{"id":8884,"date":"2024-11-24T10:50:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8884"},"modified":"2024-11-24T10:50:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:50:57","slug":"hardcore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/24\/hardcore\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardcore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hardcore <\/strong>(1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content\/references, graphic nudity, language, violence, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Schrader\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Schrader\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 9, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent, Leonard Gaines, Dave Nichols, Gary Graham, Larry Block, Marc Alaimo, Leslie Ackerman, Charlotte McGinnes, Ilah Davis, Paul Marin, Will Walker, Hal Williams, Bibi Besch, Tracey Walter, Reb Brown, Janet Simpson, Karen Kruer, Ed Begley Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God, that\u2019s my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0That tagline, for Paul Schrader\u2019s 1979 drama Hardcore<\/strong>, has stayed with me for 40 years ever since I first saw it in the newspaper ad for the movie. I was 11 when it came out so of course I wasn\u2019t allowed to see it. I saw it about six years later on cable (February \u201985) and loved it. This story of a devoutly religious father\u2019s search for his missing teenage daughter in the seedy porn underworld of late 70\u2019s California really grabbed me in a way I had never experienced before. I couldn\u2019t put it into words at the time, but I was especially intrigued by the juxtaposition of the conservative Midwest and the sleaze of L.A. and San Francisco. Also, not only is Hardcore<\/strong> about a man\u2019s search for his daughter, it\u2019s also about his faith being tested by a journey into hell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The opening scenes of Hardcore<\/strong> do not prepare you for what\u2019s about to happen to Jake Van Dorn (Scott, Patton), a businessman and strict Calvinist from Grand Rapids, MI. \u201cPrecious Memories\u201d (sung by Susan Raye) plays on the soundtrack over scenes of a town decorated for Christmas and children sledding on a snowy hill. We then enter Van Dorn\u2019s home where he and his family are celebrating Christmas. A deep theological discussion is taking place around a table while an old man in the living room grouses about TV being the domain of the wicked before shutting it off in disgust. Jake carves the turkey before leading his clan in prayer. All at once, we\u2019re given a picture of religious fundamentalism, family togetherness and happiness. A few days later, Jake\u2019s daughter Kristen (the late Davis) leaves with other kids on a church-sponsored trip to a Calvinist convention in California. She disappears shortly after that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jake hops a plane to L.A. where he hires private investigator Andy Mast (Boyle, Young Frankenstein) to track down Kristen. He does so on the advice on the LAPD who have more than their fair share of missing kid cases. He returns to Grand Rapids where he tries to resume his life as normally as possible. After a few months, Mast contacts Jake with the news that he found her. He shows him an explicit 8mm hardcore porno movie starring Kristen. It\u2019s assumed she was kidnapped and forced into it. Mast has no other information as the movie cannot be traced. As he explains it, \u201cNobody made it. Nobody sold it. Nobody sees it. It doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d Jake decides to go to L.A. and look for his daughter himself. Disguised as a porn filmmaker, he eventually comes into contact with Niki (Hubley, Vice Squad), a hooker and sometimes porn actress who agrees to help him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Much like Taxi Driver (written by Schrader), Hardcore<\/strong> takes us into a lurid, sleazy underworld rarely seen by outsiders. Sure, we pass by the adult book stores, peep shows, sex shops and theaters showing XXX movies in seedy parts of town, but how many of us actually go into those places? More than that, how many of us know anybody involved in the dirty goings-on of the porno industry? Schrader goes there and shows us the evils that would tempt all but the strongest in faith.<\/p>\n

\u00a0From the start, it\u2019s fairly clear Jake will not yield to temptation since he apparently has zero interest in sex. He\u2019s clearly repelled by what he sees in the whorehouses and massage parlors. Yet he has to navigate this world if he wants to find his daughter. When it becomes apparent that nobody will talk to him or answer his questions looking and acting like he does (he might be a cop), he dons a disguise and persona in order to elicit information. He runs into some interesting folks like \u201cJism Jim\u201d (Walker, Deathsport), a porn actor who worked with Kristen on the film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Scott gives one of his best all-time performances in Hardcore<\/strong> as a father pushed to the point of sin in order to locate his kid and bring her home. Religion is a subject often explored in Schrader\u2019s films; it most likely stems from his own upbringing in Grand Rapids. In one of the movie\u2019s most interesting scenes, Jake attempts to explain Calvinism to Niki, a practitioner of…. well, something else. Unlike most movie hookers, she\u2019s unusually insightful about her profession and why she does what she does. She\u2019s an intelligent woman in search of a father figure who she thinks she\u2019s found in Jake, the only man she knows not interested in screwing her. Hubley\u2019s performance in Hardcore<\/strong> equals Scott\u2019s. Both of them are fascinating characters. Boyle has some great scenes as the slightly sleazy, street smart PI who understands Jake doesn\u2019t belong here. In a way, he is Jake\u2019s guardian angel, appearing just when Jake needs him most.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Late in the movie, an element of danger is introduced in the form of a snuff filmmaker named Ratan (Avenging Force) who might know something of Kristen\u2019s whereabouts. Some have said that the climax of Hardcore<\/strong> is a cheat, a shortcut to a resolution in which nothing really gets resolved. I beg to differ. Okay, the action-oriented finale may be something of a cop-out, but that doesn\u2019t mean the ending is without impact. Take Jake and Niki\u2019s story arc. Listen to their final conversation. It\u2019s not what\u2019s said but what\u2019s left unsaid, that\u2019s the key to understanding where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In my opinion, Hardcore<\/strong> is an outstanding film in every way. It\u2019s an exploration of religion and faith against a backdrop of sin. One could argue that the sex underworld is Schrader\u2019s version of Sodom and Gomorrah. It could also be argued Jake is a stand-in for Job, a Biblical figure referenced early in the movie, a prefiguring for what\u2019s to come. The locations used by Schrader are sufficiently dark and dirty; nightmarish, neon-lit landscapes inhabited by prostitutes, pimps, creeps and psychos. They\u2019re an excellent contrast to the clean air and wholesomeness of Grand Rapids and its church-going population. This movie will rock and shock you to the core.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Hardcore (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content\/references, graphic nudity, language, violence, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Schrader\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Schrader\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 9, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent, Leonard Gaines, Dave Nichols, Gary Graham, Larry Block, Marc Alaimo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Hardcore-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9085,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions\/9085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}