Harsh Times - Life at the Limit

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Movie
German title Harsh Times - Life at the Limit
Original title Harsh Times
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 111 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director David Ayer
script David Ayer
production David Ayer,
Andrea Sperling
music Graeme Revell
camera Steve Mason
cut Conrad Buff IV
occupation

Harsh Times is a gangster drama from 2005 . The film is the directorial debut of screenwriter David Ayer ( Training Day , The Fast and the Furious ), who financed the film with his own money. Harsh Times premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2005.

action

Honored Soldier Jim Davis receives a job offer with the Department of Homeland Security . Along the way, Jim meets in Los Angeles ( California ) his best friend Mike Alonzo. Mike's longtime friend Sylvia, a young lawyer, is extremely angry with Mike for quitting his job once again. She encourages Jim to help him, and Mike promises he'll get a job. Together with Mike, Jim goes on a holiday tour of South Central in Los Angeles. He meets his ex-girlfriend Marta, but is surprised by her current boyfriend Flaco. Jim beats up Flaco and robbed him, including stealing his pistol .

Before Jim can start his job, he must be tested for drugs. It turns out that he smoked cannabis and caused a massacre in a previous military operation. Nevertheless, he is offered to take action against drug traffickers in Colombia . He now has to decide whether to marry his girlfriend in Mexico or to take the job. He goes to Mexico with Mike and another friend and visits them. There his fiancée confesses to him that she is pregnant by him. The situation escalates and Jim holds a pistol to his girlfriend's head in a delirium. He is no longer under control and the complete escalation can only be averted by intervention from Mike.

The three friends drive back in a hurry. Mike and Jim drop their boyfriend off, and Jim reveals to Mike that he smuggled 20kg of marijuana in the trunk across the border. Another argument ensues. Nevertheless, the two drive together to a dealer to sell the load. Flaco shows up with a revolver and threatens Jim. However, he pulls a gun and shoots all drug dealers present. While trying to escape, Jim is shot by another drug dealer. Badly injured, he asks Mike to give him the coup de grace . Mike can't bring himself to do it at first and hesitates. But when he realizes the severity of Jim's injuries, he finally agrees with a heavy heart.

script

According to David Ayer, the screenplay for Harsh Times was written in 1996. He wrote the script after completing the script for Training Day a year earlier. The script is semi-autobiographical and based on his own experiences. Like the character of Jim (Christian Bale), Ayer grew up in South Central , a borough of LA, and later joined the military. After his discharge from the military, he slipped into petty crime. He managed to get his life back in order while some of his friends were unable to. As such, the character Jim represents a mixture of Ayer's biography and a number of people he knew.

backgrounds

  • Harsh Times was filmed in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita .
  • Christian Bale spent three weeks with gang members, police officers, ex-soldiers and homeland security agents before filming began. Bale originally wanted to take a full eight-week ranger training course, but the schedule didn't leave him enough time, so he only did a one-week crash course.
  • The official film launch in the USA was November 10, 2006. The film grossed approximately 3.3 million US dollars in cinemas in the USA .
  • In Germany the film was released as a “direct-to-DVD” premiere. The rental started on April 16, 2007, the DVD was released on June 29, 2007.

Trivia

Jim's car license plate number: 2GAT123 is also used in many other films including Beverly Hills Cop II , Traffic , Pay It Forward , Mulholland Drive , Two and a Half Men and SWAT (which was also written by David Ayer) see.

Flaco , played by Noel Gugliemi , wears a jacket with a Hector name tag . In The Fast and the Furious , Noel Gugliemi played a character named Hector.

criticism

“Dark city thriller, the lost hero of which is reminiscent of Travis from Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver ; the well-acted directorial debut of a screenwriter experienced in rough city dramas [...]. "

- Lexicon of International Films

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Harsh Times - Life at the Limit . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2007 (PDF; test number: 108 973 V / DVD / UMD).
  2. ↑ Harsh Times - Life at the Limit. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used