Hard Core Logo and Hard Core Road-Show: Fan Differs with Noel S. Baker On a Couple Things
I love Hard Core Logo. Like true loves sometimes do, it hid from me in plain sight. For almost 12 years, but I’m not bitter. I like to find a bright side and I can think of two. No three, I just thought of another one. 1) I didn’t see it after reading reviews, or in the company of others whose opinions might have tainted mine, or at the insistence of a punk-fan friend who loved it. I was minding my own business (renting everything Callum Keith Rennie has ever been in) and bumped right into it. Biased though I was by a certain actor’s presence in the movie, I think that watching it on my own, with few expectations, helped me love it more honestly. 2) Being late means there’s a lot of good stuff waiting for me. Articles, pictures, a book, discussions. 3) I showed up just in time for the sequel(s), apparently. I don’t have 13 years to wait, maybe just one.
Noel S. Baker was the screenwriter of Hard Core Logo. He was intimately involved in the making of the movie and he chronicled the experience in his book, “Hard Core Road-Show.”
Because I’m about to pick a fight with him, I should first say that I love his book. I like his writing style, the choices he makes. He knows how to tell a true story and make it funnier, by adding just a thin layer of ironic commentary. I was even fascinated by his tales of the money problems and the production issues --- if he can do that for me, I salute him. And I’m not even speakin’ of the great screenplay he wrote, to create one of my favorite films. And I ain’t even talkin’ bout the fact that he wrote a book that lets fans behind the scenes during the making of the movie! I mean, we get all the delicious details of the casting…the genesis of the ending…the creation of critical scenes and plot points. If you're a fan of a movie, that kind of thing is gold and I will whisper Noel’s name, in gratitude, with my dying breath. (Well…there will be a list. But he’s on it.)
Having said all that, I was struck by how much some of my thoughts and feelings differed from parts of Noel’s account.
Here’s Noel:
Some observations about our actors three days into shooting. Hugh’s performance is far more powerful than I ever would have thought. The guy has an ego the size of King Kong and it stands him in good stead here, since he’s essentially playing himself. He is fearless, likes to challenge other actors and the camera. Joe Dick on paper is an angry guy. Hugh’s Joe Dick is angrier still, uglier, but also perversely funny. Far funnier than I thought he’d be. Hugh plays it like he’s got nothing to protect or lose. He’s a rocker, not an actor. He’s going on tour with the Headstones as soon as the movie is finished. He’s not worried about future acting jobs. He doesn’t need to worry about being typecast as an asshole.
This isn’t the only time he characterizes Hugh or Joe as aggressive, dominant or angry. That’s how he defines both the actor and character. From Hugh’s performance as Joe, I totally get the dominance --- he’s very clear that he wants to be the leader and that he is the leader. And there are tons of outwardly angry and aggressive behaviors. Spitting, shoving, shouting people down, pointing, and copious profanity.
But the thing I get most strongly from Joe is…dare I say, sweetness? Damaged sweetness. Am I just being such a girl here? I don’t know, but hear me out. He is very emotional and, if you listen, he actually expresses all of those emotions --- out loud and quite literally. Again and again. He’s honest with Billy, he’s honest in interviews. Ignore the attitude for a second and listen to his words. He tells everything. He lays out his wants and needs, which makes him vulnerable and, ultimately, sad. He’s also self-destructive (the hookers taking their money, the blown record deal, the final scene of the movie). And he wants something he can’t have (Billy by his side, for good). He’s tragic.
Joe’s story is the story of him risking everything to get Billy back in his life. He’s defined by love. The first time I watched, and even before I got to the end, I felt so touched by him. (In my recent travels, I found a wonderful essay from brooklinegirl where she says, “Joe Dick. I’m sorry, he is SUCH a giant woobie.” Ha. I agree completely.)
I even see his stage name as a sad thing. It is, at once, a too-obvious rejection of society, a little-boy phallic reference, and a self-criticism. That’s not a fun game. And Hugh Dillon, in interviews…come on. To whatever extent Joe Dick is Hugh Dillon, he’s a darling boy. J
Really, if you had none of the words and story points I mentioned above, you would still have the face that Joe Dick and Hugh Dillon share. Look at Joe Dick’s face. Look at those eyes. Yeah, I know, he’s saying “fucking fucking fucking cunt.” Whatever, mute the TV. Look. At his. Face.
So I see that he's intense and he's a powerhouse on stage, I'm just not feeling the scary. And, while we’re on the subject of how aggressive and dangerous Joe is: “anal rape”? Here’s Noel again, after writing the movie game scene from the van.
The other issue is romantic: Joe’s inability to think of a cool film that starts with a Y (as in “Why”) leads him to choose a 1950s Technicolor romance about a self-destructive musician who goes to the brink of death for love, but is delivered unto a happy ending with Doris Day (a weirdly idealized Billy Tallent). Billy’s scorn for Young at Heart warns Joe not to expect any happy ending to his renewed “courtship.’
Following up on this romance theme, I dropped a bomb into one of John’s fragile monologues, suggesting that the real source of the Joe-Billy tension lies in the fact that Joe once anally raped Billy, creating what the critics will doubtless call a tense homoerotic subtext.
Noel wrote the thing, so I’m very hesitant to contradict his characterization. But I just don’t see the truth of that running through these characters. Not the sex, necessarily --- I actually don’t have an opinion on whether or not they had sex. I’m talking about rape.
Look how utterly dependent Joe is on Billy. Noel points out that Joe essentially traded his idol (Bucky) for a chance to get Billy back. Joe spends the whole movie coaxing Billy back into his life. Trying to get Billy close and keep him close. Yes, Joe punches Billy in the end. But in the real end? He hurts himself, not Billy. There is zero doubt in my mind that if Joe wanted Billy, sexually, and Billy said “Stop”, Joe would have stopped. Look at his face at the end of the final fight. Joe doesn’t want to hurt Billy, even when he wants to hurt Billy, you know? Joe wants Billy’s love and his presence.
As for Billy, I see no rape survivor. I see no fear, no lack of intimacy. He says he loves Joe. He gives Joe a hundred open, soft smiles. He laughs at Joe’s stories and his jokes. He stays up late to keep Joe awake as he drives. Watch him lean in close to Joe and grin.
Look at Billy’s posture in the black-and-white group interview by the roadside. It’s really hard to see; the bottom of the frame fades to black on black. But watch Billy and Joe’s hands, and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll see where Billy’s legs are, in relation to Joe. I think Billy is sitting on top of a picnic table, and Joe is sitting on the bench. Billy is very close to Joe, above and behind him, legs apart, with one along either side of Joe, so Joe is sitting between his legs. During the interview, he alternately rests an arm on one leg, then another, circling Joe with his long self. (uhhhh, sorry, I need a minute…….…ok, back.) I’m saying it’s intimate, it’s protective, it’s a fucking hug. Look at Billy’s face in that scene; he couldn’t be happier. There is no scary weirdness here. During the film Billy’s angry at Joe, but in a big-picture way. He’s angry because he loves Joe and Joe can’t be who Billy needs him to be. Not because Joe perpetrated some horrible violence on Billy.
Now a lot of the evidence I’ve presented is not dialogue, it’s performance. So maybe Hugh and Callum simply chose to play something other than what Noel intended. (There’s certainly a basis for that, in the book. The two actors apparently created a real-life relationship, they reworked scenes, they were very involved in shaping these characters.) Maybe even Noel would agree that what’s on the screen doesn’t fit his initial definition of the sexual encounter. Or maybe “anally raped” was just a poor choice of words on Noel’s part. I mean, in the excerpt above, he says he’s following up on the “romance theme”. (Rape: It’s Not Romantic. My new PSA.) In any case I’m just saying that, other than its appearance in John’s list of possible sex scenarios, there is no rape evident in this movie.
I’m not even challenging the possibility of sex between these two --- I’m fine with it. I’m saying that, if it happened, it wasn’t violent. And that, by the way, Joe is SO the girl. J
Callum is grooming himself for the bigtime, for stardom, though he’s too cool to broadcast this openly. You can see it in his roles choices, though: hipsters, loners, outsiders, rebels, charmers. He doesn’t look like someone who would take a goofy or unsympathetic character role, because like most people who want to be stars, he understands the connection between the role and the actor’s own persona. If he is difficult about dialogue it is because he doesn’t want to appear foolish. And he’s right. Any good-looking enough screen actor who wants to go all the way should take this kind of care from the beginning. I this guy, the way I always like people who know what they’re doing and where they’re going.
Later:
Callum Rennie is constantly looking for ways to boil his role down to a single essence, to simplify, to say less while being more. He may have been very candid about certain things when I first got to know him last May, but with the film in production I find him impenetrable (not that I have any interest in penetrating him). Billy has Callum’s own remoteness, that sense of being preoccupied with the future, of constantly strategizing, calculating, looking ahead to a big-time that might await if only the right moves are made now. The single essence Callum seeks for Billy is, I think, the single essence he is seeking for himself, where person and persona commingle. It’s an apprenticeship in The James Dean Way and it’s fascinating to watch, on and off the set. Callum’s two primary cool actor gestures: he points to people with his ring finger and this signifies many unspoken things (hello, goodbye, you’re cool, I’m cool, fuck you, touché), he runs his hand through his hair, his head tilted down, when he looks harried or put-upon. It’s the simplicity of his signifiers that makes him so effective as a screen actor.
Noel sees Billy (and Callum) as primarily driven by a cold desire for fame. I see it as a more fundamental struggle. I see Billy as trying to define himself outside the sphere of his youth, which was Joe and Hard Core Logo. I see him as trying to save himself from a fate tied to Joe’s, because he believes Joe is self-destructive. And, because he loves Joe so much, this has been a monumental challenge for Billy. I see the distance, the remoteness that Noel talks about --- I do. But I don’t find Billy hard or shallow, I find him self-protective.
Just watch him struggle with himself as Joe asks him, each time, to stay. There’s a pull in two directions. Now, we understand the pull of the fame and success, right? Are we knocking Billy for wanting to be successful? I hope not. He’s 34. As he says in the bathroom interview, he’s making money for the first time in his life. Its lure is obvious and understandable. But what’s the pull in the other direction? The van? The hookers? The music? (No, presumably Jenifur plays good music.) It’s Joe. He loves Joe. He says he loves Joe, and more than anyone he’s met since they became friends at 13.
(You could argue that Billy agrees to play with Joe only when he finds himself with no other options. But a) his love for Joe is clear, and b) Ed Festus, on voicemail, points out that Billy blew the first chance at a Jenifur contract by leaving the states to play and then tour with HCL. “Shoulda stayed in L.A., man!” he says. This has an “I told you so” tone to it --- I infer that Ed told Billy not to go to play the benefit in the first place.)
When Billy agrees to stay and play with Joe, each time, listen to him talk. In the tiki bar. “Ok, I’ll go. I’ll go go go go.” Then he asks for hotels and a promise that he can leave after the tour. Then he puts his head in his hand. Last day, at the club. Joe says the two of them should agree to stay together. Billy: “So you want you, me, you, me.” He agrees to stay with Joe, asks Joe to lay off the drugs, then playfully slaps him.
I see the funny, repetitive talk and the request for conditions and even the little slap as a struggle with himself as much as with Joe. It’s part of Billy telling the other part, “It’s ok. I can do this on my terms. I can do this and then walk away. I can stop anytime I want.” The thing that pulls him to Joe is his love for Joe and the thing they have when they’re together. And opposing that is the determination to stay strong, stay the course, follow the plan, to save himself. It’s not callous, it’s a desire to survive.
As for Callum, Noel says he’s trying to be cool, in this role and in life, so he can be a star. In fact, Noel seems to use Hugh as a counterpoint, saying that Hugh can afford to play an unattractive character because he doesn’t want another acting job. (Heh, so much for that.)
I don’t know Callum, I only know Billy. But there is evidence to the contrary. While Callum might well have wanted stardom, I can think of many roles that directly contradict the “creation of the cool persona” theory of the CKR career plan. Though his range is huge and his career is varied, he’s played many ugly, violent, crazy, unflattering characters. So either Noel was wrong or Callum has changed his strategy since then.
We shoot Billy’s radio interview scene from Edmonton… Billy silently shows him the fax from L.A renewing the Jenifur offer. The interviewer reads the fax and gets excited, wants to talk about it on air. Billy refuses to finish the interview, and he even asks Bruce the director if he’ll be cool and not tell Joe. This suggests that Billy has not made up his mind about leaving Joe yet. But why show up for a radio interview and then refuse to talk? The scene doesn’t make sense unless Billy drops the bomb on-air.
I discuss this for several minutes with Callum, who is dead-set against playing the scene as written, with Billy callously telling the world he’s leaving HCL for good after tonight’s show because he’s got a better offer somewhere else. I suspect Callum doesn’t want his character to openly betray Joe here for fear of looking like an asshole. Like any other movie star, he knows he “is” his role in the eyes of the public. When we shoot it, the point of the scene comes across, but it could have come across stronger if Billy had stabbed Joe in the back on-air.
Ok, I’m going to have to take this apart:
- ..why show up for a radio interview and then refuse to talk? He showed up for the interview before he had the offer from Jenifur. That might not be how it was originally written (where, according to the commentary, the band was staying at a hotel, and the fax arrived there), but as it plays in the movie, Billy just got the fax “five minutes ago.” When the interviewer asks about his future with HCL, Billy shows the fax because he’s excited! He’s simply in-the-moment. He wants to tell somebody, anybody! He refuses to talk about it on-air because he doesn’t want to hurt Joe in that way. He’s got two opposing emotions at once: the thrill of his dream coming true, and the fear of hurting his best friend unnecessarily. So as the interview turns to HCL’s future, Billy finds he has nothing truthful he can say.
- This suggests that Billy has not made up his mind about leaving Joe yet. No it doesn’t, it suggests that Billy wants to tell Joe in person. He’s made up his mind, but he doesn’t want Joe to find out listening to the radio! Or from anyone but him. And he’s dreading having that conversation; he doesn’t even want to think about that part yet, he just wants to enjoy this moment of triumph.
- I suspect Callum doesn’t want his character to openly betray Joe here for fear of looking like an asshole. Like any other movie star, he knows he “is” his role in the eyes of the public. I disagree. First, Billy’s motivation makes perfect sense, as played. Billy loves Joe. Why would he want to humiliate him like that? Callum was right about his character. Second, see my point, above, about Callum not wanting to play an unattractive character. If that was true at one time, he’s apparently changed his mind. (In fact, though he plays good characters so beautifully, he seemed, for a time, to be the go-to guy when your show needed a small-time killer or a violent, misogynist ex-boyfriend.) I see no vanity in his career or in his choices for that scene.
Ok, I’m done. Anybody have any thoughts?