Hardcore (1979)

This is the perfect movie for a guy like me! It depicts sleazy America in the 1970's and all the exploits that movie-houses, peep-shows and seedy book stores had to offer of the time. Hardcore is chock full of prostitutes, pornography and eventually snuff.

Written and directed by Paul Shrader the creator of Taxi Driver and Blue Collar and staring George C. Scott as a wealthy business man who seems to have the perfect life until his daughter goes missing. When the police can't help, George C. Scott hires Peter Boyle who I remember best as the hippie killer in Joe (1969) as a private detective. When private dick Boyle learns that the missing girl has become part of a porn ring and has done a Stag film he brings George C. Scott to a dirty old grindhouse to watch his daughter on the big screen, in what is one of the best melt-downs in cinematic history. George C. Scott looses his marbles as he is forced to watch his daughter do the dirty with some scuzzy hippie types. "Turn it off!"

From here on Hardcore goes into darker territory as C. Scott continues his search for his daughter. He learns the hard way that the world is filled with filth and isn't the nice wholesome life that he was accustomed to. We ultimately find out that the missing girl is in great danger and she is mixed up with a man named Ratan who runs a snuff ring in the pornography racket. We watch a girl in a submissive bondage hood have her throat cut with a switchblade and a man is stabbed in the guts. George C. Scott must find his daughter before she ends up dead herself.

Hardcore blends drama, horror, mystery and black-comedy together for a brilliantly unforgettable walk through the nasty corners of the 70's. In one of my favorite scenes George C. Scott posses as a porno producer complete with 70's mustache, Sonny Bono wig and a tye-dye shirt. A big black porn star named Big Dick Blaque shows up and delivers an overly sleazy performance complete with groin grabbing and some incredibly filthy lines. "I'm Big Dick Blaque. I worked with Harry Reems and Johnny The Wad. I can cum 10 times in one day, I can keep it up for two hours straight... I know what it is... You just don't wanna hire niggers." Then we have some violent fist fights in vengeance scenes (complete with achy-breaky skulls and a lamp being smashed into the face), We also get a chain fight, a bullet to the guts and lots of naked breasts and bush.

Aside from the awesome, raunchy story, the acting is really good. One can't help but feel for George C. Scott's character. The lighting really adds to this film as does the locale and sets. Hardcore is a must see for fans of darker cinema from the 70's. In the ranks of Taxi Driver and Cruising.