Editing Hard Core Logo

{{Infobox film
| name           = Hard Core Logo
| image          = Hcl.jpg
| producer       = Brian Dennis<br>Christine Haebler
| director       = [[Bruce McDonald (director)|Bruce McDonald]]
| screenplay     = [[Noel S. Baker]]
| based_on       = ''Hard Core Logo''<br>by [[Michael Turner (musician)|Michael Turner]]
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Hugh Dillon]]
* [[Callum Keith Rennie]]
* [[John Pyper-Ferguson]]
* [[Bernie Coulson]]}}
| music          = {{plainlist|
* Schaun Tozer
* [[Patric Caird]]
* Michael Turner
* Hugh Dillon
* [[Swamp Baby]]
}}
| cinematography = Danny Nowak
| editing        = Reginald Harkema
| studio         = Terminal City Pictures<br>Shadow Shows<br>Ed Festus Productions<br>[[Téléfilm Canada]]<br>British Columbia Film<br>TiMe Medienvertriebs GmbH<br>[[CITY-TV]]<br>Everest Pictures Inc.
| distributor    = [[Cineplex Odeon Films]]
| released       = {{Film date|1996|5||[[1996 Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]]|1996|10|25|Canada}}
| runtime        = 92 minutes
| country        = Canada
| language       = English
}}

'''''Hard Core Logo''''' is a 1996 Canadian [[musical film|music]] [[mockumentary]] film directed by [[Bruce McDonald (director)|Bruce McDonald]], adapted by [[Noel S. Baker]] from the novel of the same name by [[Michael Turner (musician)|Michael Turner]]. The film illustrates the self-destruction of [[punk rock]], documenting a once-popular band, the titular Hard Core Logo, comprising 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. 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 premiered at the [[1996 Cannes Film Festival]]. It received widespread critical acclaim, and was nominated for six [[Genie Awards]], including [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture|Best Motion Picture]] and [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Director|Best Director]]. In a 2001 poll of 200 industry voters, performed by [[Playback (magazine)|''Playback'']], ''Hard Core Logo'' was named the fourth best Canadian film of the last 15 years.<ref name="Dillon" /> In 2002, readers of ''Playback'' voted it the 4th greatest Canadian film ever made.<ref name="Dillon2" />

A sequel, ''[[Hard Core Logo 2]]'', was released in 2010.

==Plot==
The film is about a documentary team that follows the reunion of Hard Core Logo, a once-popular punk rock band. Frontman Joe Dick gets the band back together, ostensibly for an anti-gun benefit after hearing Canadian punk legend and personal [[mentor]] Bucky Haight, has been shot. They begin the tour in [[Vancouver]] and travel thousands of kilometers east along the [[Trans-Canada Highway]] to [[Winnipeg]], then northwest along the [[Yellowhead Highway]] to [[Edmonton]]. 

On the way, the band's dark secrets are revealed; however, while they travel, they keep ignoring each other's darkness.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hard Core Logo |url=https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000091175/ |website=IMDB |access-date=25 March 2019}}</ref> Bassist John Oxenberger loses his [[schizophrenia]] medication and slowly loses his sanity. Guitarist Billy Tallent finds out that by going on tour he loses his position in mainstream American rock band Jenifur and with that his one shot at stardom. 

The band stops by Bucky Haight's reclusive estate only to find he was never shot and that Joe fabricated the lie in order to get the band together. The band and documentary crew drop [[LSD|acid]] and experience hallucinations. Bucky admonishes Joe for using him to get the band together. 

At Edmonton, Tallent finds out he has another opportunity to permanently join Jenifur. Joe finds out from the film crew and later attacks Billy on stage. Dick destroys Tallent's [[Fender Stratocaster]], which was a gift from Haight, and the band parts ways. 

In the final scene Joe Dick drinks with the documentary crew members, then suddenly shoots himself in the head.

==Cast==
{{castlist|
* [[Hugh Dillon]] as Joe Dick
* [[Callum Keith Rennie]] as Billy Tallent
* [[John Pyper-Ferguson]] as John Oxenberger
* [[Bernie Coulson]] as Pipefitter
* [[Julian Richings]] as Bucky Haight
* [[Benita Ha]] as Pipefitter's Girlfriend
* [[Claudia Ferri]] as John Oxenberger's Girlfriend
* [[Joey Ramone]] as Himself
* [[Corrine Koslo]] as Laura Cromartie
* [[Bruce McDonald (director)|Bruce McDonald]] as Himself (director)
* Danny Nowak as Himself (camera operator)
* Jochen A. Schliessler as Himself (sound recordist)
* [[Art Bergmann]] as Himself
* [[Terry David Mulligan]] as Mulligan, booking agent
* [[Joey Shithead]] as Himself
* Nicole N. Parker as a music writer
* [[Megan Leitch]] as Mary the Fan
* [[Michael Kopsa]] as Mary's husband
* Alexa Mardon as Little Billie
* [[Molly Parker]] as ''Jenifur'' member ''(uncredited)''
}}

==Production==
McDonald grew up in the [[Vancouver]] [[punk rock]] scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s 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".<ref name="Poppy">{{cite news | last = Poppy | first = Nick | title = All Rock, No Mounties: Canadian Bruce McDonald's ''Hard Core Logo'' | work=INDIEwire | date = November 13, 1998}}</ref> He had just come off the critically acclaimed ''[[Dance Me Outside]]'' and friends warned him not to repeat himself by making another road movie.<ref name="Craig">{{cite news | last = Craig | first = Jeff | title = Canuck Punk | work=[[Edmonton Sun]] | date = October 17, 1996}}</ref> However, McDonald did not see ''Logo'' as a repeat of previous films: "On the other films, they (the anti-heroes of ''[[Roadkill (1989 film)|Roadkill]]'' and ''[[Highway 61 (film)|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!"<ref name="Kirkland2">{{cite news | last = Kirkland | first = Bruce | title = McDonald Stays on the Rock Road |newspaper=Toronto Sun | date = October 17, 1996}}</ref>

McDonald had to persuade Dillon to do the film: "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!'"<ref name="CanPress">{{cite news | title = Punk Rockumentary More than ''Spinal Tap'' Clone | work=Canadian Press | date = October 14, 1996}}</ref> 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.<ref name="McLeod">{{cite news | last = McLeod | first = Tyler | title = Anarchy in Motion | work=[[Calgary Sun]] | date = October 12, 1996}}</ref>

The music of the fictional band was all written by [[Michael Turner (musician)|Michael Turner]], arranged and produced by [[Peter J. Moore]], and performed by Hugh Dillon and the band [[Swamp Baby]].

== Soundtrack ==
Although music figures heavily in the film, a conventional soundtrack album was not initially released; instead, McDonald had several notable Canadian bands record [[cover versions|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 more traditional soundtrack album, comprising the actual music contained in the film itself, was released later in 1998 on Velvel Records.

===Track listing===
Lyrics by [[Michael Turner (musician)|Michael Turner]] and music by [[Hugh Dillon]] and [[Swamp Baby]], except where noted:
		
# "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?" (2:54)
# "Rock & Roll Is Fat and Ugly" (1:57)
# "Something's Gonna Die Tonight" (3:17)
# "Blue Tattoo" (3:14)
# "Sonic Reducer" (2:54) ([[Dead Boys]] cover)
# "Edmonton Block Heater" (3:00)
# "China White (Ten Buck Fuck)" (4:45)
# "One Foot in the Gutter" - (1:52) (The Ugly cover)
# "Hawaii" (1:37) - ([[Young Canadians]] cover)
# "Bonerack" (3:35) - [[Teenage Head (band)|Teenage Head]]
# "Touring" (2:52) - [[Ramones]]
# "Wild Wild Women" (3:19) - [[Chris Spedding]]

==Reception==
''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 (film)|Jackie Brown]]''.

=== Critical reception ===
''Hard Core Logo'' was well received by Canadian film critics. In his review for the ''[[Toronto Sun]]'', Bruce Kirkland praised the cast: "They're all so convincing it is impossible to believe they're not all the real thing".<ref name="Kirkland">{{cite news | last = Kirkland | first = Bruce | title = ''Hard Core Logo'' is Pure Punk Poetry |newspaper=Toronto Sun | date = October 18, 1996}}</ref> John Griffin, in his review for the ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', called it "a masterful exercise in edgy virtuoso film craft, subversive propaganda and exhilarating entertainment".<ref name="Griffin">{{cite news | last = Griffin | first = John | title = Solid Gold: ''Hard Core Logo'' is the Best Rock 'n' Roll Movie of All Time | work=[[Montreal Gazette]] | date = October 18, 1996}}</ref> In his review for the ''[[Toronto Star]]'', Peter Goddard praised Noel Baker's screenplay for providing "some of the funniest and deftest writing Canadian moviemaking has heard in years but it can't hide the bitter-sweetness just below the surface".<ref name="Goddard">{{cite news | last = Goddard | first = Peter | title = End-of-the-Road Movie for a Generation |work=Toronto Star | date = October 18, 1996}}</ref> Liam Lacey in his review for ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' wrote: "Though the jumpy, parodic, disruptive style suits rock music, the same techniques prevent viewers from investing deeply in the characters and the story. The ride is fun, but it doesn't quite reach a destination".<ref name="Lacey">{{cite news | last = Lacey | first = Liam | title = ''Hard Core Logo'' | work=The Globe and Mail | location=Canada | date = October 19, 1996}}</ref>

The film received general favorable review from American film critics. ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave it a "B−" rating and [[Owen Gleiberman]] wrote: "Most of the characters are too goofy to register. Still, there are times when Dillon's performance lays bare why, for sheer style, burning out will always have the edge over fading away".<ref name="Gleiberman">{{cite magazine | last = Gleiberman | first = Owen | title = ''Hard Core Logo'' | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | date = November 27, 1998 | url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,285891,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203222909/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,285891,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = December 3, 2008 | access-date = 2010-03-04}}</ref> In his review for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', Peter Stack wrote: "Director Bruce McDonald (''[[Dance Me Outside]]'') has turned out a tight, fascinating on-the-road rock movie, a delicious study in mean-spiritedness as well as the gut imperatives that make punk music the unsettling, hostile experience it is".<ref name="Stack">{{cite news | last = Stack | first = Peter | title = Punks Mix It Up in Razor-Sharp Comedy | work=San Francisco Chronicle | date = December 4, 1998 | url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/12/04/DD77578.DTL | access-date = 2010-03-04}}</ref> Stephen Holden, in his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'' felt that "unlike ''[[This Is Spinal Tap|Spinal Tap]]'', which cast a comically jaundiced eye on every nuance of the heavy-metal life style, this clever mock documentary ... blends satire and sentiment in a way that keeps you emotionally off balance".<ref name="Holden">{{cite news | last = Holden | first = Stephen | title = Rockers Bullying and Squabbling Down Memory Lane | work=The New York Times | date = November 13, 1998 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/library/film/111398hardcore-film-review.html | access-date = 2010-03-04}}</ref>

=== Awards and nominations ===
The film won the [[Genie Award]] for [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song]] for the track "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?", and was nominated for five other awards including [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture|Best Picture]] and [[Canadian Screen Award for Best Director|Best Director]].<ref name="Howell">{{cite news | last = Howell | first = Peter | title = ''Crash'' Wins Genie Race but ''Lilies'' Grabs Prize for Best Movie | work=Toronto Star | date = November 28, 1996}}</ref> 

It took the Best Canadian Feature at the [[Sudbury Cinéfest]]. At the [[Vancouver International Film Festival]], it received the $10,000 [[CITY-TV]] award for Best Canadian Film and Noel Baker won the Rogers Prize for Best Canadian Screenplay.<ref name="Vancouver">{{cite news | title = McDonald Film Wins 2 Awards | work=The Globe and Mail | location=Canada | date = October 22, 1996}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
In a 2001 poll of 200 industry voters, performed by [[Playback (magazine)|''Playback'']], ''Hard Core Logo'' was named the second best Canadian film of the last 15 years.<ref name="Dillon">{{cite news | last = Dillon | first = Mark | title = Top 15 Sweet for Egoyan | work=Playback | date = November 26, 2001 | url = http://www.playbackonline.ca/articles/magazine/20011126/top15.html?word=Hard&word=Core&word=Logo | access-date = 2009-02-14}}</ref> In 2002, readers of ''Playback'' voted it the 4th greatest Canadian film ever made.<ref name="Dillon2">{{cite news | last = Dillon | first = Mark | title = Egoyan tops Canada's all-time best movies list | work=Playback | date = September 2, 2002 | url = http://playbackonline.ca/2002/09/02/best-20020902/ | access-date = 2009-02-14}}</ref>

The character Billy Tallent, portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie, was the inspiration for the name of the Canadian band [[Billy Talent]].

McDonald asked [[Daniel MacIvor]] to write a ''[[My Dinner with Andre]]''-style screenplay that would be a sequel to ''Hard Core Logo'', with [[Hugh Dillon]] and [[Callum Keith Rennie]] playing the roles, but scheduling (among other reasons) kept it from moving forward. After some discussion, McDonald and MacIvor decided to rewrite the screenplay for two women, with [[Molly Parker]] and [[Tracy Wright]] in mind. The film was released in 2010 as ''[[Trigger (2010 film)|Trigger]]''. Rennie has a cameo in the film, reprising his role as Billy Tallent.

== Sequel ==
A sequel film, ''[[Hard Core Logo 2]]'', was released in 2010. Bruce McDonald returned to direct and write the screenplay. The film centers on the real-life band [[Die Mannequin]]. McDonald and Julian Richings are the only returning cast members from the first film. 

The sequel premiered at the [[Whistler Film Festival]] on December 4, 2010 with the members of Die Mannequin and McDonald walking the red carpet. It had its second screening at the [[Victoria Film Festival]] on February 6, 2011. It received mixed reviews.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0116488|}}
* {{mojo title|id=hardcorelogo|title=Hard Core Logo}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|id=hard-core-logo|title=Hard Core Logo}}

{{Bruce McDonald}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}}

[[Category:1996 films]]
[[Category:English-language Canadian films]]
[[Category:Canadian musical comedy films]]
[[Category:Canadian mockumentary films]]
[[Category:Punk films]]
[[Category:Fictional musical groups]]
[[Category:Films directed by Bruce McDonald]]
[[Category:Films set in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Films based on Canadian novels]]
[[Category:1996 comedy films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian films]]