Dabbling in the same muddied waters as Fight Club, but to much greater effect, David Ayers’ directorial debut (following his testosterone-drenched screenplays for Training Day and Dark Blue) takes us down, down, down into the most disturbing aspects of masculinity and American life.
Pivoting around a thundering performance from Christian Bale, Harsh Times sees the British actor at his most unsettling. And given that his CV includes American Psycho, Batman Begins and The Machinist, that’s very, very unsettling indeed. As Jim, a former Army Ranger who dreams of a job in Homeland Security, Bale spends his days driving around LA drinking, fighting, whoring and smoking dope behind the wheel. Not content with pissing his own life away, he drags old buddy Mike (Rodriguez) down with him by involving him in various misadventures. Together, they’re practically irredeemable. Women only appear in their world as nagging girlfriends (particularly Eva Longoria) or impoverished subservient Mexican girls who will, crucially, Do As They’re Told.
Trawling past poor Latinos and their Angelino equivalents, Harsh Times paints a damning picture of LA, one far removed from the Hollywood experience. Ayers’ primary interest however, is the evil that men do. Their innate capacity for violence is seen as exacerbated by the society around them. Jim, trained as a killer, is very much a product of Bush’s America. Scarred by combat, for him it’s Homeland Security or bust. Without that legitimate outlet for thuggish behaviour, he lashes out at everyone and everything around him. Boys will be boys. Unless, like here, they’re monsters.