Christian Bale Goes Psycho in “Harsh Times”
After serving a brutal tour in Afghanistan, ex-Army Ranger Jim Davis (Christian Bale) has returned to his South Central neighborhood in Los Angeles. He is determined to begin a career in law enforcement and has applied to join the LAPD. While still waiting to get word on whether and when he will start training, he spends his day with his unemployed best friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez), driving around town and stirring up trouble when they are supposed to be job-looking. Mike wants to do the right thing for his caring girlfriend (Eva Longoria) but he is all too easily swayed by his charismatic buddy. It doesn’t take long for Mike to realize that Jim isn’t the same, mellow friend he used to know.
Having written Training Day, it is no surprise that director David Ayer’s first feature film bears some resemblance with it. However, Harsh Times is much more of a character study of a seriously disturbed man who is on the verge of losing his humanity and the danger he poses to the people around him. Due to his involvement in combat duty, Jim did unspeakable things and now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and drug addiction. The psychological toll is such that he isn’t the same person he used to be. This all become apparent when Jim is rejected by the LAPD and he suddenly goes into a mad fury in the middle of an intersection. From that point on, we know he is a timebomb who is inevitably descending into a frenzied madness that will result in tragic consequences.
Despite all the anger and testosterone apparent in the script, there is a lot more than meets the eyes. Most notably, there is quite a lot of dark humor peppered throughout the movie and a certain sense of inevitable doom as our two characters get further in trouble. There is also an underlying condemnation of the way the military creates killing machines only to release them back in the civilian world, expecting them to readjust. There is some issues with the movie, most notably unsubtle dialogue as well as pacing issues that cause the movie to wander aimlessly for the first half hour. Yet, one has to admire Ayer for sticking to his vision of how his movie should be.
The main reason to watch Harsh Times is for Christian Bale’s mesmerizing performance. Jim is an unstable, unlikable character yet it is impossible to take your eyes off him. While he shares about as much screen time as his sidekick Freddie Rodriguez who actually is the main character, there is no doubt that Bale completely blows him out of the screen with an intensely edgy, volatile and nearly unpredictable turn. He adds a lot of depth to his character simply by showing us flashes of who Jim used to be before he went to Afghanistan. The actor has always been incredibly committed to his roles and this isn’t an exception as he goes to some very dark places here.
“You’re crazy and you’re dangerous and my biggest nightmare is you with a fucking badge!”
Freddie Rodriguez has the difficult role of playing off Bale’s flashy portrayal and he does a commendable job of demonstrating why his character is even hanging out with a bad apple like Jim. Mike is a bit of a childish slacker but he realizes that he has to mature, which makes him more and more sympathetic as the movie unfolds. In a supporting turn, Eva Longoria is quite good as Mike’s girlfriend, a lawyer who has obviously outgrown him. J.K. Simmons plays a Homeland Security recruiter who knows all too well a near-psychotic individual like Jim would be a perfect special agent for some shock and awe operations. Additionally, the likable Terry Crews appears in a funny cameo that provides the movie with some much needed comic relief.
Dark and intense, Harsh Times is worth watching if only for an absolutely fascinating performance from Christian Bale.
B
(7/10)
Notes: Rated R for strong violence, language and drug use, 116 minutes.
Have you seen Harsh Times? What are your thoughts on it? Let it be known below!
20 Comments
I liked Bale well enough in this, but on the whole the film didn’t do much for me. At times I felt as if it wasn’t entirely sure what it wanted to do/be and would settle for over the top melodrama. However, you can’t do better than the much coveted Bale Crazy Eyes.
I agree that the movie felt like it was going nowhere at times but overall, I really quite enjoyed the characters.
Bale and Rodriguez give enough depth to their performances so that you end up caring about them. At least I did in part.
Ending was predictable but you do wish Bale could escape his, well I don’t want to call it destiny, but he certainly could have chose a different path. I wouldn’t call this forgettable but it’s not top shelf Bale. I still question why he took the role in the first place. Maybe Bale was led to believe a morally corrupt cop was that decades key to Oscar gold as witnessed by Denzel’s Oscar win for Training Day (he did not deserve imo)
Still, I always say that a movie might be bad but Bale never does a bad job…then again Castor, you cast him in Troll 3. That could totally defunk my saying;)
I saw this a while ago. Now, while i am generally not one to label movies as “misogynistic”…but this movie did leave me with that feeling, mainly because it felt like all the female characters were pretty much screwed over in the end, and i remember Jim and his friends talking about being real me or something like that.
But then again, maybe that’s just me.
*real men*
Ummm… I didn’t really feel that way. Obviously, it’s a buddy movie so the female characters are peripheral. Eva Longoria’s character is basically the only adult in the movie while Jim and Mike are really boys being boys so I don’t see how she is portrayed negatively.
Well i figured most people would disagree with me, but that was just my honest opinion
It’s been about a year since I saw HARSH TIMES, but frankly, the movie was a bit of a bore. Glad you got more out of it then I did, but all I really remember is Christian Bale saying “fuck” and “motherfucker” every twenty seconds either yelling it or mumbling it.
And you forgot “dog”, dog
Got some lettuce for me homey? ahha
This one was forgettable for me.
“Committed” is the perfect word to describe Bale as an actor. He always gives the material his full attention, unfortunately the material here was not of the best stuff.
Though I like Bale and respect his work, I don’t think I can bring myself to see this. I’ve often wished I hadn’t seen American Psycho despite some of the amusing scenes, but all the swearing and well, psychotic elements of this movie just won’t sit well with me. I’m still hoping for a more mellow performance out of Bale like he did in A New World.
You aren’t a true Christian Bale fan!!!
Ha..ha… I guess there is a limit to what a ‘fan’ can endure. But then again, I’ve skipped a few of GB movies too, i.e. GAMER. I’ll probably watch this one before I even touch that stinker.
Talk about synergy, I just finished watching this an hour ago. I certainly didn’t like it though. The thing that bothered me most was the stilted dialogue between two guys who are suppose to be best friends. It’s all “dude” and “homie” and “dawg” and the two actors did not seem natural saying any of it, so right away I did not buy their relationship.
But Bale does a good job overall.
The dialogue bugged me at first but I got used to it after a while. Certainly, it is unusual ghetto-type language but we all know there is inner-city people out there who talk like that so I didn’t feel it was completely made up of nowhere.
This was a film that got much worse the second time around, but I still loved Bale going batshit crazy the final act. It’s worth watching because of Bale alone. Few actors out demand that every single one of their movies be watched, no matter how small that movie may be, and Bale is one of them.
Sounds like Bale may be the only really good thing about the flick. I can’t really think of a film I’ve seen with him in it that I didn’t enjoy though and it’s usually because of his performance.
Exactly! He is so much fun to watch you really can’t lose from giving it a shot.
I remember not liking this much at all, and thinking that Bale’s character and performance was out-of-control and incredibly unrealistic. I could give it another shot though!
Haven’t seen it but it totally feels lika Training Day (thought of it before you mentioned the connection) meets Falling Down.
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