Hardcore | George C. Scott, Peter Boyle | an investigation in two "hardcore" worlds

Hardcore | George C. Scott, Peter Boyle | Moralists DO make the BEST porn...

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Hardcore

	Hardcore George C. Scott, Peter Boyle Sony Pictures, 1996 average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Although it never achieved the classic status of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver or the greater critical acclaim of his own Blue Collar, Hardcore remains a vital film from the early career of writer-director Paul Schrader. It's a solid companion piece to Taxi Driver (and uses much of the same crew, including cinematographer Michael Chapman), with a similar descent-into-hell storyline. Schrader's strict Calvinist upbringing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, provides the semi-autobiographical launching point for a journey into the dark heart of pornography and prostitution, beginning when a stern, morally upright Calvinist father (George C. Scott) learns that his teenage daughter has vanished during a church-sponsored visit to California. She's a runaway on a rapidly downward spiral, and Scott recruits a sleazy private detective (Peter Boyle) and a sympathetic porno-actress (Season Hubley) to try and find her. Although Schrader's much-criticized ending doesn't ring entirely true, there's much to admire here, from Scott's memorably anguished performance to the vivid authenticity of the film's seedy, threatening locations and the conflicting moral issues raised in an atmosphere of hopeless depravity. As its title suggests, Hardcore is a potent, uncompromising film, definitely not for prudes or underage viewers. --Jeff Shannon

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an investigation in two "hardcore" worlds

In this movie, we see the dichotomy and similarities of people who live "hardcore."

First we see the "hardcore" world of straightlaced Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott.) He lives in a world so structured that everything in his life is alphabetized in his hardcore religious faith. It is such a world that drove away his wife and drove away his daughter to seek warmth in another world equally as hardcore- the sleazy world of the sex industry.

These two worlds collide in the movie "Hardcore." The worlds are completely alien to each other. There is no compromise in either of the worlds. Although the whore Scott befriends and uses (Season Hubley) attempts to draw similarities in these worlds, (Jake feels so little about sex that he dose not even do it and she feels so little about sex that she dose not care who she does it with,) both attiudes are extremely jaded.

You get the feeling of nostalgic timebase in this movie. This was before the videotape and internet sex revolution. This was the times of the smaller church congregations, before the 10,000 seat megachurches. This was before the times when men could see on the satellite television what used to be shown in peepshows and 8 mm films.

lots of symbolism was shown in this film. My favorite example was after the snuff film producer "Rattan" was shot. He stumbles down the sidewalk bleeding to death then smashes his head in a window display of a porn theater. The next window display has a pornographic image, and the writing above it "love act". Could it portray the death of Rattan as a love act in his twisted world?

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Moralists DO make the BEST porn...

I saw this film on TV about 15 years ago. Cable edited a bit here and there, I could tell. But overall, the movie was preserved. I'll have to buy it soon to see it again.

A scathing attack on the recent 'legalization' of pornography when it was made, it ends up being titillating in a disturbing way. And so over the top, it gets funny, even though the subject is anything but.

An overbearingly religious man loses his daughter and then goes into the underworld that swallowed her, trying to hold onto his own soul as he goes through what he percieves as 'hell on earth' or pretty close to it. The film's only flaw is that it showed nothing of the reason why his daughter went from a college student to a dead-end porn actress during a 4 hour tour in NYC. And the Dad was potrayed as being too heroic. I've met his equivilant in RL, at coffeshops. Imagine thinking a pyscho Gacy-like cannibal/homosexual is stalking you, then finding out they are just bible-thumping Christians, then almost wishing they were the former psychotic types as they rave their church of one-one dozen?

Agree or disagree with it, this is an excellent, well acted, well written movie.

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TURN lT 0FF!!!

TURN lT 0FF!!! TURN lT 0FF!!! TURN lT AHHHHHHCH!!! turn it off

starts slow, but worth the wait

After the obligatory DID WE MENTION HE'S RELIGIOUS??? opening of the film with all the typical Norman Rockwell scenery and lots of organ music (actually not bad...kinda tense and creepy), what you have is a pretty well directed (though badly edited) film with some great performances from George C. Scott and Peter Boyle. Season Hubley does a good job for her (short) part of the film, reminding me of Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. Supposedly, the crew of that movie (sans Scorsese) made this one as well, and if so it shows. Replace the (annoying) sax music that pops up constantly in that, replace it with the odd organ music from this and replace the world-weary Travis for an uptight religious guy from the red states and you have the basic idea.

I was expecting it to be at least half as raw as Taxi Driver based on all that, but it's actually closer to a black comedy (okay, except for the snuff film) with Scott delving into the amateur porn industry and getting throw out of a whorehouse. Peter Boyle manages to be sleazy and likeable at the same time, and there's enough 70's style action to keep you interested (since the actual finding of his daughter seems like an afterthought...she's in movie for about ten seconds before she disappears.)

Also...if anyone has seen the Korean movie ''Bad Guy'', this seems like it could have been a big influence on it. B+

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World of Depravity

George Scott's and Susan Hubley's acting are the best part of this movie. However, Scott's acting could have been even more appreciated had the screenplay dealt more with his relationship with his runaway daughter than with his tour of the porno or sleaze world. But instead the movie becomes a detective story of Scott's attempt to find his missing teenage daughter, meeting and dealing with so many sleazeballs and obstacles.

But the real drama of this story was missing-- why did his daughter run away (we needed to SEE the reasons and how they played out) rather than merely hear the old cliche "You never gave me enough affection, therefore, I sought it elsewhere.")

While certainly a good reason, but as it nakedkly stands, it's too simplistic and superficial. So many teenagers run away from home, but many of them don't get involved in pornography and prostitution. There had to be somethimg sadly lacking in her upright Protestant home that would make a "nice" girl like her take such a radical turn. We needed to see what was lacking and how she falsely found it in the porno world to really believe that she did what she did.

Had the author dug deeper into the teenager's personal problems and showed us that rather than showing us so much of what goes on in the sex-for-money world, that would have given us a learning experience--for both fathers and daughters. But the movie, while realistically capturing the horrors of the sex world, remained in the shallows, giving us very little screen time with the runaway to truly know her and her rationale for becoming a porno star. We also needed to see more of that aspect of the father's personality--his indifference, uncaringness toward his daughter--to help us believe that her reason for leaving was justified in terms of what she believed she needed.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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