Hard Times (1)

Bare Knuckles Boxing Movie Review: Hard Times Starring Charles Bronson, Historical Commentary by Ring Historian Henry Hascup

By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent

Set in 1933 New Orleans, Louisiana during The Great Depression, the 1975 boxing film Hard Times stars the late movie tough guy Charles Bronson as a drifter who fights illegal bare knuckles boxing matches for a stake in the bettor’s money at various odds.

Hard Times Boxing Movie 1975

93 Minutes on YouTube, Columbia Pictures, Starring Charles Bronson and James Coburn

With the Bayou, riverboats, casino, and a high stakes gambling society in the worst of economic times, Chaney (Bronson), managed by ‘Speed’ (the late Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do practitioner James Coburn), and backed up by medical school dropout cutman Poe (portrayed by Strother Martin).

The best part of the film are the two classic fight scenes between Chaney and bald headed street fighter Jim Henry (Robert Tessier), banked rolled by wealth entrepreneur Chick Gandil (Michael McGuire). A 3000 dollar loan sets up the fight at odds of three to one, and Chaney knockouts out Henry and wins the money for his ‘corner’.

‘Speed’ is a sort of modern day Colonel Tom Parker, successfully promoting and moving his fighter, taking high risks while also gambling his stake of the money and losing big time. Gandil kidnaps Speed for the money he owes, and forces Chaney to fight a black leather coat street fighter from Chicago named Street (Nick Dimitri). Not only must Chaney fight Street for Speed’s life and his own, all of Chaney’s winnings are at stake.

Chaney knocks out Speed after a long prolonged drawn out fight seems only by the principals, and gives Speed and Poe a generous share of the winnings. After a short car ride, Chaney leaves the car and bids goodbye, and walks alone with his bag along the railroad tracks into the darkness, explaining to his manager Speed “I’m headed North,” as the film ends.

The film also features an affair between Bronson and a lonely married woman whose husband is in prison, Lucy Simpson (played by Bronson’s real life wife Jill Ireland), including an irrelevant caring interaction between Bronson and the woman’s cat.

While directed well by Walter Hill (directorial debut), and produced by Lawrence Gordon, who also wrote the screenplay, in historical terms its sparkling accuracy is offset by only a having only a few fight scenes which are not enough. The drawback is the film needs more fighting and more action to sustain the modern boxing audience on cable and television, which has a taste for violence and blood. Hard Times the movie reached the box office one year before Rocky with Sylvester Stallone, which caused Hard Times to be forgotten.

Bronson, a smoker, was 52 years old at the time of filming, and was in remarkable physical condition for his age. However, Bronson’s smoking habit meant he could only do fight scenes for 30 to 40 seconds a clip before getting tired. Bronson received close to a million dollars for his starring role. Coburn, got sub billing to Bronson, and didn’t like playing second fiddle. The movie made money. While the film’s message was a powerful statement about the hungry, hard economic times of The Great Depression in the United States, it was not of the brutal description the late film critic Roger Ebert gave it.

More recently, bare knuckles boxing, which predated the Marquis De Queensbury rules, has been making an organized comeback for world titles in professional boxing circles.
Famed New Jersey boxing historian and ring announcer Henry Hascup was contacted, and added historical commentary on the bare knuckles of today versus long ago.

Accordsing to Hascup “Today’s bare knuckles boxing put the sport back on the map. People like boxing, but they like action, they like blood. MMA gives you blood, and of course bare knuckles boxing gives you more blood than anything. People like blood. Years ago in the wrestling circuit, ‘red’ meant ‘green’ meaning you made more money. MMA came along about 20 years ago and people liked it because there wasn’t any rules in it. Then Nick Lembo came along and put some rules into MMA, along with Larry Hazard, and they transformed MMA and made it more civilized. That’s why MMA is booming today. People don’t get that hurt in it. (However) People want that bare knuckles stuff. People like that blood. People go to car racing to see the accidents.”

Regarding the hard Times movie with Bronson, Hascup remembered it. “I haven’t seen that pictures in years. Bronson fought the bald guy bare knuckles. I liked it. I always liked Charles Bronson, I’m a movie buff. Bare knuckles is making a comeback and may get more support as it goes along, just like MMA does. MMA didn’t have much of a following in the beginning, (then) a couple of networks picked it up, and (now) it’s moving.”

Regarding bare knuckles boxing back in the pioneer era of boxing which ended in the late 1800’s, Hascup explained “Bare knuckles boxing ended with John L. Sullivan. He was the last bare knuckles heavyweight champion before the sport of bare knuckles boxing restarted a couple of years ago, over a hundred years later. Sullivan was popular back in the 1800’s, when they didn’t use gloves and (the two boxers) slugged it out. The Marquis De Queensbury rules started in the 1860s. With the London rules, if you knocked a guy down, the round ended and you got a 30 second rest. The first rules at the time of boxer Jim Figg was just fight till the guy was done. John L. Sullivan fought Jack Kilrain bare knuckles for 75 rounds, and knocked Kilrain out under the London rules. Sullivan won another bare knuckles title before that with Paddy Ryan several years before.”

BoxRec lists only gloved professional bouts. Cyber Boxing Zone online has the complete list of John L. Sullivan’s bare knuckles and gloves bouts and exhibitions, and can be found at

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chromeinstant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=john%20L%20sullivan%20cyber%20boxing%20zone

 

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