Hard Feelings

My review was written in July 1990 after watching the film on Monarch video cassette.

A lightweight precursor of the '80s teen rites of passage comedy genre, "Hang Tough" was filmed in 1980 but only now released in the USA as a direct-to-video title.

Film, previously titled "Hard Feelings" and "Sneakers", could be thought of as part of a parallel world of 20th Century Fox. Though eventually acquired for distribution by Moviestore, the Daryl Duke picture was made for "Porky's" banner Astral Bellevue Pathe and Joe Wizan, latter becoming Fox topper soon after. Its scripters W. D. Richter and John Herzfeld both helmed features for Sherwood and Fox in 1983 that were released by Fox.

Result here is in the same genre popularized by Bob Clark in "Porky's"" but far too tame. Carl Marotte heads a mixed Canadian/U. S. cast as a teen growing up in Long Island who longs to score, but his sex scenes with fast girl Stephanie Miller and good girl Lisa Langlois are a study in coitus interruptus: adults always arrive home early with unfunny results.

Overlong pic has two key subplots which are handled arbitrarily. Marotte is victimized by the school bully Vincent Bufano and even flees for Atlanta after Bufano kills his dog. There he strikes up a romance with free-spirited black student Charlaiine Woodard but soon returns home to pick up the makeout with Langlois. When Woodard visits relatives in Harlem, Marotte falls in love with her in earnest and even gets her brother Grand Bush to teach him how to handle the bully. Ending is pat and corny.

Black cast members Woodard and Bush sympathetically make the best impression as their whitebread counterparts led by Marotte are given paper-thin roles. Some vulgar dialog presages "Porky's" but is extremely mild by comparison.

"Hard Feelings" is a lot better than dozens of movies in the "American Graffiti" ilk, so why did I have to wait for it to play on TV to see it? "Hard Feelings" avoids sappy nostalgia for a "simpler time," and grapples with real social issues without ever getting too heavy-handed, and without losing its entertainment value. My fave line is by Latham: "Man, people are like dogs...if they smell fear they'll be on you like flies on sh!t"

This hard-to-find film is only available of VHS and only available second hand. I did get my hand on this and checked it out.

The movie is about a teenager dealing with a girl friend, while controlling his raging hormones, dealing with bullies and finding love in an unlikely place.

The Central Character is Barnie, a pretty average teen. Not really good or bad but just average. He has a steady girl friend and fools around with the school tramp (played by Stephanie Miller.. yes the talk show host in an early role.) He then has a run in with the school bully and leaves town to get away. He then finds romance with an African American cutie. Oh.. and this happens in the 60s when inter racial dating was pretty much taboo.

Well no need for a spoiler alert here. I will not give the rest away.

What I will say is that the movie has potential. It explores class and racial divisions and has the old theme of a set-upon kid standing up for himself.

But where the movie fails, in my opinion is its failure to develop its characters. The hero, Barnie is not really the kind of kid you would expect to be the victim of bullies. He is smart, good looking, athletic and quite honestly is not all that likable. Not really dislikable, just pretty mediocre.

Russel Linwood, the bully is not really mean as he is psychotic. We never learn why he has focused his anger towards Barnie but I for one, was never convinced that he was really that much a threat. Just a quiet and somewhat crazy dude with a chip on his shoulder.

Films which show teens responding to bullies, such as Karate Kid have one thing that make them work. And that is that the central characters are people that we can identify with. They are set upon, tormented and insecure. I did not see any of that in Barnie.

Still the depiction of the 1960s society was pretty compelling and made the film hold my interest.

Oh.. one more thing. If you are expecting to see nudity, you will see almost none. Just a scene of Barnie's bare bottom for a split second and no female nudity. Just an FYI.

This movie, in part, was shot down the street from my residence. My roommate used to come home bragging about how he got a part in it. He purchased one of those monogrammed robes and strutted around like he was the star of the film.

One day he needed a ride because there was a location change. So I put on my best 60's clothing, being a nostalgic fashionista, and as I had seen what wardrobe furnished him with, and escorted him to the shoot.

Once there I asked the casting director if she needed anyone else. She looked me up and down, told me to shave my beard and gather in with the group of extras.

My roommate soon grew weary of my presence on set as I got all of the good shots. The Director loved my improvisation throughout different scenes and encouraged me to give many different looks on the takes that I was part of.

After almost 20 years and a few title changes I finally found this Canadian film company's finished product.

Although I had a lot of camera time, probably the most out of any extra during that portion of the shoot, I didn't have any of that on the final cut. My best parts ended up on the cutting room floor!

Oh well, I still enjoyed the film anyway. Even after years of bragging and explaining to my children that I was in an actual movie, when they viewed the film they didn't even believe that it was me.

JCRobinson.