Hard Target DVD 1993 / Directed by John Woo / Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lance Henriksen, Yancy Butlar, Wilford Brimley

UPC 5035822004740   UDR 90047

U1-20230-UK-S

REGION 2 PAL DVD

MADE IN THE UK

AUDIO: English 5.1, French 5.1, Italian 2.1, German 2.1, Spanish 2.1, Czech 2.0

SUBTITLES: English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Polish

Total Runtime: 95 MINUTES

English Summary:

Hard Target is a 1993 American action film directed by Hong Kong film director John Woo in his American debut. The film stars Jean-Claude van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out-of-work Cajun merchant seaman who saves a young woman, named Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler), from a gang of thugs in New Orleans. Chance learns that Binder is searching for her missing father (Chuck Pfarrer), and agrees to aid Binder in her search. Boudreaux and Binder soon learn that Binder's father has died at the hands of wealthy sportsman Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen) who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation. The screenplay was written by Chuck Pfarrer and is based on the 1932 film adaptation of Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game".

Hard Target was Woo's first American film and was also the first major Hollywood film made by a Chinese director. Universal Pictures was nervous about having Woo direct a feature, and sent in director Sam Raimi to look over the film's production and to take Woo's place as director if he were to fail. Woo went through several scripts finding mostly martial arts films with which he was not interested. After deciding on Chuck Pfarrer's script for Hard Target, Woo wanted to have actor Kurt Russell in the lead role, but found Russell too busy with other projects. Woo then went with Universal's initial choice of having Jean-Claude van Damme star. Woo got along with Van Damme during filming and raised the amount of action in the film as he knew that Van Damme was up for it.

After 65 days of filming in New Orleans, Woo had trouble with the Motion Picture Association of America to secure the R rating that Universal wanted. Woo made dozens of cuts to the film until the MPAA allowed it an R rating. On its initial release, Hard Target received mixed reviews from film critics but was a financial success. The film is considered a cult film among fans especially for the action scenes.

Cast

• Jean-Claude van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out-of-work Cajun United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance veteran. After Boudreaux saves Natasha Binder, he is hired by her to help search for her missing father.
• Lance Henriksen as Emil Fouchon, a wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless former soldiers for sport. After finding that he is being investigated by Chance and Natasha, Fouchon sends out his gang led by Pik van Cleaf to ambush them.
• Arnold Vosloo as Pik van Cleef, a collaborator of Fouchon who takes part in his sport of hunting men. He leads the crew of men who are sent out to murder Chance and Natasha. Van Cleef's surname is a reference to actor Lee van Cleef.^[7]
• Yancy Butler as Natasha "Nat" Binder, a young woman who comes to New Orleans to search for her father, whom she has not seen since she was seven years old. When Natasha is attacked by thugs, she is saved by Chance Boudreaux who agrees to help her find her father.
• Kasi Lemmons as May Mitchell, a police detective who works in the office while the police are on strike. Mitchell helps Natasha by ordering another autopsy when they show her the pierced dog tags that her father had.
• Chuck Pfarrer as Douglas Binder, Natasha's father who has moved to New Orleans. After Natasha finds that three weeks have passed since she has heard from her father, she goes to New Orleans to find that he has been homeless and has been murdered by Emil Fouchon's crew.
• Willie C. Carpenter as Elijah Roper, Chance Boudreaux's friend who is also homeless.
• Wilford Brimley as Uncle Douvee, Chance Boudreaux's uncle who lives deep in the Bayou. Chance and Natasha take shelter at his home as well as have him help during the film's final shoot out.
• Sven-Ole Thorsen and Jules Sylvester as Stephan and Peterson, Fouchon's mercenaries.
• Eliott Keener as Randal Poe, a seedy recruiter for Fouchon to find homeless ex-soldiers to hunt.
• Robert Apisa as Mr. Lopacki
• Douglas Forsythe Rye and Mike Leinert as Frick and Frack
• Marco St. John as Dr. Morton
• Joe Warfield as Zenan