Hard Times

Also known as The Streetfighter, Hard Times stars Charles Bronson as Chaney, an aging bare-knuckle boxer, trying to scratch out a living in the middle of the Depression. "Speed" (James Coburn) is the two-bit promoter who books Chaney in the tank towns of the South and Midwest. He is briefly ...more

Walter Hill's first outing in the director's chair is also arguably his best, in this near-mythic tale of a bare-knuckle boxer trying to survive during the Depression. Charles Bronson, in what is also his best role, plays the aging fighter who arrives in New Orleans looking as though he's already absorbed a few thousand punches. Possibly the only film in which Bronson has a good backstory to explain that remarkable face, it's the perfect marriage of a timelessly archetypal character with the ...more