Hard Times

Hard Times (1975) is a stripped-down crime drama directed by Walter Hill — watch it online on iFILM. Charles Bronson plays Chaney, a drifter with no backstory and no small talk, who rides a freight train into Depression-era New Orleans and starts fighting bare-knuckle in the streets.

Chaney falls in with a fast-talking promoter named Speed (James Coburn), who books the fights while Chaney does the bleeding. The arrangement collapses when Speed gambles away every dollar they earn and leaves them deep in debt to the wrong people. The only way out is one more bout — against Street, an oversized bruiser nobody has put down yet.

Hill's first feature as director runs 93 minutes and barely wastes a frame. Bronson says almost nothing the entire film, which turns out to be exactly right — his presence does all the work. For anyone who finds most 1970s action films too talky, this one is the cure. Stream Hard Times (1975) on iFILM.