4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, Bruce Willis turns 70. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Bruce Willis Films
Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
Pulp Fiction (1994, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)
12 Monkeys (1995, dir by Terry Gilliam, DP: Roger Pratt)
Last Man Standing (1996, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Lloyd Ahern II)
My personal favorite Charles Bronson movie is HARD TIMES, and this is one of my favorite scenes.
As an appreciation gift for helping him all summer with his many projects, my dad took me to Wal-Mart sometime back in the 80’s and told me I could pick out a movie. Wal-Mart just happened to have a big stack of HARD TIMES videocassettes. I was about 13 years old at the time, and I was already obsessed with Bronson, but I had never seen this movie before. So, dad bought the movie for me and did something he didn’t often do, he sat down and watched it with me when we got back home. This one-punch knockout scene takes place at the very beginning of the movie, and I vividly remember my dad having a nice laugh when the scene occurred. That made me happy, as I was always wanting my family members to watch and enjoy my movies with me. It’s a special memory for me of a great time with my dad and of the very first time I saw HARD TIMES!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
I have a headache and it’s raining outside. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Dystopian Film Noirs
Blade Runner (1982, dir by Ridley Scott, DP: Jordan Cronenweth)
Streets of Fire (1984, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Andrew Laszlo)
Inland Empire (2006, dir by David Lynch, DP: David Lynch)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017, dir by Denis Villeneuve, DP: Roger Deakins)
48 Hrs. begins with a violent and bloody jailbreak. The fearsome Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) helps his criminal associate, Albert Ganz (James Remar), escape from a chain gang and kills several guards in the process. Billy and Ganz then head to San Francisco, where they start killing their former associates while searching for Luther (David Patrick Kelly). Another bloody shootout leaves several detectives dead and SFPD Detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) looking for revenge.
That’s not the way you might expect one of the most famous comedies of the 80s to begin. It’s not until Jack arranges for another associate of of Ganz’s to be released from prison for 48 hours that anything humorous happens in the film. However, because Reggie Hammond is played by Eddie Murphy, 48 Hrs. quickly becomes very funny.
Murphy was appearing on Saturday Night Live when he was cast in 48 Hrs, in a role that was written with Richard Pryor in mind. One of the first things that Murphy requested was that the character’s name be changed from Willie Biggs to Reggie Hammond. Murphy made the role his own and watching him, it’s hard to believe that he was only 21 and also that 48 Hrs was his first film. Murphy performs with the confidence of a natural movie star. He’s good in the film’s most famous scene, where he pretends to be a cop and talks down an entire bar full of rednecks. (I can’t repeat his most famous line but everyone knows it.) But Murphy is even better in the scenes where he’s just reacting to Nolte’s slovenly cop.
The comedy in 48 Hrs comes from the mismatched partnership and initially hostile chemistry of Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond. Cates has a job to do while Reggie, understandably, wants to enjoy as much freedom as he can before he gets sent back to prison. The humor is so effective because it’s almost entirely character-based. There are no gags but there are two well-written characters with differing ways of looking at the world who have to learn how to work with each other. The two of them start out disliking and distrusting each other but ultimately become best friends, even if Jack does punch Reggie and Reggie does keep trying to steal Jack’s lighter. Because this is a Walter Hill movie, there’s still a lot of action. Nolte and Murphy may make you laugh but there’s nothing funny about full-on psycho performances of James Remar and Sonny Landham. 48 Hrs. not only allows Murphy and Nolte to show off their comedic ability but it also allows them to be true action heroes.
Popular with critics and audiences, 48 Hrs. was the most commercially successful film of 1982. It set the standard for most buddy-cop movies to this day and it introduced the world to Eddie Murphy.
In 1897, bounty hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) is hired by wealthy Martin Kidd (Hamish Linklater) to track down Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott), the man who Martin says has kidnapped his wife. Accompanying Max is Alonzo Poe (Warren Burke), who served with Elijah in the Army.
From the start, Max suspects that Martin is not being completely forthright about the kidnapping and it does turn out that Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) voluntarily left with Elijah and is planning on traveling to Cuba with him. Martin has hired crime baron Tiberio Vargas (Benjamin Bratt) to have Rachel raped and murdered because Martin thinks that the tragedy will help him launch his political career. Because Martin suspects that Max might not be trustworthy, he has hired Max’s rival, Joe Cribbens (Willem DaFoe), to track down Rachel as well.
This film has a cast that is full of talented people and it’s a western directed by someone who has proven himself to be one of the masters of genre, Walter Hill. I wanted to like Dead For A Dollar but the movie just didn’t work. Waltz and DaFoe are great actors but they just seem to be going through the motions and Rachel Bsonahan is miscast. Benjamin Bratt and Hamish Linklater are forgettable villains. Even worse, Dead For A Dollar has a washed-out visual style that you would never expect from a director like Walter Hill.
Walter Hill celebrates his 83rd birthday on January 10th, 2025. He has made so many great films in his career, but the one that stands out the most to me is his directorial debut from 1975, HARD TIMES, with Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, and Strother Martin. The film was known as THE STREETFIGHTER in some parts of the world, like England, but due to Sonny Chiba’s “Street Fighter” movie from around the same time, the producers decided to go with HARD TIMES in America.
Here are a few more interesting facts about Hill’s directorial debut:
Chaney (Bronson) was originally supposed to be a much younger man, with Jan-Michael Vincent being considered for the role.
Charles Bronson was 52 years old when he made HARD TIMES. According to Hill, Bronson “was in remarkable physical condition for a guy his age…. He had excellent coordination, and a splendid build. His one problem was that he was a smoker, so he didn’t have a lot of stamina. I mean, he probably could have kicked anybody’s ass on that movie, but he couldn’t fight much longer than 30 or 40 seconds.”
According to Hill, Charles Bronson was easier to work with than James Coburn. Hill would say “Bronson was a very angry guy who didn’t get along with a lot of people. The only reason I can tell you he and I got along well was he respected that I wrote the script. He liked the script. I didn’t try to get close to him. Kept it very business-like. I think he liked that. James Coburn, who everybody liked and got along well with, he and I did not get along well. I think he was not in a good mood about being in a movie with Charlie, it was second banana. He had been up there more, and his career was coming back a bit. I don’t think he was wild about being second banana. But Charlie was a big star… and when things had seemed to not be working well, or there was some impasse, Charlie would come down hard on my side. That was a tipping point”.
Walter Hill thought the project could become more “up market” if he made it more like a Western and set it in the past. Hill incorporated elements of an earlier Western he had written, “Lloyd Williams and his Brother”. He wrote it in a style inspired by Alex Jacobs–“extremely spare, almost Haiku style. Both stage directions and dialogue.”
The settings for the Capcom arcade game Street Fighter are taken right from HARD TIMES. This film is titled “The Street Fighter” in Japan, and the game designer was instructed to take inspiration from this film. He did just that and copied many of them directly.
I’m so thankful for Walter Hill and HARD TIMES. In fact, it’s my all-time favorite film, as well as the first review I ever published for The Shattered Lens.
So, if you like movies like HARD TIMES, THE DRIVER, THE WARRIORS, THE LONG RIDERS, SOUTHERN COMFORT, 48 HRS., EXTREME PREJUDICE, and RED HEAT, join us in celebrating the great director Walter Hill on his 83rd birthday. He has brought me countless hours of joy over the years!
Here’s a trailer from the Masters of Cinema for HARD TIMES…
From 1979’s The Warriors(which was directed by Walter Hill, who celebrates his birthday today), here’s a scene that I love. Playing the role of Cyrus, the man who could bring all of the gangs of New York together, is Roger Hill. Playing the role of his assassin is the great David Patrick Kelly.
Cyrus knew what he was talking about but the world wasn’t ready for him.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, we here at the Shattered Lens wish a happy 83rd birthday to the great director Walter Hill.
Walter Hill is one of those legendary figures who has a devoted cult of fans but it still seems like he’s never quite gotten all of the opportunities and the acclaim that he deserved. Perhaps because so many of his films are considered to be genre pieces, they were often not appreciated until a few years after they were first released. But for film lovers and film students, Walter Hill is one of the most important directors of the past 50 years.
Today, we celebrate with….
4 Shots From 4 Walter Hill Films
The Warriors (1979, directed by Walter Hill, DP: Andrew Laszlo)
Southern Comfort (1981, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Andrew Laszlo)
Streets of Fire (1984, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Andrew Laszlo)
Last Man Standing (1996, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Lloyd Ahern II)
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday December 30th, we’re watching 48 HRS. starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
So why did I pick 48 HRS., you might ask?
It’s quite simply one of the best “Buddy-Cop” action comedies of all time! If you love tough, violent, badass action, as well as laughing your ass off, 48 HRS. is the perfect movie for you.
Eddie Murphy made one of the great film debuts of all time with 48 HRS. After establishing himself as a comic genius on Saturday Night Live with roles like Mr. White, Buckwheat, and Mr. Robinson, Murphy absolutely steals his debut film. Nick Nolte is also great as the tough, grizzled cop, but it’s Murphy’s performance that turned this into a classic.
Walter Hill directed 48 HRS. and he’s one of my favorite directors. My personal favorite film as I type this is Hill’s directorial debut, HARD TIMES (1975), starring legendary tough guy icon, Charles Bronson. Hill has such a great resume of top-notch films including THE DRIVER (1978), THE WARRIORS (1979), THE LONG RIDERS (1980), SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981), CROSSROADS (1986), EXTREME PREJUDICE (1987), and RED HEAT (1988). And 48 HRS. is probably the best of the bunch.
I love the songs in the film. Of course it starts with Eddie Murphy’s rendition of “Roxanne” by The Police. And then you can’t help but want to dance when the BusBoys are singing “The Boys are Back in Town” and “New Shoes.” Heck, I love “Torchy’s Boogie” by Ira Newborn as well, setting the stage for Murphy’s rousting of the redneck bar, one of the movie’s best scenes!
So join us tonight to for #MondayMuggers and watch 48 HRS. It’s on Amazon Prime.
HARD TIMES is probably the best movie that features Charles Bronson in the lead, and it’s my personal favorite movie of all time as of the date of this review. I reserve the right to change this opinion at any time!
Charles Bronson is Chaney, a drifter who’s riding the rails in the south during the great depression. Soon after getting off the train in some unnamed southern town, Chaney comes across an underground “fight” where we first meet Speed, played by the great James Coburn. It seems Speed is the money man for this big lug of a fighter who gets his butt kicked in front of God, the local underground fighting world, a man with horrible teeth, and Chaney. After witnessing this fiasco, Chaney follows Speed to a local restaurant where he apparently waits in the shadows until Speed goes up to the counter to get a refill of oysters and a couple of lemons. I say this because when Speed turns from the counter with his newly filled tray, Chaney is sitting at Speed’s table. I’m surprised that Speed even talks to him because the first thing Chaney does is help himself to an oyster, WITHOUT EVEN ASKING! Even with this breach of etiquette, Speed discusses the fight from earlier in the evening with Chaney, who offers his fighting services to Speed since the “big lug” is clearly not a good investment into the future and who is probably in a hospital overnight dealing with a concussion. Speed is hesitant to accept this offer since Chaney appears to be fairly old (Bronson was 53 when he made the film), but he changes his mind when Chaney offers his last $6 bucks to Speed to bet on him. Cut to Chaney getting his chance to fight. This is a fun scene because his opponent is the same fighter from earlier who kicked the big lug’s butt. The guy even taunts Chaney for being too old. The fight starts and it consists of two hits, Chaney hits the smartass, the smartass hits the ground. Somewhat amazed, Speed takes Chaney to New Orleans, and the two embark on an odyssey together to win fights and make thick wads of cash. The remainder of the film documents that odyssey, although it does take time out for a few “in-betweens.”
HARD TIMES is one of Bronson’s best films, and one of the main reasons why is that it provides a boatload of audience satisfaction. There are many examples of this. First is the scene mentioned above where Chaney takes out the smirking, dismissive fighter who sees our hero as too old. Too old my ass! In another scene, a bunch of unrefined Cajuns out in the boondocks refuse to pay up after Chaney kicks their fighter’s butt. Rather than pay up, the slimy Cajuns pull out a gun and dare Speed and Chaney to come take the money. Our heroes leave at that time, but Chaney convinces them to hang around out in the country for awhile so they can surprise the Cajuns under the cover of darkness at the local honkytonk, which happens to be owned by the head slimy Cajun. Chaney takes the gun, takes the money, and then shoots up the place with the gun, grinning as he saves the last bullet to shoot a mirror he’s looking directly into. It’s a fun scene that ends with Chaney, Speed and the gang speeding off into the night laughing like hyenas! In another scene, Chaney takes on the big, bald-headed, unbeatable fighter Jim Henry (Robert Tessier) in an awesome cage match. Let’s just say Jim Henry thought he was unbeatable and leave it at that. And finally, a competing New Orleans money man (Jim Henry’s guy) just can’t stand that he no longer has the top fighter in town, so he brings in a fighter from Chicago to take on Chaney. I won’t tell you what happens, but it’s some really fun stuff!
The cast of HARD TIMES also elevates the film to top tier status. I’ve already discussed Bronson and Coburn, but Strother Martin and Jill Ireland also add to the joy. Martin plays Poe, Chaney’s drug addict cut man, who dresses up like he could grow up to be Colonel Sanders in his older age. It’s a fun performance that adds a lot to the film. Jill Ireland plays Chaney’s love interest. She’s quite beautiful, but she seems to always be giving Chaney a hard time about what he does for a living. His response is usually to simply leave when she starts that BS. I thinks that’s kind of fun too.
And finally, this was the directorial debut of Walter Hill, the man behind THE WARRIORS, THE DRIVER, THE LONG RIDERS, SOUTHERN COMFORT, 48 HOURS, and RED HEAT. His movie is lean and mean, without a wasted moment that isn’t moving the film along. Hill has crafted a fun movie, filled with great performances. I think it’s one of the most underrated films of the 1970’s!
Through the Shattered Lens 