Harsh Times
Encyclopedia
Harsh Times is a 2006 American crime film
set in South Los Angeles
. The film stars Christian Bale
and Freddy Rodriguez
, and was written and directed by David Ayer
, who wrote the script for the Academy Award-winning film Training Day
. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Pictures and Bauer Martinez Entertainment. Ayer says that the film's characters are greatly based on the people he knew when he lived in South Central.
) is an ex-Army Ranger
who suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
. Jim has a Mexican girlfriend, Marta (Tammy Trull
), whom he is determined to marry, and bring into the United States to start a life together. With this in mind, Jim returns to Los Angeles
.
In L.A. he meets up with his best friend Mike Alonzo (Freddy Rodriguez
). Mike's longtime girlfriend, Sylvia (Eva Longoria
), a young attorney, is on the warpath over his failure to get a job (his previous job was outsourced
) and she encourages Jim to help Mike hand out resumes. After being denied a position in the Los Angeles Police Department
for failing the psychological profile, Jim gets drunk with Mike, forgetting all about the resumes.
The two go to visit Jim's ex-girlfriend, hoping for sex, but when her current boyfriend shows up, a fight ensues in which the boyfriend is backed up by a group of friends. Jim is able to get the upper hand and when Mike produces a gun, they subdue the men and rob them of their possessions, including marijuana and a handgun
which they later decide to sell. Jim later leaves messages on Mike's answering machine with several different voices, pretending to be companies responding to his resume. The next day, when Jim goes to visit Mike, he finds Sylvia in a surprisingly good mood due to the callbacks. Jim and Mike end up wasting the day again, getting a friend of theirs to leave another message on Mike's answering machine. They then go to a Mexican bar to try to sell the gun, but leave after their potential buyer is stabbed in the neck and killed. Mike is horrified, but Jim is strangely excited by witnessing death again.
When Mike returns home drunk, Sylvia is furious, so Mike plays back the answering machine
, unaware that his friend didn't hang up early enough and his voice is heard on the tape. Sylvia is enraged and throws Mike out of the house. He goes and stays at Jim's place. Jim gets shortlisted for a position with Homeland Security
, and after cheating on a urine test, it appears that he is going to be given a position. Jim manages to pass the urinalysis test, but subsequently fails a polygraph
test due to a question about his drug use. The only hope left for him is a government agent working out of Colombia
, who appreciates Jim's ability to "get things done"; Jim eventually accepts the position but is warned that he must not get married to a foreigner; his security clearance might be revoked. Meanwhile, Mike gets a job when a company he applies at is now managed by an old friend.
Jim goes to visit Marta along with Mike and another one of their friends, but before they leave, Mike goes to visit Sylvia and tells her that he has a job for real. She calms down and the two make love. Impatient, Jim goes inside and tells Sylvia that Mike is coming to Mexico with him for the weekend, as it is their last chance to hang out. Sylvia is angry and very much against the idea, and so Jim yells at both her and Mike. Mike decides to go with Jim to Mexico.
The trio arrive in Mexico, where they spend a relaxing night and morning the next day, preparing for a big party that night. At the party, Marta reveals that she is pregnant, and Jim responds violently, threatening to punch her in the stomach and shoot her in the head; in the end, this is a result of Jim's severe PTSD.
On the way back, Jim reveals that he is transporting 20 kg of marijuana, much to Mike's chagrin. When Mike protests, Jim pulls a gun on him before breaking down in tears, horrified at what he is becoming. Mike, filled with pity for his friend, agrees to accompany Jim to the deal after all. When they arrive to sell the drugs, they realize one of the buyers was the same man they had earlier robbed and beaten, the boyfriend of Jim's old flame. Hostility ensues with both Jim and the other gang members pulling out guns, resulting in the other man's death. The other members of the buying party present plead for their lives, but Jim kills them without much thought. While escaping in the car, a man from inside the house steps out and shoots at the car with a semi-automatic shotgun; Jim is hit in the back and the side of his face, and consequently paralyzed
. He urges Mike to "step up" and shoot him, ending his suffering. After some hesitation, Mike kills Jim, and the film ends with him returning to Sylvia, who was in the process of packing to leave. They embrace as Mike breaks down over everything.
was released on March 13, 2007 and the HD DVD
on June 12, 2007 by Genius Products
and The Weinstein Company
. The film itself was presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with English language
and Spanish language
Dolby Digital
5.1. Surround tracks. Special features included seven deleted scenes
and a feature length audio commentary
by David Ayer. The HD DVD is presented in 1080p
with a MPEG-4 AVC encoding and has a Dolby TrueHD
track in addition to a Dolby Digital Plus
track for its audio. Additionally, the film was released on Blu-Ray in Germany
by Splendid Entertainment on August 26, 2008. It is presented in 1080p with two DTS-HD 5.1 tracks in English
and German
. Distributor Alliance Atlantis released Harsh Times on Blu-Ray in Canada
roughly a year later on September 15, 2009. Thit edition is presented in a 1080p transfer utilizing the AVC codec, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack in English, and two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English and French
. Most recently, On December 14, 2010, Vivendi Entertainment brought Harsh Times to Blu-ray in the U.S. sporting a new 1080p AVC transfer, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 English soundtrack and standard Dolby Digital 2.0 track in Spanish, and English subtitles. Three extras, previously available on the U.S. DVD, are also included: An audio commentary with writer/director/producer David Ayer
, seven deleted scenes, and a making-of documentary.
, 48% of reviews of the film were positive.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
set in South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South L.A. and formerly South Central Los Angeles, is the official name for a large geographic and cultural portion lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central, and is still widely known...
. The film stars Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
and Freddy Rodriguez
Freddy Rodriguez
Freddy Rodriguez is an American actor known for playing the characters Hector Federico "Rico" Diaz on HBO's Six Feet Under and El Wray in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror...
, and was written and directed by David Ayer
David Ayer
David Ayer is an American screenwriter, film producer and film director.-Early life:David Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois in 1968. He grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager...
, who wrote the script for the Academy Award-winning film Training Day
Training Day
Training Day is a 2001 crime drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by David Ayer, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. The film follows two LAPD narcotics detectives over a 24-hour period in the gang neighborhoods of South and East Los Angeles.The film was a box office success and...
. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Pictures and Bauer Martinez Entertainment. Ayer says that the film's characters are greatly based on the people he knew when he lived in South Central.
Plot
Jim Davis (Christian BaleChristian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
) is an ex-Army Ranger
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
who suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
. Jim has a Mexican girlfriend, Marta (Tammy Trull
Tammy Trull
Tammy Trull is an American actress of Venezuelan and Cuban descent. She made her professional acting debut in the 2002 action-drama film All Night Bodega, playing the role of Venus Castro, a 15 year-old Nuyorican who finds her performance in school suffering due to her hanging out with the wrong...
), whom he is determined to marry, and bring into the United States to start a life together. With this in mind, Jim returns to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
In L.A. he meets up with his best friend Mike Alonzo (Freddy Rodriguez
Freddy Rodriguez
Freddy Rodriguez is an American actor known for playing the characters Hector Federico "Rico" Diaz on HBO's Six Feet Under and El Wray in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror...
). Mike's longtime girlfriend, Sylvia (Eva Longoria
Eva Longoria
Eva Jacqueline Longoria is an American actress, best known for portraying Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives...
), a young attorney, is on the warpath over his failure to get a job (his previous job was outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
) and she encourages Jim to help Mike hand out resumes. After being denied a position in the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
for failing the psychological profile, Jim gets drunk with Mike, forgetting all about the resumes.
The two go to visit Jim's ex-girlfriend, hoping for sex, but when her current boyfriend shows up, a fight ensues in which the boyfriend is backed up by a group of friends. Jim is able to get the upper hand and when Mike produces a gun, they subdue the men and rob them of their possessions, including marijuana and a handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
which they later decide to sell. Jim later leaves messages on Mike's answering machine with several different voices, pretending to be companies responding to his resume. The next day, when Jim goes to visit Mike, he finds Sylvia in a surprisingly good mood due to the callbacks. Jim and Mike end up wasting the day again, getting a friend of theirs to leave another message on Mike's answering machine. They then go to a Mexican bar to try to sell the gun, but leave after their potential buyer is stabbed in the neck and killed. Mike is horrified, but Jim is strangely excited by witnessing death again.
When Mike returns home drunk, Sylvia is furious, so Mike plays back the answering machine
Answering machine
The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...
, unaware that his friend didn't hang up early enough and his voice is heard on the tape. Sylvia is enraged and throws Mike out of the house. He goes and stays at Jim's place. Jim gets shortlisted for a position with Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
, and after cheating on a urine test, it appears that he is going to be given a position. Jim manages to pass the urinalysis test, but subsequently fails a polygraph
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
test due to a question about his drug use. The only hope left for him is a government agent working out of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, who appreciates Jim's ability to "get things done"; Jim eventually accepts the position but is warned that he must not get married to a foreigner; his security clearance might be revoked. Meanwhile, Mike gets a job when a company he applies at is now managed by an old friend.
Jim goes to visit Marta along with Mike and another one of their friends, but before they leave, Mike goes to visit Sylvia and tells her that he has a job for real. She calms down and the two make love. Impatient, Jim goes inside and tells Sylvia that Mike is coming to Mexico with him for the weekend, as it is their last chance to hang out. Sylvia is angry and very much against the idea, and so Jim yells at both her and Mike. Mike decides to go with Jim to Mexico.
The trio arrive in Mexico, where they spend a relaxing night and morning the next day, preparing for a big party that night. At the party, Marta reveals that she is pregnant, and Jim responds violently, threatening to punch her in the stomach and shoot her in the head; in the end, this is a result of Jim's severe PTSD.
On the way back, Jim reveals that he is transporting 20 kg of marijuana, much to Mike's chagrin. When Mike protests, Jim pulls a gun on him before breaking down in tears, horrified at what he is becoming. Mike, filled with pity for his friend, agrees to accompany Jim to the deal after all. When they arrive to sell the drugs, they realize one of the buyers was the same man they had earlier robbed and beaten, the boyfriend of Jim's old flame. Hostility ensues with both Jim and the other gang members pulling out guns, resulting in the other man's death. The other members of the buying party present plead for their lives, but Jim kills them without much thought. While escaping in the car, a man from inside the house steps out and shoots at the car with a semi-automatic shotgun; Jim is hit in the back and the side of his face, and consequently paralyzed
Paralysis
Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...
. He urges Mike to "step up" and shoot him, ending his suffering. After some hesitation, Mike kills Jim, and the film ends with him returning to Sylvia, who was in the process of packing to leave. They embrace as Mike breaks down over everything.
Cast
- Christian BaleChristian BaleChristian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
as Jim Davis - Freddy RodriguezFreddy RodriguezFreddy Rodriguez is an American actor known for playing the characters Hector Federico "Rico" Diaz on HBO's Six Feet Under and El Wray in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror...
as Mike Alonzo - Eva LongoriaEva LongoriaEva Jacqueline Longoria is an American actress, best known for portraying Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives...
as Sylvia - Tammy TrullTammy TrullTammy Trull is an American actress of Venezuelan and Cuban descent. She made her professional acting debut in the 2002 action-drama film All Night Bodega, playing the role of Venus Castro, a 15 year-old Nuyorican who finds her performance in school suffering due to her hanging out with the wrong...
as Marta - Terry CrewsTerry CrewsTerrence Alan "Terry" Crews is an American actor, comedian, voice artist and a former player in the National Football League....
as Darrell - Noel GugliemiNoel GugliemiNoel Gugliemi is an American actor.He was born in Santa Monica, California, to an Italian-American father and a Mexican-American mother. Gugliemi voiced the character of Cortez in the video game 187 Ride or Die. He is most noted for portraying a stereotypical southern Californian Latino gang member...
as Flaco - Chaka Forman as Toussant
- Blue Mesquita as Leo
- Michael Monks as Agent Hollenbreck
- J.K. Simmons as Agent Richards
- Armando RiescoArmando RiescoArmando Riesco is a Puerto Rican film and television actor and voice artist.-Biography:Riesco was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico to Cuban immigrants who resettled there. He was raised in San Juan where he attended Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. Riesco then attended Northwestern University...
as Alex - Emilio RiveraEmilio Rivera-Early life:Rivera was born in San Antonio, Texas of Mexican descent. He is the oldest child of four brothers and three sisters. As a young boy, he and his family moved to Elysian Valley, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.-Acting career:...
as Eddy
Home video release
The DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
was released on March 13, 2007 and the HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
on June 12, 2007 by Genius Products
Genius Products
Genius Products was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States.On December 5, 2005, Genius Products, Inc. announced a distribution joint venture with The Weinstein Company called Genius Products, LLC, with Weinstein holding a 70% stake...
and The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
. The film itself was presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
5.1. Surround tracks. Special features included seven deleted scenes
Deleted Scenes
A deleted scene is a scene removed from or replaced by another scene in the final version of a film or television series.It may also refer to:* "Deleted Scenes", an episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force...
and a feature length audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by David Ayer. The HD DVD is presented in 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
with a MPEG-4 AVC encoding and has a Dolby TrueHD
Dolby TrueHD
Dolby TrueHD is an advanced lossless multi-channel audio codec developed by Dolby Laboratories which is intended primarily for high-definition home-entertainment equipment such as Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. It is the successor to the AC-3 Dolby Digital surround sound codec which was used as the...
track in addition to a Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus is a digital audio compression scheme. It is an incompatible development of the technologies used in the earlier Dolby Digital system. E-AC-3 has a number of improvements aimed at increasing quality at a given bitrate compared with legacy Dolby Digital...
track for its audio. Additionally, the film was released on Blu-Ray in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by Splendid Entertainment on August 26, 2008. It is presented in 1080p with two DTS-HD 5.1 tracks in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Distributor Alliance Atlantis released Harsh Times on Blu-Ray in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
roughly a year later on September 15, 2009. Thit edition is presented in a 1080p transfer utilizing the AVC codec, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack in English, and two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. Most recently, On December 14, 2010, Vivendi Entertainment brought Harsh Times to Blu-ray in the U.S. sporting a new 1080p AVC transfer, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 English soundtrack and standard Dolby Digital 2.0 track in Spanish, and English subtitles. Three extras, previously available on the U.S. DVD, are also included: An audio commentary with writer/director/producer David Ayer
David Ayer
David Ayer is an American screenwriter, film producer and film director.-Early life:David Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois in 1968. He grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager...
, seven deleted scenes, and a making-of documentary.
Reaction
The reaction from audiences and critics were mixed. Christian Bale won praise for his portrayal of Jim. According to Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 48% of reviews of the film were positive.
External links
- David Ayer Interview
- Christian Bale Interview
- About.com (links to several interviews)