Vitals

George C. Scott as Jake Van Dorn, serious Midwestern family man

San Francisco, Spring 1978

Film: Hardcore
Release Date: February 9, 1979
Director: Paul Schrader
Men’s Wardrobe Supervisor: G. Tony Scarano

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Oh my God, that’s my daughter.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads who read BAMF Style… and to this soon-to-be first-time dad who writes BAMF Style, as my wife is expecting our first this October!

Of course, since I’m the same insane person who writes about Psycho and The Grifters for Mother’s Day, today’s Father’s Day post centers around George C. Scott’s style in Paul Schrader’s 1979 neo-noir Hardcore as Jake Van Dorn, a Michigan rivet manufacturing executive who goes deep undercover in the California porn industry to try to save his daughter Kristen (Ilah Davis) after he learns from private detective Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) that she’s been appearing in stag films. With the help of sex worker Niki (Season Hubley), Jake travels up and down the west coast in search of answers, leading him to the depraved porn kingpin Ratan (Marc Alaimo) and his red-booted lackey Tod (Gary Graham).

Mast refers to Jake as “Pilgrim”, nodding both to his strict Calvinism and his John Wayne-like approach to finding his daughter; indeed, Schrader was inspired by Duke’s famous western The Searchers when he wrote Hardcore and even used the working title “The Pilgrim” while filming on location in Jake’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as this was deemed more agreeable to the locals than “Hardcore”.

The second film to be both written and directed by Schrader—at that point perhaps best known for the Taxi Driver screenplay—Hardcore naturally contains Schrader’s usual themes of dark sexuality, violence, and Calvinist repression, characterized through self-destructive men facing existential crises.

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What’d He Wear?

Jake recognizes that his conservative suits and ties stick out like a sore thumb among all levels of the adult entertainment world in California, so he adopts a new and very uncharacteristic wardrobe, beginning with a tie-dyed T-shirt and shell necklace paired with a terrible wig and fake mustache.

Jake thankfully transitions to his natural hairstyle after hosting his “casting session” but continues anchoring his style around wild sports shirts, including a funky-printed top that he wears for the last act through the finale. The shirt is one of several that Paul Schrader refers to in his screenplay during the sequence when Jake queues to place a “personals” ad in the Los Angeles Free Press:

He wears an open sport shirt, slacks and loafers. Bit by bit he’s been going native. He realizes he isn’t going to infiltrate the pornography underworld looking like a furniture dealer from Grand Rapids. Even so, Jake’s conventional dress sets him apart from his fellow advertisers. The long line winds back and forth and represents just about every possible deviation from the American heterosexual norm: studs, butches, hookers, freaks, cultists: misfits all.

This shirt features an abstract all-over print of ribbon arcs and jagged geometric bursts—all in shades of tan, cream, pale yellow, muted lavender, and light blue—swirling against a dark russet-brown ground. This kinetic pattern creates a sense of movement and controlled chaos, as if capturing the energy of spinning pinwheels or exploding fireworks frozen in mid-burst, evoking the pop-art styles of designers like Emilio Pucci or Pierre Cardin. (Based on subtle differences in the pattern’s placement between scenes, it is evident that multiples were used throughout the movie.)

Almost certainly made from 100% polyester, the shirt has a long-pointed spread collar and rounded barrel cuffs that each close with a single button matching the squared mother-of-pearl 4-hole buttons up the plain front.

When Jake first sports the shirt in L.A., he tucks it into tan flat-front trousers styled with “frogmouth”-style full-top front pockets, jetted back pockets, and belt loops through which he wears a dark-brown leather belt.

Farther north in San Francisco, Jake layers on a single-breasted blazer made from a softly tufted tan twill fabric, tonally coordinating with the rest of the brown tones in his clothing. The cut follows the typical single-breasted design with notch lapels, but the blazer is styled with unique details including a throat latch extension from the left side of the collar—presumably to close the jacket over the neck by fastening to a smaller button under the right side of the collar.

The two gilt crested shank buttons help qualify the sporty jacket as a blazer, with three smaller matching buttons on each cuff. Styled with the long double vents popular during the disco era, the blazer features a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and a smaller flapped ticket pocket positioned just above the right hip pocket.

In San Francisco, Jake contrasts the tan blazer with darker trousers, made from a solid dark-brown polyester. Unlike the tan slacks he wore in L.A., these flat-front trousers have a self-suspended waistband without belt loops, fastened only with an extended waist tab that closes through a single button. The front pockets have curved openings, and the plain-hemmed bottoms have a touch of fashionable flare.

Worn with plain black cotton lisle socks, Jake’s dark-brown leather saddle-strap loafers have a moc-toe construction and decorative gold-toned buckles flanking each side of the straps. This style of loafer had a quiet moment in late ’60s through early ’80s department-store suiting, with the ornamental buckle detail adding a subtly dressier flash to otherwise conservative slip-on shoes.

Jake continues wearing his thick gold wedding band on his left ring finger while still cycling through eyewear. Most clearly seen with other outfits, his wide sporty aviator-shaped sunglasses were almost definitely made by the French label Bollé, uniquely constructed with a color-layered acetate frame that presents a dark-blue outside, a white center, and red inside. He also briefly wears eyeglasses with clearer squared lenses and gold-toned arms.

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How to Get the Look

Jake Van Dorn adopts a hardcore shift in his style when going underground in the California porn scene to locate his daughter, adapting his tailored jacket-and-trousers mentality by pairing a tan blazer and brown slacks with a polyester sports shirt that depicts an uncharacteristically funky print.

• Dark russet-brown multicolor ribbon-and-streak printed polyester long-sleeved shirt with long-point spread collar, plain front, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Tan soft twill single-breasted 2-button blazer with notch lapels and throat latch, gilt crested shank buttons, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with right-side ticket pocket, 3-button cuffs, and long double vents
• Dark-brown polyester flat-front trousers with self-suspended waistband, curved front pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather moc-toe side-buckle saddle-strap loafers
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Gold wedding ring

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Then you take me home.