Hard

I recently rented a DVD version of "Hard". There were some extras, most notably two commentary tracks and some Q&A sessions at gay film festivals. For me the most interesting part of the whole experience was listening to the ex-police advisors discuss the problems they had when their departments found out the advisors were gay. Examples from these experiences (harassment, beatings, no back-up, etc.) were on display in the film. If you rent the DVD, be sure to check out the extras.

The film-makers make the statement that they wanted to show how the police disregard low prestige victims (e.g., hustlers), how the police make life a misery for gay cops, how serial killers really behave, and depict the plight of street people in general. Well, hustlers and others just show up in time to be victims and then are turned to bloody messes. So the focus is really on police behavior and on the killer.

Several scenes, especially the torture and darkened interior scenes, are lit and photographed well. The victims all come across with some personality. The bad guy was the most effective actor. The rest of the adult actors were just OK. Pacing was all right. The protagonist is a closeted gay man who has just been promoted to detective; he has to learn some things the hard way.

Your liking of the movie will depend some on your own fantasies. The police environment and issues raised are useful for everybody to consider.

"Hard" is about the hard life & times of its characters, and its is hard to watch. I generally don't like murder movies, and definitely don't like graphic violence, blood & gore. But, I liked this movie.

The version I saw was the 2005 re-released DVD Directors Uncut Version, unrated. Some of the sex and violence scenes edited out of the theatrical release are restored. Pretty good production quality. Some of the acting can be wooden. Certainly not the most pleasant movie I ever watched, but was one of the most interesting.

As other reviewers indicate, it's a movie about a gay serial killer and his pursuit by a closeted gay policeman. The message is about homophobia and self loathing. I recommend you give it a try, but don't watch it alone late at night!

If it weren't for the outraged conservative gay groups who made such a stink about films depicting homosexuality in a negative way, like CRUISING, more truthful films like this one, could have come along and had better budgets. For what is accomplished in HARD, with limited resources, is a very good, truthful, and thought provoking movie done with a lot more honesty than I expected. The acting, especially by the antagonist is dark and evenly good and sinister and succinct. It does not go into the area of having to justify his reasons for having become what he is. Some lines are incisive and brutally honest, while the obvious surfaces occasionally....but, life is just one great big background for clichés anyway. In its multi layered plot putting homophobia in second place, the director manages to make a psychotic thriller with some original twists and honest observations previously never employed for fear of upsetting the "gay moral majority". Too me, this is a sexy,violent and worthy of watching twice. To understand the amount of work it took to put this piece together, makes HARD all that more remarkable, and given a heftier budget,could have had some box office and made some bucks. This is definitely going to achieve "cult" status just for its daring.The lead actor is so good, he is probably responsible for holding the weaker cast believable.No "star" could have played him as well.

Hard is one of those independent films that keeps you thinking long after the film is over. Exploring two segments of our society - police and street hustlers - for whom violence is a frequent occurrence, the film poignantly shows the internal struggles of being gay in a straight world, and graphically shows the external results of society's indifferent attitude toward gay victims of violence. The attitudes and results can easily be extrapolated at some level to the experiences of other segments of American society - minorities, the religious right, even smokers. Human beings can ignore, and thereby endorse, the repression of other human beings, so long as the repression doesn't personally affect them.

Hard is beautifully shot, but a few flaws will jump out at you - a couple of clunker lines, some low-budget props. But if you ignore those and look at the underlying message, you'll find your time well spent. I'll take Hard, warts and all, over a perfectly made but brain-deadening Miss Congeniality any day.

A serial killer terrorizes and kills young gay men, urban drifters whom society couldn't care less about. And therein lies a clue to the killer's motivation, at least in part. "Hard" is not a whodunit, although, as a result of the film's editing, the identity of the killer is not revealed officially until almost halfway into the film. Up to that point, the killer, at least in theory, could be any of several people. There's also some intentional plot misdirection with regard to another character. Indeed, I think the film would have been stronger as a full-fledged whodunit, with all kinds of plot twists and turns. As is, the film reveals too much, too soon and, as a result, forgoes a sense of mystery and some suspense.

Even with a less than ideal plot, the film does a great job of conveying a sense of danger, especially toward the end. The visuals are dark, and when combined with sinister background music, create a tone that is menacing and foreboding. The finale takes place in an old, unused theater, and its creepy basement with wet floors, a holding place for previous victims. Here, at night, the cops close in. A beam of flashlight, a dilapidated stage, some rickety scaffolding, all that inky darkness, the perfect lair for a psychopath.

The film has suffered some bad press because the subject matter is not politically correct. There are lots of violent images, though very little in the way of violent action. The film also has a lot to say about police attitudes toward gays.

Edgy and cinematically risky, "Hard" grapples with difficult images and ideas. It isn't for everyone, in the same sense that the 1980 film "Cruising" was not for everyone. But even on a shoestring budget, "Hard" is a well-made film. It's an intriguing film, one that's best seen late at night, when all the lights are out.