After depicting the plight of the blue collar worker in his directorial debut, Paul Schrader turned inward. Using his father and austere Calvinist childhood as his main sources, Schrader explores one man’s quest for redemption and restoration. In many ways, the plot of Schrader’s second film Hardcore parallels his screenwriting debut Taxi Driver‘s: both focus on a lonely, embittered individual caught up in a world they do not recognize or respect. The characters use their current situation as attempted remedy for what has gone horribly wrong in their lives. Yet, while Travis Bickle’s problems are psychological, the character of Jake Van Dorn, played by George C. Scott, suffers a familial crisis when his only daughter disappears while on a trip to California. Inspired also by John Ford’s The Searchers, Van Dorn’s journey to find his daughter takes him far beyond his comfort zone and challenges his core beliefs when he is forced to confront a culture and lifestyle he despises. Van Dorn must question how far he is willing to go into the uncomfortale and the long-term effects of his journey.

Unlike Travis Bickle, Schrader gives Van Dorn a unique twist: his life is centered around religion — in this case, the Dutch Reformed Calvinist Church, with its ascetic faith a shield against anything troubling. Cliched opening shots of small-town America (children working paper routes, people dog-walking and kids sled-riding, neighorhoods blanketd in heavy snowfall) set to a gentle hymn buttress Van Dorn’s values and lifestyle and serve as a contrast to the world he will enter soon after the film begins. The hymn’s lyrics highlight feelings Jake considers vital to his faith: in the hymn, “unseen angels” come to one’s soul as the “sacred past” envelops and gives a strong sense of God’s unquestionable benevolence and grace. When we first see Van Dorn at a holiday family gathering, his appearance as a devoted father and loving patriarch seems to mask underlying anxieties and concerns. His brother-in-law voices concern that he spends too much time alone. After his daughter leaves for a church youth convention in California, family members hint at just how isolated Van Dorn, whose wife is nowhere to be seen, is. When he discovers that his daughter has not only run away from the convention but has participated in a homemade pornographic film, he is as shocked and horrified as if she had died. After all, spirtually speaking, she has. Van Dorn is now without any anchor of family ties. Like the Heavenly Father, he must go out to the land of heathens and attempt to save her, for she knows not what she has done.

When Jake arrives in Los Angeles, the color scheme turns shockingly lurid and cheap, a stark contrast to the muted and banal colors of Van Dorn’s hometown. Neon reds, oranges and yellows and chilly blues and greens highlight how different this world is, even in daylight. He begins his quest for his daughter in waking hours, but Jake soon discovers the night is when all manner of foul and seedy underlings reveal themselves, often in desperate attempts to make connections with someone, anyone. Be it a porn producer, a stripper, a prostitue or any kind of nefarious sexual encounter, all are looking for the type of deep and personal relationships Jake has made central in his religious convictions. The big difference is that many of the people in California who market these types of connections have also found ways to exploit them for revenue. When Jake first meets the porn producer he believes can connect him to his daughter, the producer speaks only in terms of monetary gain and boasts of his “pictures of quality.” Being in the business for so long has made him completely indifferent to human connections; whatever sells is what works. Of course, this type of thinking is not Jake’s default, so he tries to disguise himself as a similarly sleazy type who auditions actors out of his hotel room. When he finally encounters someone who worked directly with his daughter, his anger and frustration manifests only in violence. It is not until he decides to partner with Niki, a part-time actress and prostitute who is upfront with him about her feelings regarding pornography, that he is able to make progress in the search for his daughter and gain insight to this foreign society. Regarding views of sexuality, Niki focuses on their similarities while Jake emphasizes their differences. By being so frank with him, she is able to get Jake to open up to her about his personal convictions and acknowledge their role in his current circumstance. Niki is the human connection he needs, although he approaches their relationship more pragmatically while she sees him as an escape from this world of ubiquitious but empty pleasure.

Schrader ensures the journey to discovery grows darker and ever more painful and disturbing, so when the final showdown between Jake and the man who has control of his daughter culminates, it is dramatically unfulfilling. The man has only a name and reputation; no background or motivation is given. He is simply sexual perversion incarnate. Additionally, the crucial character of Kristen, Jake’s daughter, is very underdeveloped as there seems to be little to no reason for her wanting to rebel. Running away is one thing, but joining the pornography industry is quite another, and Schrader never fully utilizes this plot point. Because she represents the object that needs saving, it seems she serves no other purpose, but Schrader’s set-up is compelling enough that such a lightweight finale undermines what has come beforehand. By finishing with a physical confrontation, Schrader evokes too many similarities to Taxi Diver, diminishing the power of his original framework. The coldness and indifference of the Los Angeles porn scene becomes merely the background for a standard street gunfight. The resolution between Jake and his daughter is as arbitrary as it is unconvincing, leaving a bitter taste in the audience’s mouth. With such powerful, interesting themes establishing the drama, not having a more compelling ending drastically reduces the film’s ability to remain intriguing and timeless. Schrader’s pattern of lonely men facing moral conundrums would remain a valuable asset in his career, but after Hardcore it is clear the interest should be a bit more titillating as well as satisfying.