1975 also saw the release of Hill's first feature as a director. "Hard Times" starred James Coburn and Charles Bronson in a depression era tale of a bare knuckle boxer and his manager. Chaney (Charles Bronson) is just one of thousands of Americans out of work because of the Great Depression. Chaney makes his living as a street fighter. Traveling town to town by riding the rails, Chaney takes part in bare knuckle fights staged in railroad yards, factories or saw mills. Speed (James Coburn) is a grifter who makes a buck anyway he can. He makes quite a bit taking bets on these illegal fights. When Chaney destroys a fighter Speed bet on, Speed approaches Chaney about becoming his partner. The independent Chaney wants nothing to do with Speed. Of course they end up working together.

      The episodic film tells the evolution of their relationship. Strother Martin appears as Poe, a rival gangster. The movie also stars Bronson's late wife Jill Ireland. There is little gunplay for a Walter Hill movie, but the film is brutal. The fist fights are long, sweaty, bloody and realistic. The film's richness comes from the screen chemistry between Bronson and Coburn. Charles Bronson has rarely if ever given a bad performance. He has been in a ton of bad movies, but he has always put 150% into his performances. "Hard Times" is one of his best. He is a man of silent virtue, driven to make a living as a fighter because of the chaos that rules the country. Like many a good man, he is driven to violence in order to survive. Coburn has always had a bit of the devil in his eyes. Even when playing a straight role, he brings a bit of the imp into the part. His Speed gives him a chance to shine. He is smarter than most around him. He also has no moral foundation so feels no compunction in separating folks from their money, or gambling away his partner's share of their money. Hill's scripted moral conflict between these two characters gives "Hard Times" its heart. Hill's flare for action provides the spine. "Hard Times" proved to Hollywood that Walter Hill was a double threat. He could write and he could direct. He would later add producing to his resume, but that comes later.

THE DRIVER

1979

THE WARRIORS

Hill sets a comic book tone with the costume design of the various gangs. One gang wears Yankee baseball uniforms and paint their faces blue. There is a roller disco gang, a neo-nazi gang and so forth. The film contains so many great set pieces that it is hard to know where to start.

The most brutal fight comes when the Warriors run across the roller disco gang in a subway restroom. Heads crash into urinals with such force that the viewer wonders how no one was hurt in the production of the movie. The battle in central park against the baseball bat toting 'Furies' is another highlight. There is a girl gang called the 'Lizzies' who's seduction of the Warriors is not unlike the sirens who claimed Ulysses men.

Hill is a director who works with a regular group of actors. David Patrick Kelly and James Remar would both appear in several Hill movies. The cast also included Mercedes Ruehl in an early role. Ms. Ruehl has a great scene with James Remar on a park bench in central park. Michael Beck is stoic as the gang's leader. Singer Dorsey Wright (Hair) is also very good as one of the besieged gang. It is Kelly who stands out in his small slimy role. No one who has seen the movie can forget his hellish whiny voice as he clicks three beer bottles together and shouts "Warriors…come out to play-ay!" over and over again.

The Peckinpah connection would be the way Hill's characters stick together despite their many differences. The Warriors include a Wasp, an African American, a Hispanic and several Italian members. The leader's girlfriend is a Puerto Rican. Such diversity in a gang is almost unheard of in the real world. While there are inter rivalries within the gang, they stick together when threatened from the outside. It is reminiscent of the scene from "The Wild Bunch" when Tector and Lyle (Ben Johnson and Warren Oates) seem on the verge of trying to take over the gang. This "honor among thieves" theme is recurrent in both the works of Peckinpah and Hill.

It was reported that fights broke out in L.A. and New York theaters when the movie opened. The publicity was good for the box-office. Of course the knee-jerk, liberal, inner-child-promoting, boneheads called for the movie to be banned. It wasn't. Long live the first amendment!

THE LONG RIDERS

"The Long Riders" picks up the career of the James gang at it's peak. The episodic storyline covers the train and bank robberies while showing the outlaw's personal lives. What comes across is a portrait of the political climate in post-Civil War Missouri which basically allowed a gang of murderous thieves to be heralded as heroes. The film shows how the Missouri folks who harbored the James gang saw their actions as a continuation of the Civil War. This is a minor point in the film, but it shows the depth of Hill's script. The James gang are also aided by the horrendous tactics of the Pinkerton agency which hounded them. The agents kill the youngest member of the Younger brothers and he wasn't even an outlaw. This goof is compounded when the Pinkertons then blow up the James home killing their little brother and blowing their mother's arm off. It is easy to root for the James boys.

The film follows their exploits through their ill-fated raid on Northfield Minnesota to Jesse's death and Frank's surrender. I give nothing away be revealing the end as this is all readily found in the history books. While there is some dramatic license, the movie is very true to historical fact.

"The Long" Riders" is by far Hill's best work to date. The combination of a great script, excellent cast at the top of their form and Hill's incredible action sequences make "The Long Riders" a must see. The final raid on Northfield takes up a good portion of the movie. This is the first film I recall having the "slow-motion bullet sound effects." Hill's homage to the opening sequence of Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" comes close to surpassing the sequence it honors! As the James and Youngers race wildly up and down the streets amid withering gunfire from the townspeople, the outlaws are hit repeatedly by bullets in a slow motion nightmare. Horrifying and beautiful at the same time, the climatic scene is all the more amazing by the fact that the Younger brothers were in real life shot to ribbons during the raid and survived. (Jay Robert Nash's book "Bloodletters and Badmen" gives an excellent account of the James gang, among other criminals!)

Ry Cooder also deserves a large credit for the film's success. Cooder's original score combined with the authentic period songs evokes the feel of time gone by.

The acting is excellent across the board. David Caradine steals the show though. His Cole Younger is a fearless, loyal and intelligent bandit. With so much star power in a movie it is quite an accomplishment when the viewer only sees the character. All of the actors achieve this, but David Caradine becomes Cole Younger. Stacy Keech, likewise is excellent as the level headed Frank James. James Keech brings the right crazed quality to the off-kilter Jesse James. Dennis Quaid turns in a rare non-heroic performance as Ed Miller, a hot-headed, trigger-happy bad guy who gets bitch slapped out of the gang following the films opening robbery. Hill regular James Remar has a small role as Sam Starr, the Indian husband of Cole Younger's prostitute lover, Belle Starr. The under-rated and under used Pamela Reed is outstanding as Belle. Cole loves her, but can't commit to marry a prostitute. Belle loves Cole but won't let a man tell her how to live her life. She wants Cole to commit to her, but he must accept her as she is. If Cole would, she would gladly give up the life. Their relationship is the most interesting of all the "family stories" which provide the backbeat to the main plot.

The photography has a gritty, authentic looks which adds an even deeper layer to this masterpiece. There is none of the sharp, glossy images found in "Young Guns" or "Tombstone." Instead, Hill and DP Ric Waite Evoke not only period, but climate and emotion through the photographed images. If you only see one movie in this boxed set, "The Long Riders" is the one not to miss.

SOUTHERN COMFORT

Hardin (Powers Booth) is a transfer to the Louisiana guard from Texas. The film opens as Hardin 's observes the men he will be spending the next three days with. Poole (Peter Coyote) is the platoon leader. He is a by the book soldier, as is Casper (Les Lannom) his second in command. There is Coach Bowden (Alan Autry), a gung-ho religious maniac. Reece (Fred Ward) is a greasy red-neck you would expect to see get arrested for dragging a Black man behind his truck down a road in Texas. Spencer (Keith Carradine) is the city boy who procured the above mentioned prostitutes. Spencer is the smartest man in the group, but he has a sarcastic contempt for the Guard as illustrated by his first contact with Hardin. Spencer tells Hardin, "We shoot college students and tear gas (blacks)." "Oh please Mr. Guard's man, no more canisters please," interjects Simms (Franklyn Seales, The Onion Field) is his best Stephen Fetchit tone. "The Louisiana Guard has a long and noble military tradition," ends Spencer's sarcastic tirade. Cribbs (T.K. Carter), a young pot head and Simms are the platoon's two African Americans. The joke with their redneck companions because they are outnumbered. Finally there is Stuckey (Lewis Smith) the platoon's one Hispanic member. Stuckey is friends with the evil Reece. Stuckey is also the soldier who's rash action marks the platoon for death.

Poole leads his men to their appointed rendezvous point. Unfortunately, the river changed course and the men find themselves stranded. They can make a day's hike back to the starting point and start over, or they can "borrow" three canoes they came across at the camp of some Cajun poachers. They take the canoes. Halfway across the river, the Cajuns return. Before the soldiers can turn around to return the canoes, Stuckey opens fire with his .50 caliber machine gun. The Cajuns dive for cover. One thing, the soldier's only have blanks in their weapons. The Cajuns don't think the joke was that funny and they return fire. Poole losses the top of his head. Coach panics and upsets all three canoes in the process. Wet, scarred, angry and leaderless, the platoon washes up on the far side of the river.

The remained of the movie follows the soldiers as they try to find their way out of the swamp alive. The enemy is always out there. One by one, the men will die. Hardin and Spencer bond and struggle to take control of the group away from the good hearted but ultimately clueless Corporal Casper. There is an appearance by the late Brion James as a trapper who's home is blown up by the soldiers and who is then taken prisoner. It saddens me that Mr. James died last year.

Like our men in Vietnam, the soldiers of "Southern Comfort" find themselves in a foreign jungle, following a clueless commander with no support from home. The soldier's motto seems to be "Get me out of here!" One of Hill's best directorial decisions is to not show the Cajuns who stalk the soldiers through the swamp except in fleeting glimpses. Like "Charlie," the Cajuns are in their element, striking with impunity. With the exception of Oliver Stone's "Platoon," I believe "Southern Comfort" captures the Vietnam soldier's experience better than any movie which deals with the subject directly.

The acting is very good. Powers Booth never really attained the stardom I thought he deserved. His Hardin is the moral center of the movie. Booth always appear to have something going on beneath his surface. You believe this Texas good old boy really is a smart and decent man who can be counted on. Keith Carradine appears in yet another Walter Hill movie. I've never seen a bad performance by Mr. Carradine. Them usually likable Fred Ward here is like a walking abscessed tooth. His Reece is a stereotypical Southern redneck. Les Lannom as Corporal Casper reminded me of many folks I knew in the Air Force. He is a straight laced good-natured career man who would get every one killed if he were to lead others into combat. You don't, hell, you can't hate him, but you sure fear his incompetence. Look quick for Hill regular Sonny Landham as one of the homicidal Cajuns.

There are the obvious comparisons to "Deliverance." Weekenders in the woods with riled local yokels after them. "Southern Comfort" isn't as good a film as "Deliverance" but it really is a different kind of movie. I only mention the similarities because many critics have called "Southern Comfort" a "Deliverance" rip-off. I think they missed the point of the movie. Like Hill's "The Driver," "Southern Comfort" is a high octane action movie which also appeals to the intellect.

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Rusty White