Harsh Times

By Kate Xian
November 10, 2006

Who would have thought that two Hollywood celebrities would be facing the harsh times of the LA ghettos? Eva Longoria and Christian Bale both find themselves among chaos and mayhem in the mean streets of the LA drug dealing, trigger happy, and money hauling gangsters.

Bale as the only white boy, once-soldier Jim Davis in a crowd of half a dozen hardened Latinos and the occasional African-American is forced to face up to his reckless drug-induced, intoxicated and trigger happy fingered life in David Ayer's Harsh Times. The writer of Training Day makes his directing debut but will it live up to the same raw intensity of his prior trigger happy, drug dealing, money hauling LA cop drama?

Entertainment 6/10

"Sh*&, f&*^, b&*#$s, sh*&, sh*&." If the dialogue used any more curse words in one sentence then I think we've stumbled upon a new language. However real Ayer intended the dialogue to be, there's no escaping the medium that is film. The impossible medium that leaps time and space planes still requires a certain amount of coherency to keep the plot moving forward and the audience interested. The convoluted dialogue that favoured the word "shit" a little too much may have had a stronger impact and intensity if it were scaled back. It is like those people that say thank you way too much - it loses its meaning, sincerity and simply becomes annoying.

Maybe I've just become much too desensitized from the media, but I in fact expected much more violence from a film titled Harsh Times. Maybe it's just me and I'm a little loco. Instead I got a film filled with two grown men driving aimlessly getting high, getting drunk, toting guns, and talking about "bitches." The letter L shaped by my index and thumb come to mind. The film itself moves rather aimlessly without a strong plot and without the violence to keep me awake, the momentum of the film was pretty stagnant.

Almost a walking parody, Harsh Times is a glorified ghettoization of a traumatized soldier but as the story lacks progression, so do the characters. The one message that surfaces from the film is that these people living their life in the ghettos, amongst the drugs, amongst the violence can pull themselves together and make something of themselves. But this message is never fully realized. The characters make it only so far and I left the theatre feeling, what's the point?

Innovation 6/10

Many films today have a certain "look" to it to enhance tone and mood. 21 Grams is a great example of this as each storyline was complimented with a colour tone. Harsh Times similarly has a specific look. Oversaturated colors, with an overall orange tone along with heavy shadows and out of focus shots. I understand the use of cinematography to help aide in the artistic merit of a film and I also understand the use of focus pulls and the ability to draw a viewer's attention to certain parts of a frame through focus. But to bloody well use a completely out of focus scene?? Maybe I am completely loco. Sure Jim and Mike were getting high but somehow I doubt we were supposed to feel like it too…

The heavy shadows were also quite distracting. Most characters were left with barely a recognizable feature and were instead recessed to the background, distancing the audience further and further from the characters. With characters so full of potential of emotional ups and downs, Ayer hasn't succeeded in drawing us in as the shadows keep us from getting to know any of them on a more intimate level.

The story itself has many obvious similarities to Training Day. The drugs, the money, the guns and the corrupt law enforcement are interchangeable. With such an obvious rehashing of old characters and plot, Harsh Times duly deserves its particular score.

Emotional Resonance 5/10

Though Bale in my opinion is a phenomenal actor, I don't believe that Harsh Times illustrated his talent. With no fault on his own part, I believe that Ayer simply did not know where he ultimately wanted Jim to go. There were bouts of sensitivity and aching but simultaneously Jim was also depicted as a self-absorbed, conceited, self-righteous, inconsiderate asshole. The two sides conflicted greatly yet neither came in contact with one another. The ego and id stayed far away from one another and these two varying personalities shared only one characteristic: they inhabited the same body and nothing more. The film Half Nelson on the other hand expertly depicted two varying personalities, the pained crack addict and the talented elementary school teacher, but all the while showing these two sides fight one another for control. This is where character has the ability to draw us in emotionally. We see conflict and not contradictory.

Social Context 6/10

So the ghettos of LA are filled with drugs, dealing, and guns and war can traumatize a soldier. Didn't countless other films tell us this? There wasn't anything hard hitting or new in particular that this film had to say. It may not have been Ayer's intention to write a film with a political message which is perfectly fine, but yet there should ultimately be a goal. If the film didn't focus on a fresh perspective of a corrupt society, or focus on a character drama, or even have a gratuitously violent, oversexed money-making intent, what was the point of the movie? Other than a few laughs of Jim's vinegar shooting, butt clenching polygraph evading escapades, there wasn't more that I've been able to take away. Don't do drugs. Don't enlist in war. Don't drink and drive. Don't shoot people who shoot back. Where haven't we been told this?

Recall 7/10

Unfortunately this film is sticking with me more so for its flaws than it's…um…never mind.

Overall 60%

"You look like a gift-wrapped turd."

Wide Release Date: November 10th, 2006
Running Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Director: David Ayer
Producers: David Ayer and Andrea Sperling
Executive Producer: Christian Bale
Screenplay: David Ayer
Director of Photography: Steve Mason
Editor: Conrad Buff IV
Music: Graeme Revell