Howard Rourke', the protagonist of The Fountainhead -- a man who can not be bought because his value is not measured in dollars.

The film's other immense pleasures, which begin with an amazing screenplay, are the terrific presence of Strother Martin as 'Poe' (a lovable Southern "hophead" named after the writer), the rich score of Barry De Vorzon, Philip H. Lathrop's stunning period photography, and the authentic New Orleans locations.

Hard Times, originally titled The Streetfighter, until Sonny Chiba's classic opened just weeks before this film's release...

...is one of cinema's true pleasures.

They say you can't go back. To your home. To the things of childhood. To a cherished lover who still fires a passion not dimmed by decades of separation. Or to a cinematic dalliance in the dark..

But sometimes you can. If only to revisit the breathless intangible.

***

Hard Times producer Lawrence Gordon also produced Die Hard, 48 Hours,
Rolling Thunder, The Warriors, Streets of Fire, Watchmen, and The Driver

Director Hill is behind many action classics such as The Warriors,
Southern Comfort, Extreme Prejudice, Johnny Handsome,
48 Hours, Streets of Fire and The Long Riders.