Ambitious young Jodie (an excellent and appealing performance by the gorgeous Kim Basinger in her film debut) wants more out of life than her small Texas country town has to offer. Jodie realizes that in order to pursue her dreams she will have to leave Texas and move to the big city. However, her shiftless factory worker boyfriend Kyle (a fine portrayal by Jan-Michael Vincent) wants to stay in Texas. Director David Greene, working from a thoughtful and perceptive script by Michael Kanes, firmly grounds the compelling story in a totally plausible gritty blue collar reality and delivers a flavorsome evocation of the colorful downhome Texas setting. Moreover, Greene and Kane show genuine compassion and sensitivity towards the everyday characters and their wants and desires; the narrative makes a pertinent point about the compromises and sacrifices one has to make in order to get ahead in life, but thankfully never gets too sappy or melodramatic. This film further benefits from sturdy acting by a sound cast: Basinger and Vincent do sterling work in the lead roles, Tanya Tucker contributes a vibrant turn as sweet and successful country singer Caroline, plus there's able support from Michael Parks as Kyle's slick'n'sleazy well-to-do brother Royce, Gailard Sartain as rowdy good ol' boy Johnny Bob, Sierra Pecheur as Jodie's doting religious fanatic mother, Lewis Van Bergen as smarmy heel music producer Ransom, and Daryl Hannah as Jodie's brash and restless kid sister Loretta. Richard Moll has a neat bit part as a belligerent beer-guzzling redneck. Jimmie Haskell's twangy score hits the harmonic spot. The country music soundtrack is likewise quite tasty. Dennis Dalzell's polished cinematography also does the trick. A good little movie.

Kim Basinger made her feature film debut as a woman in a small town in a small town in Texas questioning her relationship with her redneck boyfriend. "Hard Country" strikes me as an attempt to look at the feminist movement. The movie DOES feature a lot of Texas stereotypes, although they're probably accurate. In the end, I thought that it did a good job showing the main character's desperation with her irresponsible boyfriend and lack of opportunities in this small town. And the soundtrack proves what should be well known by now: a lot of good music comes from the Lone Star State (it almost makes you forget that Texas is full of, well, Texans). And it should go without saying that Basinger looks mighty fine throughout the movie (as she always does).

Also starring are Jan-Michael Vincent, Michael Parks, Tanya Tucker, Daryl Hannah and Ted Neeley (Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar" and more recently a tracker in "Django Unchained").

This was filmed in Bakersfield. I was a cowboy extra in the bar scenes. We drank Lone Star beer until they ran out and would only let us pretend to drink when film was in the camera LOL. A good friend was the stand in for Kim Basinger. Made $70/day and had a ball. Because of this I have a Kevin Bacon number of 2! How many can say that? When not in the scene we all played poker in a tent and got pretty wasted on that Lone Star. They fed us if we worked over 6 hours I think. Good sack lunches. One take was at night and was a blast. They used the Basque Club on South Union to film in. They had it all decorated like a Texas honky tonk bar which was the setting of the movie. One scene was shot in a small restaurant in town. I went to see it but discovered I was on the cutting room floor.