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.
Plot summary
Jim Davis (Christian Bale) is an ex-Army Ranger recently honorably discharged from the military due to reasons not mentioned. He suffers from extreme PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) over the killing and horrors of his combat tours in which he took part with a savage aggressiveness towards the enemy. 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); the two consider each other as brothers. Mike's longtime girlfriend, Sylvia (Eva Longoria), a young attorney, is on the warpath over his failure to get a job and she encourages Jim to help Mike hand out resumes since he lost his previous job due to outsourcing. After being denied a position in the Los Angeles Police Department for failing the LAPD psychological profile, Jim decides to get wasted and encourages Mike to join him instead of handing out resumes.
The two go to visit an old girlfriend of Jim's in the hope of Jim getting sex from her, but when her current boyfriend shows up, a fight ensues. Jim is able to get the upper hand and when Mike produces a gun, they subdue the four gangsters 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 away again; getting a friend of theirs to leave another message on Mike's answering machine. They then go to a Mexican bar to try and 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 an 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 as his position will not support this. Meanwhile, Mike gets a job when a company he applies at is now managed by an old friend of his and Jim's.
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 while out the front, Jim is getting impatient. He 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 and accompanies him 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 erratically, threatening to punch Marta 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 at what he is becoming. Seeing his friend's damaged state, Mike agrees to accompany Jim to the deal after all. When they arrive to sell the dope, they realize one of the buyers was the same dealer they had earlier robbed and beaten, the boyfriend of Jim's old flame. Hostility ensues with both Jim and the other gang member pull 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 shotgun; Jim is hit in the back and the side of his face. Jim is consequently paralyzed, whether through trauma to his brain or his spinal cord being severed. He urges Mike to "step up" and shoot him, ending his suffering. Mike does so, and the film ends with him returning to his girlfriend, who was in the process of packing to leave.
Cast
DVD, HD DVD & Blu-Ray release
The DVD 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.
Reaction
The reaction from movie goers and critics were mixed. However, Christian Bale was greatly praised for his portrayal of Jim, the unhinged war veteran.[1]
References
External links
