We flashback to 1996 for one of Bruce McDonald's Best in this edition of Great White North Films

Written By Ian Gregg

After a parched hiatus, a rock & roll road trip across western Canada pushes miled-out punks back onto the stage and over the edge. Bruce McDonald’s hallmark of mockumentary cinema examines the cataclysmic nature of punk rock, the comedy of errors roads provide, and how friends can grow together — then apart — through mutually assured destruction. This slice of Canadiana counterculture leaves you asking for more of the same bittersweet pie.

The film moves well and wastes little time as it begins with the band’s reunion gig. Our protagonist Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), has pulled the ordeal together and reunited his scattered band under false pretenses, to proposition a reunion tour through western Canada’s major cities. With a bowling trophy hood ornament, the wheels start to roll through endless cross-country kilometers. Though the audience understands the fatigue the highway grinds into the band, especially Joe and Billy (Callum Keith Rennie), we don’t feel the same monotony. John (John Pyper-Ferguson) — the bass player — narrates the story from his diary entries while gradually losing the effects of his medication and lucidity in general, “I’m free riding the thermals over a rocky beach and whoosh, all the air gets sucked out of the sky by some God with a straw and I fall…” His words pass by with the familiar scenery of a westerner’s family road trip: the snow capped mountains, endless prairies, citadels of trees, and thousands of dark Highway-1 kilometers that move underneath the headlights’ gaze.

The cinematography and setting cooperate to make us feel as though every event is perfectly authentic. Peering through the blue haze of cigarette smoke, each bar looks as if we’ve been inside it on another occasion. Each pit stop and late night greasy spoon drench us in an unshakeable familiarity. Even an acid trip on Bucky Haight’s (Julian Richings) remote homestead reminisces a misspent prairie youth. Despite the love and hate within the HCLF (Hard Core Logo Family), the characters’ common ground remains inside the music.

The shaky cam compliments the raw and erratic quality of Hard Core Logo’s soundtrack. The film took home the Genie award for, “Best Achievement in Music – Original Song” in 1996 due to the killer performance of the title track, “Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?” Even though a first time viewer has never heard the songs before, any punk can enjoy the original soundtrack that director McDonald convinced many established artists to cover. A Tribute to Hard Core Logo dropped in 1996 to support the idea that Hard Core Logo documented the trials and tribulations of a real group. Commissioned albums and shaky cameras add to the realism of the film, but the characters make the story truly convincing.

Hard Core Logo could not keep its audience at ease without the slapstick Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson) as he demonstrates how badly he wants a burger, or John’s deadpan humour as he explains his road stories, “no that was just how they dealt with their real issue, which was Joe [expletive] Billy up the [expletive] the night before.”

Of the four central characters, Joe Dick and Billy Tallent have a knack for dialogue. Whether on stage or in conversation, the two speak without ever saying a word. A look in Joe’s eye before he spits on the crowd, or the way Billy inhales his cigarette before he sips his scotch, establishes that these two personalities understand each other better than Clapton understands his guitar. Despite their near telepathic abilities the past has its demons; a reporter picks at this scab, “Ed Festus said you two fought like some tanked up white trash couple at a trailer park.”

Though Pipefitter and John are key to the band’s dynamic and provide 90 per cent of the comic relief, Joe and Billy learn that though they have achieved success together, they will undoubtedly destroy each other. An unfortunate note to this film is the relative static Pipefitter and John experience in their development. Pipefitter does not change much, if at all, throughout the course of the film and John descends into madness that later reveals itself as temporary, according to the blurb in the credits. We can only hope for more installments in the Hard Core Logo series to see John and Pipefitter evolve.

In a world where both Canadian music and Canadian film are rare, sore eyes light up when they see both forms integrated this well. Regarded as one of the most important films to come out of Canada, Hard Core Logo lives up to its legend, one we hope won’t ever fade away. This contemporary example of Canadian road — and music — culture slides into any time capsule with ease, just as long as a solid body guitar doesn’t smash that capsule apart.

Director: Bruce McDonald

Release Date: October 25, 1996

Cast: Julian Richings, Hugh Dillon, Callum Keith Rennie, Joey Ramone, Benita Ha, John Pyper-Ferguson, Bernie Coulson, Claudia Ferri

Length: 92 Minutes

Studio: Mannah Studios, Terminal City Pictures, Shadow Shows, Ed Festus Productions

Written by :

Gregg