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Hardcore

Hardcore

1979
Drama, Crime
1h 48m
A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter whom is making porno films in the porno pits of Los Angeles. (imdb)
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Hardcore

1979
Drama, Crime
1h 48m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 57.42% from 371 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(371)
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Rated 09 Aug 2009
82
71st
The ending sucks, but the majority of the film is a highly effective portrait of a man who slowly loses control of his emotions in the obsession to find his daughter. Really good performance by Scott.
Rated 10 Jul 2019
75
72nd
Viewing Scott's uptight and religious businessman encountering the people and sights of America's seedy underbelly is a grim delight. Scott is on great form here, and with a couple of exceptions, the broader cast does some fine work. While some of the grime is effectively captured, Schrader is no Scorcese, and the film is perhaps lacking a tautness that would have been present in the latter's work. The ending? Hmmm. Nevertheless, this is fine work. Fans of Taxi Driver should see this.
Rated 12 Apr 2016
80
91st
One of Schrader's best scripts (sorry, but it's better than Taxi Driver) - each scene observant and sensitive with hardly a sour note, pretty much poetic in fact, but it's George C. Scott's performance that makes it everything it's meant to be. Scott was a consistently awesome actor, but I don't think I've ever seen him quite as brilliant as he is here. The ending is heartrending.
Rated 07 Feb 2010
63
55th
The movie was interesting looking glass to 1979 porn business industry, how innocent it was. What was hardcore thrity years ago is pretty different what it is nowadays. Scott did good job, but his daughter was lousy actress. Movie contained rather little hardcore stuff, though there was open nudity.
Rated 18 Apr 2011
95
96th
Paul Schrader filming this and explaining to his mom that no he only read about all this once.
Rated 03 May 2012
80
37th
Bit of a let down. George C. Scott gets put into every father's worst nightmare and though he is typically good, he isn't quite as electrifying as I had hoped. A majority of the problems lie in the screenplay actually, which does not flesh out the father-daughter relationship before the daughter disappears. At least Schrader scrapped the original ending, which was even worse.
Rated 01 Jul 2017
75
84th
Hardcore was a settling of scores for Schrader, but it also embodies his ongoing struggle to resolve his personal conflicts in the medium of film. Scott gives a career best performance as Van Dorn, a religious business man with a hardened mind who travels to California to find his runaway daughter and ends up way out of his depth navigating the foreign world of pornography. Boyle also does fine work as a sleazy private eye. It only falters during its finale, which seems tentative and rushed.
Rated 26 Jan 2020
3
38th
Hardcore is a movie about how everybody in the 70s looked like shit and dressed badly except for George C. Scott, drip king
Rated 14 Aug 2007
35
19th
Taxi Driver, the way it played out inside Paul Schrader's mind.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
63
77th
The film never really fulfills on it's promise, and it could have been a lot better, but it's still quite unique and interesting. There are few films that portray sleazy corners of 70's porn industry. It's almost like a mix of "Searchers" and "Taxi Driver" which Schrader also wrote, but the uneven quality of direction shows that Schrader is no match for Scorsese behind the camera. Scott is fine in his role, but other characters could have used more development. "8mm" borrowed heavily from this.
Rated 08 Mar 2014
76
53rd
Definitely gets points for taking on a subject that most other filmmakers shy away from, and it does so very amiably. Jake's descent into this sleazy world is kinda awe-inspiring to watch, and his conversations with the prostitute he meets reveal some considerate points about respecting people who come from different paths of life. The conclusion is a disappointment after all this, with character motivations turning out to be questionable.
Rated 11 Aug 2014
85
68th
Sometimes, just seeing the man we once saw emerge from a hard-line Five Point church pew in the Midwest with his horn-rimmed glasses, conservative suit and town car walking down the loitering central of southern California's bawdiest streets in a loud button-down, sunglasses and a black eye is enough aesthetic visual pleasure, more than the symmetry of a composition or the atmospheric color tints and sharp changes in camera speeds during the gripping, symbolically brilliant climax.
Rated 02 Apr 2019
60
62nd
Interesting journey into the world of '70s porn and adult business. Daughter was boring. Niki reminded me of Kate Hudson. Dad's evolution as a character was great to follow. So-so ending. Fav scene: busting through the thin walls of different theme rooms.
Rated 12 Mar 2020
79
61st
Groundbreaking for the time, this sleazy rabbit hole of a movie just reeks of authenticity. Unfortunately, the action sequences are painfully dated and often really challenge even the most wholehearted suspension of disbelief. No wonder this same story has been remade so many times. Personally, I'd recommend The Limey over this.
Rated 27 Sep 2020
75
77th
Scott is good in the lead, and Hubley is very good as Niki - a memorable character, bringing some heart to the dark proceedings. But Schrader's unflinchingly authentic dive into the abyss is the real star here.
Rated 19 Aug 2007
30
4th
Saw it on TV. Wish I hadn't.
Rated 04 May 2008
76
39th
everyone loves the subject matter, and its a good film, but in the end forgettable. There could've been more done with the characters and the theme of judgment, the psychology involved in sex and religion, and other themes that arose
Rated 29 May 2011
65
52nd
It looks good and is in many ways interesting, but it's also sorta dull. Scott is very good.
Rated 06 Jun 2011
76
54th
It ain't no Taxi Driver and it ain't no The Searchers, but George C. Scott and Peter Boyle make a terrific pair.
Rated 31 May 2012
73
50th
72.875
Rated 22 Jul 2013
69
47th
I would give it a higher score if not for the cliched action sequence toward the end.
Rated 03 Mar 2015
80
81st
George C. Scott <3
Rated 26 Mar 2015
60
62nd
Good film.
Rated 20 Apr 2018
4
52nd
I'm not sure it's as deep or as scathing as Schrader thinks it is. It's still quite an enjoyable film on a trashy, seedy level tho and Scott's really trying his best.
Rated 23 Apr 2018
75
65th
Enjoy it more than Taxi Driver at this point. I like how that Ben Affleck movie from last year basically just takes the plot of this movie and uses it as a sub plot. George C Scott's performance is enormous.
Rated 23 Sep 2020
86
80th
Em honra de Michael Chapman (1935 - 2020), um dos grandes diretores de fotografia da Nova Hollywood. O calvinismo persegue o Schrader pra caralho. Espécie de The Searchers calvinista, surpreende por mostrar os horrores da indústria pornográfica, mas sem adotar o moralismo como essência. Achei-o excelente, mas esse é o tipo de filme que cresce na gente, provavelmente daqui uns anos vou achar que é obra-prima. Box Versátil Cinema Policial Volume IV.
Rated 09 Feb 2021
65
76th
A pretty interesting look at the smutty 70s that ends pretty lamely. - I left because you didn't love me. - I do. - oh, ok then!
Rated 07 Jul 2021
75
69th
The film is a little dated, maybe in a prescient way because of how thoroughly sex has won the culture war. The hardcore religious types are now much more fringe than they were in the 70s. Otherwise, it's a very interesting double-sided film. Beneath the mystery, there's a classic Schrader struggle of faith and the tying together of the seemingly unrelated plights of a hardcore conservative Christian and a girl from the pornographic underworld.
Rated 17 Jan 2022
60
18th
Typical Schrader screenplay dealing with masculinity and how it mashes uneasily within social power structures; unfortunately we get little to no insight into Scott's straight-backed god fearer (outside of his superficial disgust) and no insight into what it means for this character to engage with (and enjoy?) entering this alien world. Two terrific performances from Scott and Boyle are somewhat redemptive, with Boyle emerging as the most intriguing (and charismatic) character of the piece!
Rated 31 Dec 2022
2
7th
really good movie if you're into this sort of thing
Rated 06 Mar 2023
75
66th
this is pretty hardcore
Rated 11 Aug 2023
70
69th
George C. Scott just prowlin the streets for some smut. Favourite part is when a guy asks Scott if he wants to see his dick and Scott agrees, the man pulls down his pants and Scott just stone faces and sighs.
Rated 20 Nov 2023
80
72nd
A very interesting film with a fantastic performance from Scott. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the battle within Scott with his religion. I thought these aspects were a little underplayed. Would make an interesting compare and contrast double feature with 8mm or maybe Taxi Driver. I would have liked a bit more of the Scott relationship with Hubley. Very well written with deep characters and a compelling story.
Rated 18 Dec 2023
79
75th
Paul Schrader tries to make a populist middle-aged revenge thriller and can't help but mess around with essential American dichotomies: urban and rural, sacred and profane, ignorance and knowledge. It's a weirdly effective way to show the societal divide in America. In this all or nothing country, everyone has to be hardcore about something. It's not just about things we wish we hadn't seen - it's also about living with a reality too painful to accept.
Rated 28 Jan 2024
84
77th
Excellent stuff this, the script and direction hitting the right tones continuously. Would have scored it higher but for the ending.

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