Hard Core Logo
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| Hard Core Logo | |
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| Directed by | Bruce McDonald |
| Produced by | Brian Dennis Christine Haebler |
| Written by | Michael Turner (novel) Noel S. Baker (screenplay) |
| Starring | Hugh Dillon Callum Keith Rennie John Pyper-Ferguson Bernie Coulson |
| Music by | Schaun Tozer |
| Cinematography | Danny Nowak |
| Editing by | Reginald Harkema |
| Distributed by | Shadow Shows Incorporated (Canada) |
| Release date(s) | October 11, 1996 |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Hard Core Logo is a Canadian mockumentary adapted by Noel Baker from the novel of the same name by author Michael Turner. Director Bruce McDonald illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock.
The film, released in 1996, documents a once-popular punk band, Hard Core Logo. The band is composed of lead singer Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), fame-tempted guitarist Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie), schizophrenic bass player John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Ferguson) and drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson).
Julian Richings plays Bucky Haight, Dick's idol. Molly Parker plays a member of the riot grrrl band Jenifur.
Several notable punk musicians, including Art Bergmann, Joey Shithead and Joey Ramone, play themselves in cameos. Canadian television personality Terry David Mulligan also has a cameo, playing a fictionalized version of himself.
The film has been frequently ranked amongst the greatest movies ever to come out of Canada based on Keithloh.com's list of greatest Canadian films [1]. It is ranked #127 on the Canada section, 12th on the fictional band and 97th on Band sections #112th on the Road movie section on the IMDB.com [2] [3] [4] [5] and is ranked #1 on Wanderlist's Poll of Greatest Canadian Films. [6]
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[edit] Synopsis
Bruce McDonald directed this mock-documentary (and appears onscreen as himself) which looks at a veteran punk rock band taking one final stab at the big time. Singer Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), guitarist Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie), bassist John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Fergson), and drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson) were the members of Hard Core Logo, a Vancouver-based rock band that was one of Canada's biggest and most influential punk outfits for the better part of a decade. Formed in 1978, Hard Core Logo broke up in 1991 after releasing seven albums and playing over a thousand shows; Joe went on to play the occasional solo gig, Billy moved to L.A. and has been sitting in with platinum-selling alternative pop band Jennifur while their guitarist tries to kick drugs, John has been putting his life back together after a severe nervous breakdown, and Pipefitter hasn't been doing much of anything. Word begins to circulate that Bucky Haight (Julian Richings), one of the seminal figures of Canadian punk and Joe's mentor, lost a leg (or maybe both) following a mysterious incident in which intruders shot him after breaking into his prairie farmhouse. Joe organizes a benefit for Bucky, with Hard Core Logo reuniting for the occasion; the show is a huge success, and Joe persuades Billy to join him, John, and Pipefitter for a five-date reunion tour to cash in on the benefit's notoriety. Billy, killing time while he waits to find out if his spot in Jennifur will become permanent, is more than a bit preoccupied, and his desire for professionalism doesn't mesh especially well with Joe's take-it-as-it-comes attitude -- especially after it becomes evident that Joe's purposes for reuniting the band weren't as benevolent as they seemed. Actual Canadian punk legends D.O.A. make a cameo appearance as one of Hard Core Logo's opening acts, and American punk godfather Joey Ramone appears briefly in a news report about the Bucky Haight benefit show. (Mark Deming, All Movie Guide)
[edit] Production
McDonald grew up in the Vancouver punk rock scene in the late '70s and early '80s and was drawn to Michael Turner's book about aging musicians. McDonald commented in an interview, "what I thought was really interesting is where it is 15 years later, and what are these guys doing now." He had just come off the critically acclaimed Dance Me Outside and friends warned him not to repeat himself by making another road movie. However, McDonald did not see Logo as a repeat of previous films. "On the other films, they (the anti-heroes of Roadkill and Highway 61 go down the road and meet a nutty person and things happened. Here you're with the same people throughout - and they are the nutty people!"
McDonald had to persuade Dillon to do the movie. "He was going 'Wow, what if the movie is shit, then I'd lose all my fans from the band, I'd lose all my credibility!'" The director auditioned 200 actors for the role but kept coming back to the musician. Dillon remembers, "as soon as he gave me freedom to make the screenplay more believable, I became interested. Bruce allowed me creative input and that's what made it a special piece for me." Dillon drew a lot on his own real life experiences of being in a band.
Hard Core Logo screened at the Cannes Film Festival. McDonald remembers, "Cannes was very humbling. You're in the same arena as Bernardo Bertolucci and Czechoslovakian pornographers. It's such a bizarre spectrum." The film went on to be nominated for six Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Director. Quentin Tarantino saw Logo at a film festival and liked it so much that he bought the U.S. distribution rights under his Rolling Thunder label and even toyed with casting Dillon in Jackie Brown.
[edit] Awards
The film won the Genie Award for 'Best Achievement in Music - Original Song' for the track "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?" and was nominated for 5 other awards including Best Film and Best Direction. It took the Best Canadian Feature at both the Sudbury Cinéfest and the Vancouver International Film Festival, it also took the award for Best Canadian Screenplay at the latter. [7]
[edit] Soundtrack
Although music figures heavily in the film, a conventional soundtrack album was not initially released; instead, McDonald had several notable Canadian bands record covers of the songs in the film, and packaged them as if they were a tribute album to a real band. That album, A Tribute to Hard Core Logo, was also released in 1996. (A proper soundtrack album was released later in 1998 on Velvel Records.)
[edit] Other Trivia
- Canadian punk band, Billy Talent, (note the different spelling) is named after Hard Core Logo's guitarist.
- Michael Turner was earlier in a band called Hard Rock Miners.
- In the movie Billy Tallent is reading I Never Liked You, a graphic novel by Chester Brown.
