hardcore

Andy has handled cases like this a thousand times, and knows that Kristen is probably turning tricks in L.A. He looks around for leads, and reports back to Jake, showing him a porno movie called Slave of Love. To Jakes horror, his daughter is the star. He goes to Andy's apartment a few days later to find the private detective not working on the case, but getting up close and personal with a hooker. Van Dorn fires Andy, and takes all of Andys files on his daughter. He decides to find her by himself.

This movie was written, and directed by Paul Schrader( who wrote Rolling Thunder, and Blue Collar). It's about a strictly religious , rich businessman called Jake Van Dorn , who's 15 year old daughter Kristen has run away. He hires a private detective called Andy, who is played by the great Peter Boyle ( Joe, Taxi Driver) . The religious Van Dorn immediately takes a dislike to the crude, and obnoxious Andy.

What follows is one cool scene after another, as Van Dorn prowls the seedy underbelly of the red light district looking for information in strip clubs, adult shops, and brothels. He gets beaten up pretty badly in one brothel when they decide he's asking too many questions. He visits the set of a porno movie, and in a memorable scene, dons a fake moustache and holds auditions for his own feature film in the hope of finding his daughters co-star in Slave of Love. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law , played by Dick Sargent ( from Bewitched) is worried about Jake, and re-hires Andy to keep an eye on him. Jake meets a girl called Niki in a peepshow who has seen Kristen, and he pays her to help him find her. He also pays $100 to watch a snuff movie at a secret screening. This scene caused outrage in the adult film industry at the time, because they said that it was very far fetched.

Although this movie is silly at times, like Blue Collar, it is about a section of society that is usually ignored by filmmakers. Director Schrader was brought up a strict Calvinist in Grand Rapids Michigan, and when he moved to New York he felt drawn to the seedier parts of the city that he'd never seen before. George C. Scott ( Patton) is pretty good as Jake Van Dorn. I'm fairly sure that this was inspired by John Avildsen's movie Joe. Watching Hardcore, it almost feels like a remake of Joe, simply swapping the out-dated hippy culture for the more notorious red light culture . Schrader even cast Joe himself, Peter Boyle in this, so it seems more than just co-incidence. It may have ripped off Joe, but was later ripped off by the Nicholas Cage movie 8mm . That movie was one of the silliest films in recent memory, with machine gun toting porno store owners. Hardcore isn't as good as other Schrader films, but it is well worth a look, and is a far more realistic look at prostitution than the ridiculous, sacharrin coated, whimsical romantic comedy Pretty Woman.