Hardcore

I'm not a big fan of Paul Schrader, but I really dug this film! Personally, I think `Hardcore' is Schrader's best film, as it successfully mixes effective social drama with compelling tension. George C. Scott is truly magnificent as the hardworking, Midwesterner Jake Van Dorn who individually searches for his lost preteen daughter. At first, he cooperates with a private-detective (a very convincing Peter Boyle) who discovers that his offspring is now active in the hardcore porn-industry. Later, Van Dorn forms a partnership with a poor whore who brings him into contact with the right persons in the business. The first hour of this film is really good and works on many levels. Not only does Schrader mixes different social mentalities and religious convictions, he also gives a perfect portrayal of how someone is driven to complete distraction. The sequences in which Van Dorn witnesses his own flesh and blood feature in a sexfilm are truly intense and vindictive. Of course, the pornography shown isn't real (or even explicit) but you can easily imagine what a father's reaction would be. And please keep in mind that the film is now 25 year old and the censorship has changed a lot since then. Unfortunately, Van Dorn's private investigations aren't always credible (Scott dresses up as a stereotypical adult film-director and organises a cast-session) and the ending is rather abrupt and unsatisfying. Nevertheless, `Hardcore' is a dreadfully overlooked film and one of the most efficient thrillers of the late seventies. George C. Scott is truly brilliant and I personally think this was his best period as an actor. A year later, he starred in the unforgettable horror-chiller `The Changeling' and gave away an equally brilliant performance. If you appreciate good thrillers, you have to give `Hardcore' a chance. Highly recommended.

George C. Scott stars in this Paul Schrader vehicle as Jake VanDorn, a man of a different, more simple era whom finds himself thrust into the seamy underbelly of the pornography business after his daughter, Kristen, goes missing. The police are no help and the sleazy private investigator he hires (played superbly by Peter Boyle) is not much better. Jake tries hopelessly to keep his unvarnished soul intact as he looks for his daughter. This is a well-acted, well written, well directed film that kept me riveted...to a point. That point being the horrible studio required cop-out ending that forces the film to tie everything up in a neat little bow at the detriment of what could have otherwise been a classic. Tis a shame.

My Grade: B

Eye Candy: Linda Morell shows her heavy hangers; Season Hubley shows everything; Ilah Davis provides T&A; Gigi Vorgan, Leslie Ackerman, & Serena get topless as well

In short; I did like the movie but still had plenty of problems with it.

The premise of the movie is really good and interesting and also lets this movie sound like it is a great and powerful movie, about some previously unseen and very ugly, dirty things. But the movie just isn't quite it. It never gets confronting or shocking enough and in the long run, the movie fails to make a true emotional or dramatic impact.

That is the real problem with this movie; it's lacking any good emotions and dramatic developments. The search for George C. Scott's daughter just never feels intense enough and he doesn't always make a very desperate or depressed impression at all.

The movie also gives you the feeling it really isn't delving deep enough into things. This could had been an interesting exploration into the darker and ugly side of the porn business but the movie just never quite goes there. You could blame it all on the writing but perhaps you should also blame it a bit on the approach that the movie is taking.

The approach just never makes the movie a real interesting one really. It's lacking a good buildup to certain things and situations, which also causes the movie to fail to make a true great impact with anything.

Some moments are still being made great by George C. Scott's performance. But unfortunately he himself also can't really ever make his character a compelling enough one. He isn't even all that likable and his character is also making some odd and very unlikely choices throughout the entire movie.

There still is plenty to like about this movie. I for instance loved it how it was taking a real typical '70's approach with its film-making, even though not everything about it worked out all that well. And like I also said before, the movie does still definitely has its moments and it besides still remains a original movie to watch, thanks to its main concept and premise.

Definitely good enough but it all had far more potential in it really.

7/10

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This film stars Geoge C Scott as Jake Van Dorn , whose family leads a church-oriented life in their home in Grand Rapid , Michigan . When the church sponsors a youth trip to California , Van Dorn's daughter Kristen (Ilah Davis) is allowed to go . She disappears , so Van Dorn goes to Los Angeles and learns she's now making pornography in California . And there Van Dorn hires a private investigator (Peter Boyle) to find her , and later a prostitute (Season Hubley) ."Oh my God, that's my daughter". ¨Life doesn't always go as planned'' . Forget you ever had a daughter !. ¨There are some doors that should never be opened''. A man chases his daughter in the pornographic underworld !.

A thrilling and strong film about an unsettling father who undertakes a merciless crusade to look for his runaway teenage daughter who's making sex and mags films in California's porno pits , and he'll stop at nothing to get it and at whetever cost. It is rated R , but is closer to a highest rating : x . It results to be a powerful , unflinching glimpse into the dark, bizarre world of the pornography industry. It is rather reminiscent of those old sleazy movies that were advertised as sex-education flicks. As usual in Paul Schrader films , he takes recurring theme of isolation and self-loathing and their effects on the psyche . Stars George C Scott who gives a very good acting as Jake Van Dorn , a businessman from the American heartland who shares strong Calvinist convictions with most of his countrymen when suddenly his teenage daughter is missing from her church youth convention trip to California . He's well accompanied by a good support cast , such as : Peter Boyle , Season Hubley , Dick Sargent , Leonard Gaines, Dave Nichols , Gary Graham, Larry Block, Bibi Besch , Ed Begley Jr , among others.

It contains a strange but emotive at times musical score by Jack Nitzsche composed by meansof synthesizer. As well as evocative and dark cinematography by Michael Chapman. The motion picture was well directed by Paul Schrader , though being really ugly and sordid. Paul has frequently written about characters who are lonely, isolated, surrounded by the seedy side of sex and his roles usually have traumatic and deeply troubled pasts with a propensity for self-destruction which they are constantly trying to escape from . Stablishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, which was consolidated when Martin Scorsese filmed Schrader's script Taxi Driver (1976), written in the early 1970s during a bout of drinking and depression. The success of the film allowed Schrader to start directing his own films, which have been notable for their willingness to take stylistic and thematic risks while still working squarely within the Hollywood system. The most original of his films -which he and many others regard as his best- was the Japanese co-production Mishima (1985) and following a lot of pictures as writer or director such as : Blue collar , Hardcore , Gigolo , Light sleeper , Autofocus , Affliction , Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2012) . Rating : 6.5/10 . Better than average. The pic will appeal to George C. Scott fans.

Paul Schrader's Hardcore features a rare performance that tows the fine line between believable lunacy and cartoonish behavior that never crosses over and subjects itself to the latter. The performance is that of George C. Scott, who plays Jake Van Dorn, a Calvinist businessman working in Michigan and serving as a single-parent to his eighteen-year-old daughter Kristen. While presumably on a church retreat to Bellflower, California, Kristen never arrives at the event, leading Jake to hire a private investigator (Peter Boyle) to try and find her whereabouts. Eventually, the investigator finds an 8mm film of his daughter and two other men around her age; it's clear just from the first frame of the film, which Jake sees at a local seedy theater, his daughter is now a porn star.

Jake loses it, with enough questions, assumptions, judgments, and miscalculations racing through his mind to cripple the psyche of a dozen men. He comes to the conclusion that his daughter had to have been kidnapped to join such an underworld, and becomes dedicated to bringing her back home. He dives into California's sleazy, pornographic underworld, venturing through brothels, adult bookstores, and peep shows to find her, eventually meeting Nikki (Season Hubley), a porn star and hooker.

Hardcore is the classic case of a character being immersed in a world he had no conception of and would've rather gone on pretending as if the world and all of those affected by it never existed. His tunnel-vision, conservative mindset has made it seem that since everything in his own life was perfect and completely free of any trouble, that there's no way anyone else's life could be troubled. He doesn't see problems, therefore none exist.

Jake's rude awakening becomes more alarming with what he has to witness. To many audience members, presuming their braveness to already seek out such a peculiar film, the content in Hardcore isn't particularly jolting, but to Jake, it's some of the most revolting stuff he's seen in his entire life. Consider the discomfort and anxiety felt by Jake as he walks into a low-lit brothel, with pulsating, blood-red lights and wallpaper decorating the rooms and meets a young stripper, with a thick piece of glass separating them. The stripper plants both of her heels on the glass whilst sitting down, exposing her whole body for Jake's pleasure, as they communicate through the glass. Jake is beyond uncomfortable and is simply trying to get his daughter back, but in order to do so, he must subject himself to worlds he never thought could've existed.

This kind of relativism makes for a deeply fascinating film, and in Schrader's screen writing and directing hands, Hardcore beams with life. Schrader includes a barrage of must-have locations for this kind of film, and captures them in a way that adheres to the principles of realism. Never does Schrader seem to go overboard in his depictions of this underworld, nor does he compromise Jake's character by making him unlikable. This is one of the first times I've seen such a close-minded, holier-than-thou, judgmental character on screen that I didn't detest; it's not entirely his fault he's been closeted to his own set of beliefs for so many years. He thought all was well and good.

Scott captures this character so intensely that even his freakouts and mental breakdowns don't feel forced nor over-the-top. Scott eventually learns how to get ahead in this business, at one point going undercover as a director and interviewing male porn stars that could've perhaps had contact with his daughter. These scenes, when Scott dawns a wig, a fake mustache, and shag clothing, are completely transforming for his character, and we see a man's own personal ethics and values degrade throughout the entire film, in a slowburn fashion.

Hardcore sizzles on screen, creating characters that exist, a fascinating underworld captured in details rather than in essences, and an impending sense of dread as time marches on and Jake's daughter's fate becomes more and more questionable. Much has been made about the finale, which is said to have been taken over by cautious studio executives rather than accurately reflecting the original vision of Schrader. For me, it works as a way to simmer down the film's explosiveness that it carries throughout, especially towards the end, as things intensify. The bittersweetness of the entire affair, in addition, compliments the film's nature of nothing ever totally being right or in place; not even in the beginning, as Jake is still so deeply lost in his own mannerisms.

Starring: George C. Scott, Season Aubrey, and Peter Boyle. Directed by: Paul Schrader.