He don't talk much, doesn't Charles Bronson. Clint Eastwood, by comparison, is considered a chatterbox. First time director Walter Hill puts Bonson's trademark laconism to very good use in HARD TIMES, probably my favorite Charles Bronson picture. HARD TIMES strays from Bronson's shoot-'em-up formulas, although it does have its share of action sequences. But this film is more a gritty period piece and a low-key character study. Its enigmatic central character plays to Bronson's tight-lipped, no-nonsense persona. Some folks don't think Charles Bronson was much of an actor. But his spare performances always led me to believe there were hidden reserves, something of consequence going on, beneath the inscrutable expression and the lack of loquaciousness. To me, this translated a subtle depth to his characters, that merely by Bronson's weathered presence, a back story is intuited.