Hardcore

Paul Schrader is one of the cinema's rare puritans and he found the perfect subject in which to express his loathing for the human condition.

A Mid-West businessman (George C. Scott) discovers that his daughter is involved in the West Coast pornography racket and sets out with evangelistic fervour to rescue his child.

But the business envelops him too, and causes a breakdown in principles and an assumption of the end-justifying-the-means argument favoured by apologists for political excess.

It's a film that goes off the rails too, before the end, but is powerful nonetheless.

Note the presence of Peter Boyle as the private eye who's enlisted to help. Those with long memories will recall that Boyle made a huge international hit in a small-budget Sixties film, Joe, which showed vigilante action in a good light.

Things don't change all that much over the years.

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