Hard Times

Hard Times (1975)

New Orleans, 1933. In those days words didn't say much.

In the depression, Chaney, a strong silent streetfighter, joins with Speed, a promoter of no-holds-barred street boxing bouts. They go to New Orleans where Speed borrows money to set up fights for Chaney, but Speed gambles away any winnings.

Date of release
1975-08-13
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (251)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Drama
Director
Walter Hill

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $2.7M
  • Filmed in: New Orleans

Hard Times is a 1975 action drama sport film co-written and directed by Walter Hill in his directorial debut. It stars Charles Bronson as Chaney, a mysterious drifter freighthopping through Louisiana during the Great Depression, who proves indomitable in illegal bare-knuckled boxing matches after forming a partnership with the garrulous hustler Speed, played by James Coburn.

Production

In the early 1970s Walter Hill had developed a strong reputation as a screenwriter, particularly of action films such as The Getaway. He was approached by Larry Gordon when the latter was head of production at AIP, who offered Hill the chance to direct one of his scripts.

Hill wrote and directed for scale even though "the truth is, I would have paid them for the chance."

The project began as an original screenplay by Bryan Gindoff and Bruce Henstell called The Streetfighter.

Hill thought the project could become more "up market" if he made it more like a Western and set it in the past; Gordon was from New Orleans and suggested setting it in that city. Hill says the script incorporated elements of an earlier Western he had written, Lloyd Williams and his Brother (which also had a fighting component). He wrote it in a style inspired by Alexander Jacobs – "extremely spare, almost Haiku style.

Hill wrote one draft, then rewrote it "five or six times before I finally got it. But I did get it and I knew it. I knew it was going to get an actor and get made."

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