Hard Country

In the current days of CGI, it is rare to see movies like this nowadays!! This is a gritty, blue collar love-story with a lot of heart. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this story - the country bars, the little apartment, the mobile-home lot, the fence factory. It's gritty and real- the dust, the wind, the empty Texas roads. Kim Basinger is truly delightful as Jodie. She's all charm, with her Georgia drawl in full swing. I am a huge Jan Michael Vincent fan, and this is one of his best roles! It's nice to see him in a more adult role. The heavy drinker side of his character comes naturally - obviously! But Jan always had a great underlying angst in all his characters. He always has a detached, macho pathos which he conveys with those eyes - just makes him fascinating to watch. He has great chemistry with Kim Basinger in this. He struggles with his job, his sleazy brother, his drinking, and Jodie's willfulness. It's a great role for him! This is a MUST SEE for any Jan or Kim fans out there!

This has been one of my favorites. Kim is so innocent and probably at her most beautiful. this is just a feel good movie, you dont have to think about the plot just sit back and watch and enjoy the simple life of Texas and their dreams of being somewhere else.

This was filmed in Bakersfield. I was a cowboy extra in the bar scenes. We drank Lone Star beer until they ran out and would only let us pretend to drink when film was in the camera LOL. A good friend was the stand in for Kim Basinger. Made $70/day and had a ball. Because of this I have a Kevin Bacon number of 2! How many can say that? When not in the scene we all played poker in a tent and got pretty wasted on that Lone Star. They fed us if we worked over 6 hours I think. Good sack lunches. One take was at night and was a blast. They used the Basque Club on South Union to film in. They had it all decorated like a Texas honky tonk bar which was the setting of the movie. One scene was shot in a small restaurant in town. I went to see it but discovered I was on the cutting room floor.

Telephone operator in small Texas town has dreams of being a stewardess and training in California, but her live-in boyfriend from down at the wire-producing factory hasn't any ambitions other than getting a raise. One might be tempted to call this fake-mercurial, fake-country-&-western drama an "Urban Cowboy" knock-off, though both films were in production at about the same time ("Hard Country" was shelved for a year before finally seeing a release in April 1981). The exaggerated Texas accents and segues to the local watering hole (where Tanya Tucker performs as a hometown girl who made good) are excruciating, though the picture did give us the feature film debut of fresh-faced Kim Basinger and she's attractive (and shares a funny scene with newcomer Daryl Hannah as her younger sister). Jan-Michael Vincent, on the other hand, is a washout; the actor no longer possesses the boyish appeal from just a few years prior, now looking dazed and ragged (nine years older than Basinger, Vincent doesn't convince as the kind of man she'd want to settle down with). Director David Greene has a good sense of how fast scenes should play, and his opening at the factory is surprisingly detailed, but this screenplay by Michael Martin Murphey (who also sings) and Michael Kane is just not that interesting. *1/2 from ****

This over-long Texas flick tries hard but unfortunately is rather dull in stretches. Very predictable ending. Basinger acquits herself well in her debut. There are a few nice moments and the Texas backdrop is pleasant enough. A lack of strong direction and drive and not enough charisma on the part of Jan-Michael Vincent are what cause the film to suffer.