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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The world of pornography has changed so much since I was young. Back then it was a taboo item, something sold from beneath the counter at the local drugstore or with boards covering all but the titles of the magazine. Movies were 8mm reels sold from those magazines. They moved on to feature films shown in seedy locations in larger cities until the late seventies when an air of respectability was bestowed on them as couples rather than raincoat wearing men began to frequent those theaters.With the age of video pornography got a fast forward into more mainstream areas. Now people could order these movies delivered in brown paper wrappers to their homes where they would watch in privacy over and over again. So invasive was the world of porn that the formats chosen down the line were determined by the industry since more porn films were sold than mainstream ones.Now the world of pornography has taken over the internet with the majority of online websites offered one form or another. There are numerous stars of the industry now where once there were only a few recognizable names. Mainstream Hollywood and celebrities have also embraced some members either dating, marrying or featuring these stars in mainstream roles. They've become millionaires. But once it wasn't like this.That early world of porn was filled with wayward teens looking to earn money while living on the streets. Committing unspeakable acts and at times placing their lives in danger it was a seedy world. And from that seedy world writer/director Paul Schrader showed us how bad it could be in a movie that will stick with you long after the final credits role.George C. Scott stars as Jake VanDorn, a strict conservative Calvinist raising his young daughter Kristen in the heartland. When she goes missing on a planned youth trip to California, Jake hires private detective Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) to find her. What Mast discovers is that Kristen is now involved in the porn business. Jake heads to LA to learn more about what happened. When Mast shows him the footage he came across Jake is crushed but still determined to find his daughter.Feeling that Mast isn't doing as much as he can Jake delves into the world of hardcore pornography, posing as a director in search of new talent with the hope of coming across one of the "actors" in the film he saw. His intent is to get a lead from one of them as to who has his daughter and where he can find her. Along the way he gains the help of a porn actress Niki (Season Hubley) and more help from Mast.Jakes journey into the scummier side of the porn industry is what makes up most of the film. Backroom screening locations of films that show the worst there is to find as well as a snuff film eventually would deter the most hopeful father. Jake qualifies as he continues his search. The men he comes into contact with leave him disgusted and fearing the worst but he carries forward. Whether he will find his daughter or if she will become the latest victim in a snuff film isn't answered until the film is near an end.The movie takes off the glamour image that many tried to paint on the pornography business at the time it was released in 1979. It showed behind the scenes glimpses of what life was like in the industry composed of drug addicted stars, criminals with no care for human life and uncaring individuals who feigned affection while caring for little more than the cash they could derive from their casts. Many now claim that the business better than ever and that criminal elements are no longer involved. After watching this that's hard to believe with the amount of money to be made now.Scott turns in his usual amazing performance here. As the tormented Jake he has such a strong conviction of faith that is tested on every level. It is his faith that holds him together both in God and in the hope that his daughter is still alive. We feel both his frustration and his anger as he begins to piece together the puzzle of where his daughter is. We hope as deeply as he does that she has survived and is merely waiting to be rescued.The rest of the cast does an equally commendable job. Boyle is particularly sleazy but a hero none the less. His character is one who has lived on these mean streets and understand them, passing no judgement on the surface but retaining something inside. Hubley may not be the "hooker with a heart of gold" type character here but she too has something buried inside of her that makes her want to do what is right. Deep inside she dreams that Jake will rescue her from her life choices along with his daughter. Her character is perhaps the saddest of them all.HARDCORE is a movie that will disturb on a deep level but it is a movie that needs to be seen. Even more so young people need to see this to find out more about just how "glamorous" the industry is. It is a cautionary tale and one that will hold you in its grip from start to finish.Twilight Time has released a great looking copy of the film with a blu-ray image that is the best you will find for this film. Included in the extras are an isolated score track, audio commentary with writer/director Schrader, audio commentary with film historians Eddy Friedfeld, Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo and the original theatrical trailer. As with all Twilight Time releases the pressing is only 3,000 copies so if you're interested pick one up before they are gone.

Hardcore may have been shocking and daring for its time, but it feels pretty dated now - not just the value system, but also the offbeat pacing. The pacing is indeed a problem, the ending even more so. Fortunately, the film leans firmly on two very strong pillars - effective, unnerving atmosphere, of which Schrader is still a master artist, and fantastic acting - from George C. Scott, of course, but also from Peter Boyle and, in a very surprising turn, Season Hubley.Hardcore doesn't measure up to Schrader's most renowned work, Taxi Driver - its most obvious point of comparison - but it stands up well on its own.

This movie starts very slowly, as it portrays sleepy town in mid-west of USA in the first part of the movie. Everything goes slow by its order in this small city and the community is conservative and a bit innocent, unaware of ,,evels'' in outer world. So, what essentially makes the main theme of this movie is the struggle of unspoiled innocence and influences from unknown world in minds of two main characters in movie - father and his daughter.As he (Jake Van Dorn) travels to big San Francisco to find his rebellious daughter, he discovers a hole new world of perversity, depravities and for him, unknown field of underground pornography. Unwillingly, he goes in the middle of the heat, descending, in hope to find out something more about the xxx tape with his kiddo. Everything is hopeless, until he gets to know a prostitute and slimy detective who connect him with people who shot the mentioned movie. On the end, normally, there comes the powerful finale with stubborn Jake confronting ,,the world behind curtain''.In the most part of the movie, the story is going slow and in some moments lethargic. But, this kind of tempo goes in favor to already mentioned furious and interesting unfolding at the end.Who likes simple stories with characters struggling inside, he will probably be satisfied with this underrated drama/thriller.

'Hardcore' (aka 'The Hardcore Life') proves that not every movie about sex has to be tawdry. It's been a weird divergence recently that sex in stuff like 'Sex and the City' is empowering, while sex everywhere else is demeaning. It doesn't have to be like that. Whatever angle you'll approach it from, 'Hardcore' will prove a thoughtful and deadly serious take on pornography.George C. Scott plays Vandorn, a successful Midwestern businessman and strict Dutch Reformationist. On a church outing, his daughter does missing. He hires a private detective, Mast (Peter Boyle, excellent as always), to find her. Soon, Mast calls him to a local porno theatre and Vandorn has to watch his daughter in a porno movie. After another couple of months, Vandorn can't take it anymore. He goes out to find his daughter himself... forcing himself to confront everything that disgusts him.George C. Scott paints a really interesting character. He starts off repulsed by investigating the porno world, and gets thrown out of a brothel for his trouble. But he ends up going undercover and reining in his religion because, as he says to Niki, the only thing that truly matters in his life is his daughter.Ah, his daughter, Kirsten. I want to get that one bad thing out of the way, because everything else in 'Hardcore' is spot-on. Sadly, the gal playing Kirsten can't act at all. From pronouncing "g***amned" with no venom, to horribly overacting other stuff. But it really is the only tiny bum note in a superb movie.Paul Schrader is on the top of his game as director. It's a very tight movie with no overlong or wasted scenes. There are also some nice visual touches. The shots of Vandorn distorted in mirrors to show his confusion; and one where Vandorn parks on a downward slope before he goes into a bondage place, to indicate him sinking into hell.Gary Graham from 'Alien Nation' turns up as a sleaze who gets into a fight with George C. Scott. They throw each other through the paper-thin walls of the bondage place. For all the sleaziness of the environment, it's an artificially tough world... and one where Scott feels he can triumph.Well shot and thought provoking, 'Hardcore' really is a superb film.