Hardcore (1979)

Long before pornography of every kind was but a thumb-swipe away, the industry was defined as scuzzy video stores and grimy peep shows; low-budget productions headed by open-shirted, bling-covered gangsters who were out to make a fast buck. Written and directed by Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader, Hardcore, also known as The Hardcore Life, forces its God-fearing hero into a repulsive world of sleaze, prostitution, and, most ridiculously, murder. Now almost 40 years old, Hardcore's portrayal of an industry that can now be discussed without such social stigma attached has certainly dated, but still packs a punch thanks to a terrific central performance.Dutch Calvinist Jake Van Dorn (George C. Scott) leads a well- respected life as a prosperous business man in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A single father, he lives alone with his daughter Kristen (Ilah Davis) and surrounds himself with his Church-going friends, working hard to establish himself as a functioning member of the community. His life is turned upside down when he gets a phone call informing him that Kristen has gone missing during a school trip. Receiving little help from the police, Jake hires private investigator Andy Mast (Peter Boyle), who quickly spots the young girl's face in a low-budget porn film. Feeling that Andy isn't quite up for the job, Jake immerses himself in the industry in the hope of finding clues to his daughter's location, posing as an amateur director looking to get a new project off the ground.Hardcore has a lot going for it, especially the central performance from Scott, whose reaction to seeing his daughter defiled on film is one of the film's most powerful moments. Schrader's script tries to unravel Jake's character slowly as he digs deeper into this unknown world, but the subtle, interesting hints spotted throughout are left frustratingly unexplored. Essentially a film of clashing morals, Schrader does a good job capturing the grimy look and feel of sticky-walled private screening-rooms and poorly-disguised brothels, bringing the two worlds together in Jake's relationship with hooker Niki (Season Hubley). Taking its themes very seriously, this is a bold and honest piece of work that sadly falls apart during the climax, where it seems like a whole new movie begins and ends simultaneously.

Uptight Scott's adolescent daughter goes missing in Los Angeles and he plunges into the world of hardcore porn to try to find her. The musical score by Fred Nitzsche provides him with a reflective companion -- from the quiet, slightly eerie tones of an ancient church organ in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the beginning to the shrill squeal of an electronic guitar in the depraved city.The writer/director Paul Schrader has captured the milieu perfectly at the opening in snowbound Grand Rapids. The Van Dorn family makes good solid furniture. They are earnest Calvinists. There is no corruption. Nothing is going on. The family gets together for Christmas dinner, Mamma serves the turkey, the carefully groomed children laugh, the head of the family says grace, and Normal Rockwell gets the whole scene down on canvas. It's a credible portrait of blissful innocence.When Scott's gawky daughter turns up missing on a church visit to LA, then appears in a skin flick, the movie follows Scott to LA too and it falls apart, killed by the pernicious murk. The whole narrative makes no sense. The police won't help Scott so he begins hanging around with people in the porn industry. He poses as a investor in these schlock movies. I ask you, the discerning viewer, can you believe an upright middle-aged businessman from a strict religious background could don a mustache, a wig, a necklace, and a gaudy shirt, and then pass himself off as an inside man in the skin industry? But that's just one of the movie's problems. Scott enlists the aid of a whore (Season Hubley) and promises to take care of her if she'll guide him through the blue and rose of the neon-tinted underworld. Then at the end, after a weak attempt to give her some money, he abandons her to her fate. Just two sh*ts that passed in the night. What kind of morality is that? And when, finally, he bashes through walls and brains everyone who stands in his way, he finds his daughter shivering with fright in a corner, extends his hand, and says soothingly, "Let's go home." And she lets him have a broadside. She wants to stay here in this living hell with people who love her, because Scott never loved her at home, she was never pretty enough or good enough. There is absolutely no set up for this exchange, no hint of previous discord. That scene of the family Christmas stands in direct contradiction -- everybody dumb but happy.Scott is restrained in the role of anxious, tearful, enraged father. This film seems to have begun a deflation in his career. I don't know what was behind it but after several sterling performances in the 60s, he made a series of movies of lesser interest and then disappeared entirely for a few years before showing up in a few supporting roles.No one else in the cast stands out, but probably Peter Boyle as the cynical, flawed but effective private investigator is the most believable character.Not a total loss. There are some moments of humor. The long-haired skinny young director of a skin flick is proud to be a graduate of UCLA's film school. And there is a keenly observed conversation about predetermination and sex.But it can't make up for scenes like that in which Scott first watches a hardcore movie in which his virginal daughter is gang banged and the camera lingers on George C. Scott's face slowly filling with anguish and then hate until he screams and covers his face. The shot lasts too long. Nobody could carry it off. I hate to use the word, but it all seems "dated." It's less about a man's search for his missing daughter than it is about giving the good folks of Grand Rapids a tour of the odious underworld of Hollywood's porn industry.

This movie shows how insulated people are within their own world views. It also shows how people devalue the world views of others. The storyline of the movie is that a Calvinist man's daughter goes missing in California. The man becomes aware that she has become involved in pornography, and he tries to track her down. The movie shows his awkwardness as he explores the world of pornography and prostitution. The movie really gets interesting when he hires a young woman sex worker to help him in the search. He explains his Calvinist belief in predestination to her, and she responds by saying that it doesn't make any sense. The man responds that "it all makes sense from the inside." In the following scenes, we see how the young woman has a world view that makes sense to her, but is totally alien to the man. The film presents the problems with both the world views of the man and the young woman. It is a gripping journey through moral ambiguity.

This movie starts very slowly, as it portrays sleepy town in mid-west of USA in the first part of the movie. Everything goes slow by its order in this small city and the community is conservative and a bit innocent, unaware of ,,evels'' in outer world. So, what essentially makes the main theme of this movie is the struggle of unspoiled innocence and influences from unknown world in minds of two main characters in movie - father and his daughter.As he (Jake Van Dorn) travels to big San Francisco to find his rebellious daughter, he discovers a hole new world of perversity, depravities and for him, unknown field of underground pornography. Unwillingly, he goes in the middle of the heat, descending, in hope to find out something more about the xxx tape with his kiddo. Everything is hopeless, until he gets to know a prostitute and slimy detective who connect him with people who shot the mentioned movie. On the end, normally, there comes the powerful finale with stubborn Jake confronting ,,the world behind curtain''.In the most part of the movie, the story is going slow and in some moments lethargic. But, this kind of tempo goes in favor to already mentioned furious and interesting unfolding at the end.Who likes simple stories with characters struggling inside, he will probably be satisfied with this underrated drama/thriller.