Hard Bargain, The Film

For nearly four years I have wanted to make Hard Bargain a reality. When Skylar Landsee brought the outline of the story to me, I was instantly excited. At first, it was his story and I was simply helping him work out the kinks in the outline. Then I wrote a few scenes. Then Skylar moved and the project fell apart, surfacing every few months and falling apart again. But we kept coming back to it. Every time we’d discuss making a movie, or what we wanted to do with our summer, Hard Bargain would be mentioned. We passed the same binder back and forth for three years before finally, in early 2010, Skylar gave me the outline and I wrote the script. In March of 2010 when we had a first draft, it was a culmination of years of processing, thinking, and waiting. But now, the wait is over. In the summer of 2010, Hard Bargain will become a reality.

It’s not hard to pinpoint why this story was the one we stuck with. Both Skylar and I are interested in personal relationships, political hot-button issues, and the difficulty of choices. As Skylar explained the concept once, “it’s about things that happen when you’re a teenager. Things like being gay, or being pregnant. Things you might want to tell your parents about. But what if you couldn’t tell them? What if you didn’t trust them to love you if you did tell them? Who do you tell?” I can’t speak for Skylar, but for me the story really came together when we started seeing it not as a story about issues, but instead as a love story: a story about two siblings who start out indifferent to each other, and after surviving a rotten situation together finally forge a real friendship.

The last thing I want anyone to say after seeing the film is that it’s too political. I have done my best in writing the script not to preach as to the rights or wrongs of abortion and homosexuality. I believe I have approached the topics in a matter-of-fact way; these things do happen. The only political statement I hope to make in the script is that the politicizing of these issues only serves to hurt the lives of those it involves. Rather than making a statement that abortion is wrong or right, I wish to make a statement that it happens, and that the women who make that decision are not monsters, but people who need care and compassion. Debating the morality and legality of their actions heals no one.

This is why I think Catherine and Clyde’s stories are compelling; they do not concern themselves with the political, or even the moral. They concern themselves with what is right for them, and in the end even doing what is right becomes less important than doing what is quiet. While I do not want to point fingers at religion or conservatism, I do mean to imply that supporting rules and regulations instead of supporting people and relationships is a failing strategy. I believe that one of the most "christian" things you can do is love and support someone even if they're doing something you think is horrible.

Many people will ask what the title of Hard Bargain means. The hard bargain is this: two young adults perceive the dynamic of their family to be that in order to receive love they must hide their identity and their situation. More simply: lie about who you are, and I will love you. This is, in my estimation, not only a hard bargain, but an unacceptable bargain. Unfortunately, it is one faced by thousands of young people around the world. Fit in, or you will be unloved. Obey, or you will be unloved. The problem of Hard Bargain is not caused by religion, by homosexuality, or by abortion. The problem of Hard Bargain is caused by a lack of acceptance. While the character of Liam ultimately breaks Clyde’s heart, I think he makes the boldest, most moral statement of anyone in the film: “I’m not going to help you lie. Not about who you are.”

This is the message I hope viewers take from Hard Bargain. This is the story I’m trying to tell – the cheese at the end of the tunnel: be who you are, share who you are. For the first time in two character’s lives they share themselves with their sibling and because of that they can get through the hardest, most horrible events of their young lives. Because they share their secrets, they don’t have to go through it alone. For four years I came back to Hard Bargain, knowing I had to tell that story but not understanding why until after I finally had. If you take anything from Hard Bargain, take this.

To receive a copy of the script, volunteer to be involved with the production, or make a donation of any size to help this script become a movie, please e-mail us at hardbargain (dot) thefilm (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You.