For Criterion Consideration: Paul Schrader’s Hardcore

If you know me, you know that I’m a huge Paul Schrader fan. I adore his films, even the lesser ones (yes, even his Exorcist film is something I’ve watched more than once and didn’t want to kill myself) but it’s his 70’s and 80’s output that I tend to gravitate toward over and over again. Be it his written fare like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Yakuza, Obsession, Rolling Thunder, or him sitting behind the director’s chair such as American Gigolo, Blue Collar, Cat People or Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, I’m all over it. It’s the last one that has had my head scratching as to why Criterion hasn’t brought upon another film of his for the Collection treatment. And my choice is Schrader’s seedy look at Los Angeles in the late 70’s when a man’s daughter vanishes on a Church trip to California and his journey to find her by wading through some despicable people and places where you would never want to find a loved one.

Schrader never holds back any punches in his scripts, especially at this time of his filmmaking career. This was his second directorial output (the first being the supremely underrated Blue Collar, another film I wish was in the collection) and this shows how sure a hand he had and how much he grew from his debut a year before. Produced by John Milius (of Conan the Barbarian fame) and starring George C. Scott as Jake Van Dorn on a descent into Earthly hell in the City of Angels itself, the power of the film rests on his performance. And Scott doesn’t disappoint. When I saw this film at a young age (roughly around 12 or so), it creeped me out to see him watching an 8mm stag reel of his daughter that was found by Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) and pleading for them to ‘turn it off!’ It stuck with me almost a decade later as a nightmare in the back of my head, because one day, while working at Best Buy, I saw the DVD cover and it all flooded back. Searching on Youtube, this scene was one of the more popular ones, which is always bizarre to mention when discussing this scene.

Van Dorn befriends a porn actress/prostitute by the name of Niki (Season Hubley) while he’s posed as a pornography producer and the search goes from Los Angeles to San Diego because there’s word that his daughter is now filming porn down in Mexico. This is where Van Dorn starts to open up about his life and to Niki herself, and Niki starts to feel comfortable with the first man in a while that doesn’t look at her as a sexual object. It’s a sweet relationship in a film with filth and grime, but like most good things, that must end as well and in a fit of anger this relationship is also changed in a negative way.

Basing Jake Van Dorn on his father, Schrader shows a man not only on a journey to find his daughter before it’s too late, but also a journey away from his religious ‘ideal’ life (even though we find out a divorce is brewing) and how life is cheap and the sex trade world is even cheaper. I’ve always looked at this film as Schrader’s version of Dante’s Inferno, where a man needs to go through all these trials and levels of Hell in order to become saved. Without ruining the film for anyone who hasn’t had the chance to see it, it has a typical Schrader ending. I’ll leave it at that, and it’s one that sticks with you for awhile afterward.

Criterion would of course put out a stellar edition. The old Sony DVD has been out of print for quite some time now, with prices rising every few months that it continues to be on that list. The picture quality was alright, tolerable but you could tell there’s a lot of room for improvement and a proper restoration would be in store for the film. A Paul Schrader commentary, perhaps with John Milius (not sure how their relationship is), and/or a retrospective documentary about the lead up, the making of and the after the film was released to the public and its legacy in the 3 decades afterward. Perhaps a reprinting of Ebert’s review or some new discussion pieces by critics today speaking about its relevance. A side by side comparison of the print with the restoration process. There’s plenty more supplements Criterion could and would include and as usual, I would love to hear what people would like to see in this edition.

With Schrader in the news again with his new film The Canyons (be it good or bad news, it’s still a film that seems to fit in with the recent exploitative cinema films such as Killer Joe and The Paperboy populate now) and his writing a new screenplay by the name of The Devil’s Right Hand which was announced while I was writing this very entry in the For Criterion Consideration series, he’s back in the spotlight he so deserves. Now’s the time for Criterion to take advantage of this and bring this Schrader classic back to the limelight. And while they’re at it, let’s get a few more Schrader films in the collection as well. Let us know what Paul Schrader films you wish would place in the Criterion Collection.