Hardcore (1979) watch online HD

George C. Scott and director Paul Schrader did not get along, so much that at one point Scott refused to come out of his trailer and threatened to quit the film. Scott only agreed to come out after forcing Schrader to promise that he would never direct again (obviously, Schrader went back on his promise).

Paul Schrader originally had Scott's character discover that his daughter has been killed in a totally unrelated car crash, at which point he simply goes back home. He changed it to Scott finding her against his better judgment.

Adult actress Marilyn Chambers was considered for the role of "Niki" but was turned down because producers felt she didn't look enough like a porn star.

The movie was based on a real true life story. As a high school student, writer-director Paul Schrader had heard about a local teenage girl in Grand Rapids, Michigan who went missing and who eventually was found to have appeared in an adult movie. This local mini scandal organically evolved into the screenplay for this picture.

Originally actor Warren Beatty wanted to play the lead role and was attached to portray Jake Van Dorn. However, Beatty wanted Paul Schrader to rewrite the script so he would be either the girl's brother or boyfriend and would be searching instead for either his sister or his girlfriend and not his daughter. When Schrader refused, Beatty passed on the project. Beatty then went onto star, co-script and co-direct his own production of Heaven Can Wait (1978).

This picture was the second 70s feature film from Paul Schrader dealing with the highly controversial subject of teenage prostitution. Schrader had previous written Taksojuht (1976) for director Martin Scorsese where Jodie Foster played a teen call-girl.

When location director Paul Pav was scouting porno shops for the film,he was stonewalled. Paul remembered, "That was the worst experience of my life. They're all scared to talk to you. If you say to a manager that you want to film in his porn shop, he says, 'Get out!' Then you have to go and find the owner of the shop. That's the most difficult thing. They're often lawyers and doctors. I'd have to leave my name, then someone would call me back. Often I wound up talking to people behind closed doors."

The city of Grand Rapids, MI. voiced concern about what was perceived as an "unfavorable depiction of middle America" in its early scenes and the Van Dorn character's overly repressive and harsh nature. The movie was said to have been based on Schrader's own upbringing where he was denied social privileges (i.e. Alfred Kinsey's father's rules) until he completed high school, unlike most other adolescents of Schrader's time who were allowed them before their high school graduations.

The religion that Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott) was was a Calvinist. Director Paul Schrader once studied to be a minister in the Dutch Christian Reform Church. Schrader actually came from a strict Calvinist upbringing in a family that lived in Grand Rapids, MI where part of this film is set.

Writer-director Paul Schrader used John Ford's classic western The Searchers (1956) as inspiration for this movie.

The production filmed on-location at actual real-life sex shops, strip clubs, porno theaters, massage parlors and adult film studios all of which are seen in the movie.

Because of the very religious and conservative city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the production operated under the name "The Pilgrim" during filming. When it was revealed that the title would be "Hardcore," many businesses and citizens were upset saying they would likely not have allowed production to film at their locations had they known the title.

Wording which appeared to be a quote by George C. Scott from the film was boldly publicized in a massive font size as the film's main tagline on movie posters. It said: "Oh my God, that's my daughter!". However, Scott doesn't actually ever say this in the movie.

George C. Scott later admitted that although he liked the script, he never would have accepted the role had he known the film was going to be shot at real-life seedy locations.

The picture has frequently been said to have inspired the later 1999 Joe Schumacher film 8MM (1999).

Writer-director Paul Schrader said of this film for the movie's publicity: "After you take down the white picket fence of traditional morality, where do you set it up again? What can we permit? What can we tolerate? At what point must society say, NO! - this is not acceptable!".

Steve McQueen turned down the lead role.

Debut theatrical feature film of actress Ilah Davis. The movie remains Davis' only film or television credit.

A number of the cast and crew on this pictured had worked on the earlier Paul Schrader scripted film Taksojuht (1976) which dealt with some similar themes and settings. This included actor Peter Boyle, editor Tom Rolf, screenwriter Paul Schrader, music editor Shinichi Yamazaki, and cinematographer Michael Chapman.

The picture was nominated for Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 2nd Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1979.

The movie was retitled "The Hardcore Life" for its British theatrical release in the UK. On the Australian 1980s home-video release this phrase ran as a kind of subtitle under the movie's "Hardcore" title logo.

Paul Schrader flew out to Grand Rapids to see some of the locations chosen by location director Paul Pav, but a severe snowstorm restricted them to their hotel for three day. According to Pav, "There was nothing to do but sit in the bar and the restaurant. I really got to know Paul then; I loved working with him - he's a strange, wonderful man"

A movie with the same title, Hardcore (1977), a heavily fictionalized autobiography of 70s sex superstar Fiona Richmond, had been made and released just a couple of years earlier in 1977. Both pictures had story-lines dealing with the daughters of religious men.

The film's "Hardcore" title had two meanings according to publicity for the picture. An edition of Movie News magazine published in 1979 stated that "Hardcore is modern slang for what used to be called smut - or pornography. It's also an adjective used to described unwavering religious faith and old-fashioned values".

The film was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 29th International Berlin Film Festival.

Schrader originally wanted to cast Diana Scarwid in the role of Niki but the studio decided against her because they didn't think she was attractive enough.

The movie is about pornography but is not a pornographic movie. The film features no actual "hardcore sex" footage but rather such scenes are only ever discreetly implied or suggested and never indiscreetly nor shockingly depicted.

Lead actor George C. Scott plays a Calvinist religious character in this movie. The film was released in the 20th Anniversary year of Scott's first ever cinema movie The Hanging Tree (1959). In that debut film, Scott had also played a religious character, the zealot George Grubb.

The nick-name that Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) had for Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott) was "Pilgrim".

Private Investigator Andy Mast (Peter Boyle)'s fee per week was $750 minimum plus expenses including travel.

About three years after this movie, actress Season Hubley went onto appear in another film encompassing the same type of milieu. That film was 1982's Vice Squad (1982).

The alias name that Jake Van Dorn (George C. Scott) used when he was pretending to be a porno producer was "Jake de Vries". The garb and make-up he wore whilst playing the sex movie producer included blue denim jeans, long hippy hair, a drooping fake mustache, and a tie-dyed sweat-shirt.

The name of the Calvinist church that the Van Dorns went to regularly was the "Tenth Street Dutch Reformation Church".

Kristen VanDorn (Ilah Davis)'s adult film name was "Joanne". The name of the 8mm adult short film she appeared in was "Slave of Love".