Hardcore (Special Edtion) [Blu-ray]

Much, much superior than the Twilight Time release - starting with amazing 4k restoration. The price is right, too.Paul Schrader’s 1979 film Hardcore is an unrelentingly grim but fascinating look at the sordid world of low-budget pornography and prostitution in California. It is not for all tastes, but it has been brought to Blu-ray by U.K. outfit, Indicator/Powerhouse with outstanding picture and sound. All region!An updated/re-imagining of John Ford's The Searchers (also present in Schrader's Taxi Driver script), Paul Schrader’s 1979 film Hardcore is an unrelentingly grim but fascinating look at the sordid world of low-budget pornography and prostitution in California. It is not for all tastes (like any great film, I guess).Jake Van Dorn (George C. Scott) is an upright and uptight businessman in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His theology is Calvinism, his business (custom wood furnishings) is successful, and he lives in a nice but unpretentious house with his teenage daughter, Kristen (Ilah Davis). Shortly after Christmas, Kristen and other members of her church board a bus to attend a Youth Calvinist Convention in Bellflower, California. The youngsters are thrilled to be leaving snowbound and dull Grand Rapids for sunny and exciting California. A few days later, while having dinner with his sister and brother-in-law, Jake receives a devastating phone call from California. Kristen has disappeared while on a group outing to Knott’s Berry Farm.Jake immediately flies to Los Angeles (the first thing he sees is the "Hustler/Think Pink" billboard adjacent to Larry Flynt's monolithic HQ), where the police have little in the way of leads to go on. Kristen was last seen at Knott’s Berry Farm in the company of a young man, but nobody knows his name. The only encouraging news they have for Jake is that there is no evidence that Kristen has been physically harmed. He turns to a sleazy but seemingly competent private investigator, Andy Mast (Peter Boyle, at his sleaziest), who assures Jake that he has a nose for tracking down people and promises that he will find Kristen. And he does find her – sort of.Back in Grand Rapids, Jake receives an unexpected visit from Mast, who has something important to show him. They proceed to a small screening room which shows X-rated films, a room which Mast has rented for an hour. Jake takes a seat and, in the most powerful scene in the film, his demeanor changes to anguish and anger when he sees Kristen engaging in an expicit sex act with two men - a soundless 8mm "loop" making it all the more "underground" and ominous. Mast (who takes sadistic delight in this development, by the way.) does not know who made the film, or where Kristen is. Finding no clues at home, Jake decides to fly back to Los Angeles, where he fires Mast (one wisecrack to many) and begins searching for his daughter on his own.Pretending to be an investor looking to finance an adult film, Jake immerses himself in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. He visits strip clubs, adult book stores, peep shows, and the set where a pornographic film is being made. While at the set he meets Niki (Season Hubley of the sleaze classic, Vice Squad), a pretty young woman who carves out a living of sorts by appearing in X-rated films and working at a peep show. Niki knows her way around the sex trade in L.A., and she agrees to help Jake, whose obsession is now punctuated by anger, to find his daughter. (Not unlike John Wayne's, Ethan from The Searchers.) Indeed, at this point rage is the driving force - rather than his daughter's predicament.Paul Schrader wrote and directed Hardcore, and he clearly drew upon his own upbringing in a stern Calvinist household in Grand Rapids, where he was not allowed to see a film until he was 18 years old. His screenplay has two minor drawbacks. The part of Kristen is underwritten, so much so that we scarcely get to know her until the film’s final scene. A quick scene between father/daughter at the beginning could have fixed it. The other drawback is the final scene, which is a wee bit contrived (in fairness to Schrader, in his commentary track he says that the ending was forced upon him by Columbia Pictures president David Melnick). In between, however, there is much to like, including a scene where Niki intuitively concludes that Jake’s wife, who he has claimed is deceased, actually left him and is very much alive. She asks, “What was the problem? Sex? Always is.” In fact, Jake professes to have no interest in sex, and Niki see the irony in this. “I mean,” she tells him, “you think it’s so unimportant that you don’t even do it, and I think it’s so unimportant that I don’t care who I do it with.”George C. Scott turns in a powerful performance as the repressed, humorless Jake, who seemingly has to force himself to smile. Jake’s puritanical ways lead Mast to give him the nickname “Pilgrim.” (a nod to John Wayne, too.) Season Hubley is excellent as the cynical but not entirely jaded Niki, and Peter Boyle is entirely believable as a private eye who is not shy about getting down and dirty. Ilah Davis, who as Kristen has little to do until the end of the film, is interesting in that she never made another film after Hardcore. Supposedly she joined a commune in New York City and later married and was divorced by a man named Ralph Rogers. She developed multiple scleroris and became an advocate for victims of MS before dying in 2007. Fine supporting performances are turned in by Dick Sargent and Leonard Gaines and Shrader regular, Ed Begely, Jr. All minor roles and extras all completely authentic, lending the film a documentary vibe.Although Hardcore contains a fair amount of nudity and strong sexual language, not to mention the terrifying screening of a "snuff film," there little eroticism in it. As a sex scene is being shot in a cheap motel room, the producer and his assistant try to convince themselves that they are doing something artistic because their director is a graduate of UCLA. (Not an uncommon phenomenon, back in the day). Schrader’s message is two-fold: there is no attempt by Schrader to excuse or sanitize the seamy side of the sex trade, but he also is sharply critical of the rigid religious upbringing which he and Kristen were subjected to. Still, as noted it should be apparent that this film is not for all tastes. Colors are muted but accurate/ appropriate in the dreary, Amway owned dump that is Grand Rapids. Trust me. Scenes become bolder and even garish (obviously) when the action moves to California. The picture is consistently sharp, with strong contrast, excellent detail, solid blacks, and fine shadow detail. There is no sign of dirt, speckling, or other anomalies. The gritty cinematography is by Michael Chapman (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) and benefits greatly from location filming in Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.Audio: 4/5The English 1.0 DTS-HD MA mono soundtrack has a surprising amount of punch, particularly when the great Jack Nitzsche’s pulsating score (Cruising, Performance) kicks in. Nitzsche was an integral part of Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” and worked with The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Neil Young and others. Dialogue is clear and understandable but at times is almost - just almost - overwhelmed by the music. English SDH subtitles are available.A new commentary track by director/writer Paul Schrader is interesting, although he sometimes gets so engrossed in anecdotes that he fails to comment on individual scenes. He talks freely about George C. Scott’s drinking problem, and while he commends Season Hubley for her performance he feels that she was too pretty for the part. He also laments the fact that he had to change the ending of the film in order to placate the studio. The thematic similarities between Hardcore and John Ford’s The Searchers are intentional.Also included: an audio interview (1993) with Schrader that synchs nicely with the film. A novel way to do a commentary track.Shooting Hardcore: a ten minute interview with DP, Michael Chapman - also known for Taxi Driver, 1978s Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, The Wanderers... indeed some of the best films ever made.Hardcore Nitzsche: a twenty-two doc on the great - and ultimately doomed - producer/composer. Features William Friedkin, Milos Foreman, Ry Cooder (slide guitar on The Stone's "sister morphine") and whos contributions to cinematic soundtracks spans decades. I've read that this short is going to be expanded to a full-length film. If nothing else, Jack Nitzsche is the only celebrity to get arrested on TVs "Cops." But I digress....Trailers, stills and isolated soundtrack round this out.A great buy - better (and cheaper!) than the Twilight Time release six or seven years ago.

First off, before the review of this movie, which finally received a terrific HD transfer on the Twilight Time Blu Ray, it must be noted that the 2016 Commentary Track by director Paul Schrader is just... heartbreaking. At this point of life, he's very difficult to understand, and while his nightmare stories on dealing with George C. Scott are kind of interesting, all he does is knock the movie, telling all the people who shelled out $30 bucks or more that it's nothing compared to the movies he does today, all of which are either forgotten or unknown. He points out he wasn't a good writer in the 1970's. That even Warren Beatty, in 2000, told him he turned into a good writer. The guy who wrote Taxi Drive and Blue Collar and this masterpiece of subtle brilliance has no clue about the cinema he helped created. He says that 70's movies are hard to sit through because of the time spent on dialogue, and getting to know the story and characters. Guess he prefers the MTV style change after Top Gun. Sad. But anyhow, now... onto the movie...George C. Scott is a straight-laced, Midwestern business-owner with an innocent daughter who, on a church trip from hometown Grand Rapids, Michigan to Southern California, suddenly goes missing at an amusement park (Knotts Berry Farm, to be exact)...Desperate, and with only a mellow lecture from the police, he hires a street-smart, quirky L.A. Private Eye, Peter Boyle, who literally proves that his client's runaway daughter is a porn actress, resulting in an awkward (and at this point, YouTube-famous) tantrum from Scott that few actors could get away with... But what's really intriguing, and even humorous without being distracting or contrived, is how Scott's Jake Van Dorn clashes with Boyle's gumshoe, symbolically named Andy Mast, their verbal dynamic exceeding intentional scene-stealer Leonard Gaines as a Los Angeles porn producer more talkative than "Easy Andy" from Schrader's original game-changing script of Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, TAXI DRIVER...Back on track: After a few weeks, Jake returns to California and in doing so, wanders the streets, going from porn stores to massage-brothels backed by Jack Nitzsche's bluesy hard-rock score, practically bursting through the screen (eventually curbed by Neil Young's vulnerable acoustic 'Helpless' playing in a sex shop). The juxtaposition of the conservative loner lost in a modern Gomorrah is both mesmerizing and familiar ("Are YOU talkin' to me?!"). Eventually, the film loses some validity when our woebegone lead goes undercover as a would-be-producer, donning a bogus mustache and mirrored shades, weeding out young porn-actors in search of the one guy (Ryan O'Neal's failed getaway driver in THE DRIVER) in the only photo of his daughter, at work. Although this sequence is entertaining, providing a more conventional audience a break from the severe mainline, it somewhat trivializes the edgy and risque subject-at-hand, curtailing the essential danger of the quest, which had a sparse, unapologetic exploitation vibe beforehand.The most pivotal and engrossing scenes occur during the third act, not involving sex or nudity, but what Schrader does best: one-on-one dialogue when Scott hires multi-talented prostitute, porn actress and window-room dancer Season Hubley to help him since Boyle, spending more time with skanks than finding clues, wasn't closing the deal fast enough for a desperate and determined father: Their conversations, ranging from Faith to Johnny Carson, Damnation to Bestiality, evokes peripheral comparisons of two completely different human beings – the Calvinist and the Whore, both alike in their aloof indifference to society, and sex – injecting a philosophical edge into the forefront, even surpassing Travis Bickle's similar-themed conversation with young hooker Iris (ala Robert DeNiro and Jodie Foster in, again, TAXI DRIVER). But some of the time, much like William Freidkin's CRUISING, we don't get as involved or firmly-planted inside the "perverse" underworld as we're led to believe...The voyeuristic camera seems mounted to the wall during many scenes – often more seductive than revealing. And the finale, involving Scott beating up the villain, is way too typical, more befitting the following decade (when heavies were punched into swimming pools): It's the contrasting... and ultimately connecting... philosophical discussions, providing random breaks throughout an intentionally grueling road, that makes this semi-obscure Paul Schrader vehicle work: a late-70's counter-culture flick (with a few STAR WARS sightings) that needs a much bigger, far more dedicated cult following – hope this helps.

Es una fortuna conseguir películas clásicas en el ya casi extinto Blue Ray y a muy buen precio.

Immer noch erschreckend. Obwohl der Streifen schon beinahe 50 Jahre auf dem Buckel hat kann er immer noch überzeugenden hält den Zuschauer über die gesamte Strecke in Spannung. Das liegt sicher einerseits am sehr guten Cast, andererseits am unsentimentalen Drehbuch, das seinerzeit sicher für einige „zu weit“ ging. Die Thematik ist heute noch so aktuell wie dazumal. Nicolas Cage drehte mit 8MM einen sehr ähnlichen Film…Feizhans und Milius, die ja des Öfteren zusammen arbeiteten (DIE ROTE FLUT, CONAN DER BARBAR) liefern hier gute Arbeit ab.George C. Scott und Peter Boyle sind die best mögliche Besetzung für ihre Rollen.Leider gibt es seit Jahren keine deutsche Blu-Ray dieses Klassikers. Die Spanier sind da besser drauf; ihre Scheibe trägt auch die originale deutsche Tonspur.

This was a great movie for it's time. We see modern versions of these types of movies nowadays i.e. 8 mm but regardless this is still a great movie even in the 2000's...I highly recommend it!

J'avais vu ce film au cinéma à sa sortie en 1979 et j'avais le souvenir d'une histoire dure avec une scène (le visionnage du "snuff movie") qui à l'époque m'avait choqué.33 ans après, l'histoire est toujours aussi prenante (George C. SCOTT formidable)et la scène citée plus haut me gène toujours autant(bien que ce soit un film réalisé pour ce film donc -et heureusement- fictif).Qualité image, plusieurs langues et sous-titres proposés. A revoir ou à découvrir. Un film qui "tient bien la route" encore aujourd'hui.

La película está muy bien, el audio y la imagen muy bien. Lo único malo es que no trae subtítulos en español. Me gustaría que en todas las ventas de películas pongan los idiomas que vienen y los subtítulos.