The 1975 movie that “had the biggest impact” on Mark Wahlberg explains a lot, and not in a good way

The article argues that Mark Wahlberg’s film career has declined since 2017’s *Transformers: The Last Knight*, after a stretch in which he was seen as a dependable leading man. It links his later run of poorly received action films to an early influence: the 1975 Charles Bronson film *Hard Times*, which Wahlberg said made the biggest impact on him.

Wahlberg recalled that his father took him to see *Hard Times* before he was old enough to start school. The film, also starring James Coburn, follows a drifter who earns money through illegal bare-knuckle fights in 1930s America; it reportedly made a $20 million profit. The article presents this connection as an explanation for Wahlberg’s attraction to action films, while its criticism of his recent work is the writer’s opinion.