Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

theoneheart Fonda plays a cowardly mayor who lets a outlaw rape, kill and burn down his town. He stays to rebuild the town. He pseudo marries a saloon girl the badman raped and traumatized then happily refuses to even pretend to prepare to protect her. When the outlaw returns, he delays action until the badman rapes and kills another saloon girl before he burns down the saloon and kills the town sheriff. When the mass murderer runs out of bullets, Fonda shoots and injures him. Then Fonda arrogantly carries the badman to safety in his wife's home yelling at her for wanting the man who raped her and killed others dead. The injured badman then grabs his wife who calls to their adopted son for help. When the son attempts to shoot this mass murderer who also killed his father, Fonda knocks the boy down to protect the badman causing the boy to shoot and kill his mother. Is Fonda the villain and the boy devastated after killing his mother? No! We learn the town is saved by the payroll and Fonda and his adopted son live happily ever after. Fonda and the other characters performed well. The writers definition of heroism left much to be desired.

vitaleralphlouis Like most other reviewers, I hated this movie. Despite MGM providing their usual excellent photography, a fine director, and a solid cast of usually good actors, the movie is one of the worst ever. The entire blame lies with author E. K. Doctorow, a Columbia University trained empty-head who knows exactly nothing about the west, as he knew nothing about New York when he wrote "Ragtime." Henry Fonda plays the cowardly sheriff, and his face well-reflects his self-hatred. When super-bad-guy Aldo Ray comes to town the rapes and murders (as well as his bad grooming and body odor) are not interfered with, and he sets fire to the town in disgust.As Fonda sifts through the ashes, a wagon-load of prostitutes rolls into town and sets up shop in the isolated and desolate town -- instead of watering the horses and moving on. Everybody hangs around for a while, until the super-bad-guy returns. Then the cowardice continues in full bloom.(BIG spoiler) Fonda, the film's alleged hero, persists with his interference to protect the murderer-rapist-bad-smeller, and manages to get his best friend and a town businessman, both needlessly killed. BUT THEN... but then, Fonda catches Mr. Bad with his pistol empty, and shoots 5 bullets into him. Not quite dead, Mr. Bad rises up, and as Fonda's stepson tries to blast Mr. Bad,Fonda interferes and the bullet hits and kills Fonda's wife. Just beautiful! This awful movie has just recently re-surfaced on DVD along with about a dozen fine MGM westerns. This is the rotten apple. Please don't buy it.

qormi Ranks as one of the worst westerns ever. A fat madman comes into town and starts raping and killing people. As if that weren't enough, he decides to burn down the whole town. All the male citizens of this town of around 20 people are armed. They don't have to fight the guy. They don't have to argue with the guy. They don't have to reason with him. All they have to do is shoot him. He's constantly breaking the tops off whiskey bottles and guzzling enough booze to kill a horse from alcohol poisoning. Yet his vision is perfect - he shoots straight.He jumps on and off his horse in his inebriated state. All they have to do is shoot him. He is alone. He turns around. He bends over. Shoot him. What's wrong with these people? They let him do whatever he wants. It's insane. It's as if Custer and the 7th Calvary stood around while one Indian shoots and scalps them one at a time. This is how the movie begins. Then, he rides away.The next hour is filled with commiserating, arguing, and preaching. Then, he returns and rapes, kills, and burns again. Nobody does anything until it's too late. Do not watch this movie unless you are in a hospital, comatose, and cannot use the remote control.

joekiddlouischama "Welcome to Hard Times" (Burt Kennedy, 1967) is a visibly cheap, shabby little Western starring Henry Fonda in his senior stage as a movie star. The film reflects the anarchic dissonance and harsh violence of the newfangled "spaghetti" Westerns then pouring out of Europe, but ultimately its sensibility and construction belong to television. It's a traditional Western (partly comedic and partly melodramatic) that plays like a bunch of TV Western episodes pasted together in slack fashion, while also projecting some of that "spaghetti" dirtiness and desolation. The 61-year old Fonda (playing a 49-year old but looking his real age) is excellent as a wary, avuncular, impotent realist who shies away from violence and heroic action until he has no other choice. Janice Rule, as Fonda's testily neurotic and misguided female antagonist, is also stellar, as is Aldo Ray as the wildly destructive stranger, an anarchic monster periodically haunting this muddy little outpost (which can hardly be considered a town). Unfortunately, these actors are diamonds in dung in a tonally inconsistent, unfocused, and clumsy little Western from Kennedy. The spastic, sudden violence of the opening and closing acts, and the conflict between Fonda and Rule over the fate of the young boy (played by 13-year old Michael Shea), make "Welcome to Hard Times" worthy of a look. However, the picture isn't pretty.