Misc - Hard Times vs. Fight Club vs. Any Which Way But Loose

V.S. V.S.
This Misc post is a little out of the ordinary for qualityg but I promised some folks I would respond on my blog site.

qualityg got pulled into a discussion over the weekend about movies with bare knuckle fighting. Most of the group spoke of Clint Eastwood in "Every Which Way But Loose" and Brad Pitt in "Fight Club."

Having had two bare-knuckle encounters in a backroom of a cowboy bar in Arizona over 30 years ago I can tell you the best weapon is your head. One, if your opponent is stupid enough to hit the top of your head he will more than likely break his hands and two, use the head butt (in Detroit we call it the Bobo Brazil Coco Butt) when all else fails. I did it once and got disqualified. How and the heck do you get disqualified in that type of fight?

What my movie friends did not mention was the best BN movie of all and that was "Hard Times" with Charles Bronson. Set during the Depression Era in the 30's, Chaney (Bronson) enters New Orleans on a southbound freight train from nowhere. Broke and hungry (looking lean, leathery and mean) he immediately begins to look for a way to make some money doing what he does best, fight. Quickly proving himself to be a man to be reckoned with he hires a local down-on-his-luck gambler and promoter named 'Speed' (James Coburn) to set-up his fights. Dope addict and former med student Poe (Strother Martin) is also hired on as Chaney's "cut-man" and the three are off to make some fast money. What a trio!

Jill Ireland (Bronson's real-life wife) plays Bronson's love interest. As Chaney's reputation grows an eventual showdown looms on the horizon with the toughest, dirtiest fighter in town, Jim Henry (Robert Tessier).

The big money is within reach if Chaney is really as good as he thinks. Great performances by all. Bronson and Coburn are great together (both also appear together in The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape) and Strother Martin is, as always, one of the best character actors in American Films. As for Robert Tessier, well they just don't get any meaner then him. Truly one of the great bad guys of film (i.e., The Longest Yard, The Deep) with the best tattoos. Loved it when he broke Richard Kiel's nose in the longest yard.

Down goes Eastwood, his monkey and Pitt. Bronson in Hard Times is the best by far, check it out.