| | "Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!" That famous sound bite is, of course, devoutly religious father Jake Van Dorn (George C. Scott) hollering at a man projecting a porn loop starring his daughter. Writer and director Schrader revisited themes from his screenplay for TAXI DRIVER, adding even more personal insight. He has specialized in dark sexuality but was raised in an ultra-strict religious community and saw his first movie at age 18, so he was uniquely suited to telling this story of a businessman from American heartland with strong Calvinist convictions whose teenage daughter goes missing on a church trip to L.A. He hires private investigator who finds that the daughter has been spotted in a cheap X-rated movie. Van Dorn decides to bring her back personally which requires plunging into the pornographic inferno with prostitute Niki (Season Hubley) as his Virgil. Nobody did rage like George C. Scott, and he gets plenty pissed-off along the way. is sensationalistic but not cheap. Van Dorn's compelling conversations with Niki rise above stereotypes of religious/conservative heartlanders, revealing a man who thinks lust is more trivial than it is evil and is bewildered by the materialism of liberal California. (The portrait of the adult film business as an infinitely sinister world of snuff films is, on the other hand, as moronic as it is universal. Radical feminists and the heartland's most backward bigots have long maintained a sturdy alliance against free speech built upon that demented fantasy.) With Peter Boyle, Dick Sargent. Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 1.0) Available subtitles: English, Spanish, Japanese |
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