SummaryA conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter who is making porno films in California's porno pits.
Directed By:Paul Schrader
Written By:Paul Schrader
Hardcore
Metascore
Generally Favorable
63
User score
Generally Favorable
6.6
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
63
33% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
67% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
Schrader doesn't speak to the deeper and more human themes he's introduced. Too bad. But Hardcore, flawed and uneven, contains moments of pure revelation.
70
The easily shocked may want an expose, or more a condemnation. The more sophisticated may grow tired of Scott’s morality. But shocked, cynical or dissatisfied, nobody’s going to be bored.
60
Schrader's second feature, Hardcore, is more confidently made than his first, Blue Collar, but it slips into a similar category: absorbing but unsatisfying. [10 Feb 1979, p.C1]
60
Whatever its flaws, this is one of very few American films to deal with fundamentalist beliefs about predestination, faith, and sin with empathy and intellectual acuity.
50
On the most rudimentary levels - basic believability and coherent exposition - Hardcore is a joke without a punch line. [03 Mar 1979]
50
It's a detached, opaque, affectionless movie; since it doesn't regard the young prostitutes as human, there's no horror in their dehumanization--only frigid sensationalism.
50
The action meanders around to a hackneyed end, and because Hardcore is softcore, it doesn't convincingly convey that climate of self-hatred which pervades the sexual ghetto.
User score
Generally Favorable
6.6
47% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
53% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jul 9, 2025
7
A grimy descent into the porn underworld, it honestly could of gone a lot wilder and expansive, but it plays its cards tight and keeps its leads motive and performance focused.
Nov 18, 2024
6
Paul Schrader pours on the strict Catholic beliefs and teachings in the opening scenes, Contrasts them with the porn, snuff film stuff as movie goes on. As George C Scott, sacrifices his core beliefs to save his daughter. George C Scott is the MVP here, and commands our attention, as the search for his daughter takes darker and more outrageous turns.
Production Company:
- A-Team
- Columbia Pictures
Release Date:Jan 1, 1979
Duration:1 h 48 m
Rating:R
Tagline:"Oh my God, that's my daughter."
Awards
The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
• 3 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Turkish Film Critics Association (SIYAD) Awards
• 1 Nomination
