Harsh Times (2005)

Harsh Times is an American crime film set in South Los Angeles. The film stars Christian Bale & Freddy Rodriguez, and was written and directed by David Ayer. 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 Bale) an ex Army Ranger who was recently honorably discharged and suffering 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. He has a beautiful girlfriend in Mexico who he falls in love with & plans to marry. He then returns to Los Angeles hoping to get into the LAPD , so he can bring Martha over from Mexico & marry her. When he returns to Los Angeles he meets up with his only true friend Mike Alonzo ( Freddy Rodriguez) who at that time was being pressured by his girlfriend Sylvia (Eva Longoria) to find a job. When Jim is refused by the police department, he becomes furious and begins a series of violent actions and finds himself slipping back into his old life of petty crime & his inner demons while dragging his friend Mike along with him. Until he is called by the Federal agency and assigned to work in Colombia. Meanwhile, Mike gets a dream job, making Sylvia happy. Jim invites the weak Mike and their friend Toussant to spend the weekend in Mexico for one last time before he heads to Georgia. After some incidents, Jim returns bringing 20 kg of marijuana to Los Angeles, leading to a tragic end.



It is impossible for me to explain how great this movie is because its one of those shows where you assume you know how its going to go but it takes a very different twist & leaves you astonished. This is definetly one of Christian Bales best performance hands down. The way he fights his inner demons is so realistic that you can for a second forget that he is merely acting. I watched this film a year ago & wasnt able to pay much attention to it. But even then there was somthing about this film that made me want to watch it again. And now a year later i am so glad i took the time to watch this film. Amazing, beautiful, funny, sad, tragic all wrapped up in 116mins. Please do watch this film. You will not regret it.

Memorable Quote :

Jim Davis: Fuck you, God! You ain't got the fuckin' balls to take my ass!

Director :
David Ayer

Actors :
Christian Bale - Jim Davis
Freddy Rodriguez - Mike Alonzo
Eva Longoria - Sylvia


RATE : 8.5\10