La ambición de Jodie Palmer

Kim Basinger made her feature film debut as a woman in a small town in a small town in Texas questioning her relationship with her redneck boyfriend. "Hard Country" strikes me as an attempt to look at the feminist movement. The movie DOES feature a lot of Texas stereotypes, although they're probably accurate. In the end, I thought that it did a good job showing the main character's desperation with her irresponsible boyfriend and lack of opportunities in this small town. And the soundtrack proves what should be well known by now: a lot of good music comes from the Lone Star State (it almost makes you forget that Texas is full of, well, Texans). And it should go without saying that Basinger looks mighty fine throughout the movie (as she always does).

Also starring are Jan-Michael Vincent, Michael Parks, Tanya Tucker, Daryl Hannah and Ted Neeley (Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar" and more recently a tracker in "Django Unchained").

This over-long Texas flick tries hard but unfortunately is rather dull in stretches. Very predictable ending. Basinger acquits herself well in her debut. There are a few nice moments and the Texas backdrop is pleasant enough. A lack of strong direction and drive and not enough charisma on the part of Jan-Michael Vincent are what cause the film to suffer.

Telephone operator in small Texas town has dreams of being a stewardess and training in California, but her live-in boyfriend from down at the wire-producing factory hasn't any ambitions other than getting a raise. One might be tempted to call this fake-mercurial, fake-country-&-western drama an "Urban Cowboy" knock-off, though both films were in production at about the same time ("Hard Country" was shelved for a year before finally seeing a release in April 1981). The exaggerated Texas accents and segues to the local watering hole (where Tanya Tucker performs as a hometown girl who made good) are excruciating, though the picture did give us the feature film debut of fresh-faced Kim Basinger and she's attractive (and shares a funny scene with newcomer Daryl Hannah as her younger sister). Jan-Michael Vincent, on the other hand, is a washout; the actor no longer possesses the boyish appeal from just a few years prior, now looking dazed and ragged (nine years older than Basinger, Vincent doesn't convince as the kind of man she'd want to settle down with). Director David Greene has a good sense of how fast scenes should play, and his opening at the factory is surprisingly detailed, but this screenplay by Michael Martin Murphey (who also sings) and Michael Kane is just not that interesting. *1/2 from ****

Reading here that this film was held up in release for two years, someone must have thought it was going to be a turkey. Then when Urban Cowboy got released and did so well someone then decided we might have a good thing in the vaults. Watching Hard Country with its plot so very similar to Urban Cowboy I was thinking they've got everything here but the bull.

Jan-Michael Vincent and Kim Bassinger in her first big screen film are a pair of twenty somethings who are living in sin as Bassinger's mother tells her in no uncertain terms. Vincent's life consists of his construction job by day and going to the Stallion Bar at night to raise a little hell with his good old boy friends. And of course Bassinger goes along as a little Texas arm candy.

But Vincent doesn't see the change is coming with her and that Bassinger is starting to think there has to be more to life than this. Her itch for something better is cultivated by Tanya Tucker who is a friend who went on to Hollywood and Nashville and is now a country music star. She'd like to be a flight attendant, although back in those days they called them stewardesses. But Jan-Michael wants his woman home, barefoot and he's doing his best to see she becomes pregnant. And that meets with the approval of all his friends.

You can see already that Hard Country is along the lines of Urban Cowboy. I can't call it an imitation since it was made earlier, but maybe we can call it a prototype.

Like Urban Cowboy it has a nice country and western score. I do like Tanya Tucker singing her famous salute to the Lone Star State entitled simply Texas. Some other prominent roles are Darryl Hannah in one of her earliest roles as Bassinger's sister, Michael Parks as Vincent's brother and Gaillard Sartain one of Vincent's goofball buddies who gets himself with some nasty injuries for acting drunk and stupid.

This film might have been a good hit in Texas other than the fact it really Texas and Texans down something fierce. Hard Country is not a bad film, but Urban Cowboy is better.

I found this movie very entertaining. Vincent is great, as well as Kim Basinger, I would even say awesome. The intensity through the whole picture, both regarding chemistry between actors and events, makes this 100 minutes well worth watching. Thanks to the intensity, even some of the more or less over the top Texas clichés becomes very interesting. And the environment is great as well. If I would say a couple of things about the minor good things, it would be the returning scenes with performances. They're great, but they're too many. Tanya Tucker even sings two full songs, making it partly look more like a musical than a motion picture. These are minor flaws though, and they're easily overlooked.