![]() ![]() ![]() Part of Bronson's problem was that he looked wrong, spoke wrong and appeared in all the wrong movies to impress the critics - even though cinema audiences could not get enough of his leathery face. It was a dark, accurate view of the lumpen working-class life that Bronson, a coalminer's son, brought bleakly and brilliantly to life. In Hard Times, he superbly played an ageing prizefighter punching valiantly to save his gambling manager, James Coburn, from a Mob beating. The Mechanic, which most critics hated as disgustingly violent, is in fact a cold-hearted, meticulous study of male (homo?) sexuality dramatised in the ambiguous relationship of Bronson, a sybaritic professional killer, and his would-be apprentice and son-figure, Jan-Michael Vincent. But along the way he got better and better, not unlike Burt Lancaster, who also started out with a physique but little acting talent.īronson was shatteringly effective in the low-budget Machine Gun Kelly (l958), and memorable in two under-rated films, The Mechanic (1972) and Hard Times (1975). And he greased up to play more Native American warriors - in Drum Beat (1954), Jubal (1956), Chato's Land (1971), etc - than Iron Eyes Cody. His first break was in You're In The Navy Now (1951), because he could belch on cue. ![]()
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