The Writer of Taxi Driver Gets Hardcore

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MOVIE REVIEW
Hardcore
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Genre: Documentary
Year Released: 1979, 2023 Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Runtime: 1h 48m
Director(s): Paul Schrader
Where To Watch: available now, order here now www.kinolorber.com, or www.amazon.com

FILMMAKER ON FILM REVIEW: Paul Schrader brought his skills of world-building to the seedy part of town from Taxi Driver to Hardcore, a film he wrote and also directed. HARDCORE may not be the classic that Taxi Driver is, but it is clearly cut from the same cloth.

It’s really incredible to look at the career of Paul Schrader, a creator whose name has never made it to the mainstream zeitgeist, like the directors that have built their careers on his words. The most noteworthy director to work from Schrader’s words is Martin Scorsese. Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, both written by Schrader, remain at the top of Scorsese’s filmography. Schrader himself has also directed a number of his own scripts, most recently the criminally underappreciated First Reformed and the flawed but worth-a-watch Card Counter.

George C. Scott plays a conservative businessman whose family is part of a strict religious sect. His daughter disappears during a church trip to California, and he sets out to find her. He chases her trail into the seedy underbelly of the adult film industry and gets help from an unlikely source, a peep show stripper. The film is a fish-out-of-water story and a commentary on religious isolation. George C. Scott’s fantastic stoic performance is buffered by a solid ensemble that includes icon Peter Boyle, Season Hudley, and Dick Sargent.

This film is a crucial vomiting of elements of Schrader’s life onto the big screen. Schrader himself grew up in the same religious sect that’s featured in the film, and he even grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Scott’s character is from. This channeling of Schrader’s real life makes the film feel real and lived in, which makes the realities of what happened to his daughter more impactful. The biggest problem is that the title of the film, the description of it, and the knowledge that Schrader wrote Taxi Driver make the final product feel deflated and reserved. With a title like HARDCORE, you may expect some disturbing or shocking images. There really aren’t any hardcore scenes, not by today’s standards or even those of the late 70’s. The lack of really anything feeling hardcore goes completely against the realness that I previously mentioned. HARDCORE just isn’t hardcore enough to be as effective as it wants to be, but it’s still a solid fish-out-of-water story with an incredible performance by Scott.

Kino Lorber brings us this new Blu-ray presentation with two audio commentaries, one from Paul Schrader, a must-watch, and a second one from film historians Eddy Friedfeld, Lee Pfeiffer, and Paul Scrabo. Other than the commentaries, we get a trailer. So there’s not much in the way of extras and nothing new to this release, but hearing Schrader discuss his film is a treat. The HD presentation is pretty good, but nothing to write home about. The film deserves a 4k restoration. HARDCORE is Schrader’s second film, and even if it just doesn’t go as hard as it should have, it still gets a high recommendation.

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[photo courtesy of KINO LORBER]

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