Harsh Times (David Ayer)

Blown away. Harsh Times is the kind of movie I love. Unpredictable, angry, violent and very, very raw. Ayer is a first time director (He wrote Training Day, of which I'm a big fan) and developed this script at the Sundance Institute in the mid-90's. It's the story of two best friends. Jim played by Christian Bale is a veteran of Afganistan and is seriosly haunted by his past violence. The setup to the film is Bale in full on combat mode mowing down a string of enemy soldiers with wicked machine like precision. Back in LA Jim is attempting to gain employment with the LAPD. He fails to get in after flunking his Psych test. He's hoping to get work so that he can smooth things over with the INS and bring his Mexican girlfriend into the country. His bud Mike is played by Six Feet Under's Freddie Rodriguez (Rico!). Mike is unemployed and and is constantly ribbed by his employed wife for him to hand out resumes and get a job. Instead of doing that Mike and Jim spend their days crusing around the seedier neighbourhoods of LA, drinking, smoking and causing shit. Bale's character is violent and irrational and is constantly getting into scraps along his travels. The blood of combat is still on his hands and haunts him. Ayer commented after the film on the rash of recent vets returning home from over there and snapping. He said that once a week a vet snaps and shoots his wife. He went on a bit of a rant about the institution of the military and that the thought of seeking psychological help to deal with the fact that you've taken the life of another human being is deemed to be wrong and a sign of weakness.... but back to the film. I loved it... The violence is unflinching and "harsh". You get an overall sense of impending doom. That no good will happen of these characters. That they're too far gone and in a downward spiral right down to hell. Past salvation. It touches on themes of friendship (or rather brotherhood?), what it is to be a man, and the aforementioned institutionalized murder; they reward the killing machine and overlook his obvious psychological instability and admitted drug use.

The movie's got a grainy, dirty look (much of it was shot on Super 16mm) which perfectly suits the locale and the roughly hewn characters that inhabit it.

Christian Bale should win an Academy Award for his role in this. Just that good. Bale was listed as the one and only executive producer. According to Ayer, Bale gave up his salary in order to get the film made. And this is coming off of Batman, so he proabably turned down a lot of material in favor of this one. Smart cookie.

Harsh Times is by far the best film I've seen so far at the festival (9 so far) and probably the best film I've seen all year. Curious to see how and if it gets cut prior to its theatrical release. The violence is sure to give the MPAA some NC-17 ammo.

Ayer, Rodriguez and Longoria were on hand for the screening (a world premiere). Ayer was very well spoken in the Q&A. He talked a bit about his South Central LA upbringing (that he remembers walking over brains on the way to school, has seen men shot to death) and the root theme or question of the film. I won't give away the central question to Harsh Times because it reveals something best experienced through the journey of seeing the picture.