Hard Times

A fighting film set in New Orleans during the Great Depression. Chaney is a man who steps off a freight train with nothing. Illegal bare-knuckle fights are held in the city and the money comes from the betting. Chaney goes into it. He takes on a talkative promoter called Speed; the man arranges the bets and he does the fighting. The idea is economics more than fighting: nobody fights for sport, everyone is in debt, and a punch is only work. Chaney fights not to win but to take as much money as he needs. The narrative rests on a silent hero. Chaney barely speaks, his past is not told, and the film does not try to explain him. The fights rest on weight rather than choreography; some end with a single punch and there is no decoration. It was Walter Hill's first film as director, and the template of the sparse, silent male character in his later work is set here. Charles Bronson plays Chaney and James Coburn plays Speed. A tight example for anyone who likes 1970s American cinema and genre films told plainly. For a viewer looking for depth of character, the film deliberately withholds it; the narrative stays on the surface by choice.