Filmed as The Streetfighter but changed to Hard Times in the US to avoid confusion with Sonny Chiba's movie (though still called The Streetfighter in the UK to avoid any raised eyebrows at Bronson trying his hand at Dickens), this is a terrific little movie that never quite got the attention it deserved in the mid-70s. In many ways it's almost a kind of Depression-era Midnight Cowboy with bare-knuckle brawling replacing the sex-for-sale, as James Coburn's ducking and diving street fight promoter teams up with Bronson's drifter and sees his chance at the big time. Naturally it doesn't work out that way, but en route to the inevitable fall debuting director Walter Hill draws a vivid portrait of people trying to survive in brutal times any way they can - with added brutal fights.