Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

LeonLouisRicci Everything about this Movie is Wrong and it had the Unfortunate Bad Timing of being Produced in one of the Most Transitional Periods in Cinematic History. Everything was Changing and the Times were Certainly Hard on Tradition. It also has the Amazing Ability to bring Together both Conservatives and Liberals because this is one Everyone can Dismiss.It is Certainly not a Typical Western, but that isn't the Problem. The Problem is that Unlike the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and the Western's of Sam Peckinpah this one from Director Burt Kennedy and Star Henry Fonda was a Monumental Flop because it is just Bad Entertainment.It's not the Pacifistic Message that is at Fault here, it is the Unrealistic, Frustrating, Flat-Line of the Movie's Unappealing Nature that made this Dead On Arrival both with Critics and at the Box Office. Nothing in the Film is Appealing even in a Visceral, Gritty, Old-West kind of way. It is just Boring.None of the Great Character Actors can Breathe any Life into this Dead Wood and just for another Ridiculous Example of the Film's Clueless Nature, all of the Whores are Gorgeous and have a Beauty Salon Sheen that makes all of Their Scenes seem Surreal. This is a Major Misstep from all Involved and has been Rightfully Forgotten by Fans of the Western.

krocheav I had managed to ride clear of Hard Times for many years, but gave in when TCM screened it this week. Such a pity to see Burt Kennedy's name on this woeful film. Then it's such a pity to see anyones name on this film! Not that the poor quality print TCM have helped any, nor did TCMs awful Automatic Sound Level Control - with all it's unnecessary HISS that comes up during the quite scenes or between spoken dialog! When will they ever correct this, and get it right in Aust...?? From some posts, there must be a lot of easily pleased viewers out there. This made for TV Pilot, was not even good enough for TV, let alone Cinema. Just another of those shocking films that helped send MGM to the wolves. The writer of the book must have wanted to 'shoot' the producers after he saw it. This is the type of 'evil' (now called dark) rubbish that copycat film maker Eastwood has re-made endlessly following his Spagetti films...and his are no better than this - just made with more money, and more psycho's!Difficult to find much worth saying about any of it. It wasted: Fonda, Rule, Ray, Spain, and several better than average supporting stars like Fix, Birch, etc. A very good D.O.P. could not even save this trite treatment Such a pity.

romanorum1 A strange man from Bodie (Aldo Ray) rides into a jerkwater town that he proceeds to terrorize. He tortures the local prostitute in a saloon, kills a man who tries to help, clubs the barkeep with a bottle, shoots his own exhausted horse, steals another, kills the owner, etc. He even takes over the town Indian's tepee, drinks his hot coffee directly from the fire pot, and eats his corn off the stalk. The psychopath then burns down the town before he rides away on his stolen horse. All the while the semi-cowardly pacifist lawyer-sheriff (Will Blue = Henry Fonda) sits, then watches, and then works up the courage to get the drop on the sadist or perhaps shoot him in the back. He is not successful, but so aren't the docile town citizens, who number about 15 or 20. Blue has to salvage what's left, and it isn't much. Could the burning town and "Bodie's" savage laughter be symbolic of hell and Satan? There is some rebuilding, but you know the stranger will be back (Don't they always return?). Aldo Ray plays one of the most effective mean roles in western cinema history, i.e. without the need for dialog. His hulking presence is enough. He certainly does a good job in killing off much of the veteran cast in his two town "visits." A movie feature is the double ending, perhaps one of the first for a US Western, and perhaps a prelude to future slasher flicks.There is no way this movie was the real West, which was tamed after all. We know that the old time lawmakers – Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Temple Houston, Charlie Siringo, Pat Garrett, Heck Thomas, Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, and the rest – did what they had to do. And these folks did not die until the 20th century, and Madsen lived to be nearly 100! The law was well-enforced even by the Hollywood cowboys – W.S. Hart (who knew the real West), Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Johnny Mack Brown, Gene Autry, and many others. The typical scenario was like this: First, the bad guy did his dastardly deed and initially got away with the crime. Next, the good guy gathered evidence and was soon hot on his trail. Then came the inevitable result: the hoosegow or Boot Hill. Welcome to Hard Times is thus strange indeed. For not only did it take away the persona of the hero, but it also gave the bad guy an egocentric place in the overall setting. It may even have helped to give rise to the western anti-hero (á la Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and others). This movie was filmed in 1966, but not released until the following year. For a long time the old-style western was never the same except mainly for the Duke's work in the 1960s and 1970s. The genre today has not really come back.This off-beat western is supported by a very competent and incredibly well-stocked supporting cast (although they are mostly wasted). Old timers like Edgar Buchanan, Keenan Wynn, John Anderson, Warren Oates, Denver Pyle, Janis Paige and the rest are always a delight to watch. The cinematography is fine, and the dancing girls are attractive enough. But the movie itself just could not represent the real West!

akrinst It's amazing that Henry Fonda made the fantastic "Once Upon a Time in the West" the same year, or thereabouts, that he made this atrocity. Tonally inept, directed like a school play, with an obnoxious, heavy-handed score, this is an object lesson in how not to make a western. As you probably know by now, an impossibly brutal killer terrorizes a small town but no one has the courage to stand up to him. You'd think they could hand out a few guns and encircle the guy, instead of taking him on one at a time. Various central-casting western types cycle through, brandishing their mustaches and petticoats, and seem to have been left to their own devices on such matters as line readings (Keenan Wynn, in particular, barks his dialog as though dictating it to a sign painter). Ersatz Aaron Copeland music kicks up for interminable montages of town-building. Henry Fonda and Janice Rule have the same argument for two hours until, mercifully, some bloodshed makes the conversation moot. You will mourn the two hours of your life you sacrificed on the altar of this inert flick.