From Travis Bickle ducking into the peep shows of Times Square to Richard Gere strutting his stuff as an American Gigolo, Paul Schrader has always been fascinated and appalled with the seedier side of sex. In Hardcore, uptight Midwest puritan Jake Van Dorn (George C Scott) grabs his raincoat and joins the ranks of the dirty-mac brigade as he searches the porno underworld for his runaway daughter.
Scratching beneath the grime and crime of America's sex industry, Schrader's voyeuristic drama gets caught somewhere between moral repulsion and adolescent prurience. The result's flawed and, as Scott enlists the help of Season Hubley's whore-with-a-heart-of-gold to set himself up as a porno producer, the shock quickly turns to schlock. But Schrader's descent into red-light-district hell has a grimly authentic power, while Scott's performance as a religious zealot forced to wrestle with the demons of desire lives up to the title's in-yer-face promise.
DVD Extras:
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