Hardcore (1979)

Nobody makes it. Nobody shows it. Nobody sees it. It's like it doesn't even exist.

Hardcore is written and directed by Paul Schrader and stars George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent and Leonard Gaines. Music is by Jack Nitzsche and cinematography by Michael Chapman.

Plot has Scott as a Michigan businessman whose daughter disappears after a church group trip to California. Venturing out to California in search of her, he hires a sleazy private investigator (Boyle) and quickly finds that his daughter has fallen into the seedy X-Rated world of pornography.

It's a very mixed bag, one minute it's over the top with unbelievable scenarios, the next it's potent, impressive and heart breaking. The battle between religious faith and the sins of the flesh is loud and broad, which does however give the pic its intellectual stimulation, something which one feels fights off the charges of this being exploitation trash.

There's also the noir angles to savour for the so inclined, the trawl through a seedy underworld inhabited by deviants and damaged waifs is riveting by way of the portrayals. Scott's character also has classic noir tendencies, he goes from homely religious business man to the point where he has to become one of the venal to find the answers he so desperately needs.

Behind the scenes thigs were not the best, with the usual artistic differences bubbling away, and this is never more evident then with the weak finale. It reeks of a compromise, a failure to really drive a stake through the hearts of the viewers. The promised horror never arrives, a true classic noir finale jettisoned in favour of candy coated heroics. Shame that, but this is still a fascinating and powerful pic. 7/10

George C. Scott makes good with his rather uncharacteristic performance, here. He’s the upstanding businessman “Van Dorn” who is shocked at the sudden disappearance of his teenage daughter. He hires “Mast” (Peter Boyle) to track her down and though he doesn’t find her, he does find some disturbing evidence for her dad that she is starring in some cheap porn movies. Determined to track her down and fetch her back, he tries to glean information from some sex workers by showing them photos and asking questions. They think he’s a cop so clam up, so he concludes a different tack is going to be needed. He dons a gold chain, a fake moustache and sets himself up as a producer in the hope that he can find either his daughter “Kristen” or her “co-star”. Aside from being one of Scott”a stronger efforts, this gritty and realistic looking drama also offers Boyle a chance to shine and he takes it. His character serves as an effective conduit as we explore the seamier side of Los Angeles in the company of a religious father for whom virtually everything he now encounters shakes his soul and his beliefs to the core whilst simultaneously opening his eyes in an wholly unexpected fashion. It is quite a leisurely paced and dialogue-light affair that I felt worked well as it allowed us to soak up a little more of an industry populated by the seedy, the needy and the greedy - but also by some decent folks down on their luck.