Charles Bronson was an extremely popular actor for a good decade and a half beginning in the early 1970s. He actually was not a particularly good actor, in my opinion, and those movies were not all that good. They certainly were not great works of art. Bronson's characters had to be a certain type or he wouldn't be cast. I think the word I'm looking for is "stoic".
A lot of that isn't true about Hard Times. It's still true concerning a stoic Bronson, but not true for a lot of the rest of it. More effort was put into the movie when compared to Bronson vehicles like Mr. Majestyk or Death Wish II. It doesn't hurt to have James Coburn and Strother Martin in there with you carrying the load. In fact, with a little imagination it could be argued that it was more Coburn's movie than it was Bronson's.
Anyway, I saw it in the theater all those years ago as a 24 year-old guy. I have seen it on TV several times since. I never for a second thought I was watching something the equal to Streetcar Named Desire, but Hard Times has always kept my attention, first movie frame to last.
A lot of that isn't true about Hard Times. It's still true concerning a stoic Bronson, but not true for a lot of the rest of it. More effort was put into the movie when compared to Bronson vehicles like Mr. Majestyk or Death Wish II. It doesn't hurt to have James Coburn and Strother Martin in there with you carrying the load. In fact, with a little imagination it could be argued that it was more Coburn's movie than it was Bronson's.
Anyway, I saw it in the theater all those years ago as a 24 year-old guy. I have seen it on TV several times since. I never for a second thought I was watching something the equal to Streetcar Named Desire, but Hard Times has always kept my attention, first movie frame to last.