posted
I saw this back in the 80s on HBO. His daughter runs away and gets pulled into the porn world.It's pretty graphic from what I remember. Not my cup-o-tea...
- j Posts: 2729 | From: Kansas City, MO "At the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" | Registered: Apr 2007 | Site Updates: 9
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Fairly dark (like most films written by Schrader in the 70's). It's a good one, though strangely forgotten.
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I came across the novelisation of Hardcore in a Bendigo book shop, Bendigo Book Mark. Paul Schrader knows all about George C. Scott's character's religion, Calvinism, as he as well as his brother Leonard grew up in a Calvinist household where most entertainments were proscribed and therefore he didn't get to watch a film until he was an adult.
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I finally acquired this a few months ago. Scott's performance was great, and the missing daughter looked like a 70's version of Mischa Barton for some reason to me. Pretty hard hitting although not as much as Christianne F was for me.
Posts: 4413 | From: Where the streets have no name | Registered: Oct 2002 | Site Updates: 0
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"Hardcore" was just released on Blu-ray this past August.
I first saw parts of this film on network TV back in the '80's - in a heavily edited version, of course. Much later, I saw the whole film on DVD.
The film is both extremely well done & very disturbing. I liked the extreme contrast between the midwestern, seemingly "wholesome" small town Americana & the sleazy, dangerous big city that the Scott character has to unwillingly navigate in order to find his daughter.
My favorite scene is at the end, after the daughter is "rescued" - the prostitute tells Jake van Dorn (Scott) that he needs to leave & go back to his life, and that he doesn't belong there in that "world" (I'm paraphrasing). Very sad, bittersweet ending.
The connection between this film & Taxi Driver are obvious; both films feature young females who have been drawn into the "adult" trade & need to be "rescued". In both cases, it's unclear whether these women would go back to their "normal" lives after being taken away from the sleazy world - or, if they would run away again.
Posts: 400 | Registered: Sep 2016 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
And a bit of CSNY on Hardcore's soundtrack doesn't hurt either !
Anyway, i recently watched Joe (1970) which has some similarities as well.. and all three of these movies (Joe, Taxi Driver and Hardcore) co-star Peter Boyle.
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quote:Anyway, i recently watched Joe (1970) which has some similarities as well.. and all three of these movies (Joe, Taxi Driver and Hardcore) co-star Peter Boyle. [/QB]
"Joe" is a great film! I've seen this on DVD at least once. Though this film is before my time (I was born in the early '70's & wasn't watching many films until the '80's), it's an interesting time capsule into the early '70's.
I.e., it really illustrates the gap between the young "hippies" and the older, conservative middle-aged parents at the time. There was a real division between those two groups during that era.
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posted
"Joe" is a terrific film of its time. It was directed by John G. Avildsen, who directed the first "Rocky" film. "Joe" is rough around the edges and really seedy but makes it points well. Avildsen directed another early 70s film that I like "Cry Uncle!" with Allan Garfield, which is even seedier. I remember seeing it in a Philadelphia grindhouse in the late 70s, not knowing anything about it, and just rubbing my eyes in disbelief when Avildsen's credit came on screen. Good director. Peter Boyle is great as Joe, the hippie-hater.
"Hardcore," also with Boyle, is another deeply depressing film from the 70s. George C. Scott is also pretty terrific, and I remember that it was one of the nastiest, most explicit major studio films of its day. I saw it with some friends in college, and we quoted it for years, for example, "My name is Big D*** Blaque..." and "Ratan, he's into pain..." That "go home, pilgrim" ending, I believe, was Paul Schrader's homage to the John Wayne classic "The Searchers," about not belonging. Well-played for sure.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
Interesting, because the iconic John Wayne western "The Searchers" is also mentioned as being homaged in "Taxi Driver"; specifically Jodie Foster's character re: her being "rescued" from Travis Bickle.
Makes perfect sense, since TD's script was written by Schrader, and TD & Hardcore have a lot of similarities.
[ 25. October 2016, 19:16: Message edited by: Nostalgic for the '80's ]
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posted
I agree. I like Paul Schrader's stuff. He's a fine screenwriter, one of the best.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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