Hard Country

This is one of the best movies I've had the pleasure of watching. It sorta reminds me of "Urban Cowboy" because a lot of the movie takes place at a honky tonk and the main characters in the movie likes to go there a lot. I liked the part where they pulled Johnny Bob's mobile home/worm farm out onto the highway and left it. Later on Johnny Bob does a belly whopper off the barroom table and winds up hurt. And that was one heckuva fight that Vicent got into with his mobile home selling brother. Vincent sure did have one sleazy brother when he was sitting in his office watching porno and then tried to seduce Vincent's girlfriend played by Kim Basinger. I don't know if Vincent got into that fight with his brother cause he was jealous of all the money that his brother had, or because he was messing with his girlfriend. I think Vincent's brother musta been greedy or something because his wife sure was gorgeous. So why woulda he wanta hit on Jodie(Basinger)? If this movie was made today and Vincent woulda tried to run outta on the runway to beg his girlfriend from leaving, he mighta got shot! Seriously, this was a good movie and I hope to get it on DVD!

This was filmed in Bakersfield. I was a cowboy extra in the bar scenes. We drank Lone Star beer until they ran out and would only let us pretend to drink when film was in the camera LOL. A good friend was the stand in for Kim Basinger. Made $70/day and had a ball. Because of this I have a Kevin Bacon number of 2! How many can say that? When not in the scene we all played poker in a tent and got pretty wasted on that Lone Star. They fed us if we worked over 6 hours I think. Good sack lunches. One take was at night and was a blast. They used the Basque Club on South Union to film in. They had it all decorated like a Texas honky tonk bar which was the setting of the movie. One scene was shot in a small restaurant in town. I went to see it but discovered I was on the cutting room floor.

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.

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.