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Inside Deep Throat - R-Rated Edition

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Enormously entertaining, and extremely enlightening, Inside Deep Throat is so much more than just a documentary on the 1972 skin flick Deep Throat. The film also presents - in often candid and lurid detail - the moral and censorship battles - that have constantly defined American popular culture for more than thirty years. In one pivotal scene, an elderly woman is asked why she went to see Deep Throat, and she replies by saying that she wanted to see a dirty movie, she enjoyed it, and that she didn't want government or anyone else dictating what she should or shouldn't see.

Herein lies the essential argument of this colorfully entertaining, sexually explicit, and occasionally perceptive movie that takes the viewer on a journey from the innocence of the early seventies, through the tumultuous, politically wrought censorship battles of the eighties, to the present day where the adult film business is now a multi-million dollar industry, and where professionalism and money seem to be the name of the game.

Inside Deep Throat uses a mixture of original footage from the film, interviews with the people who made Deep Throat, and questions a number of counterculture types, such as Gore Vidal, John Walters, and Annie Sprinkle, who comment on the effects of the film, past and present. Divided into two distinct parts: the first half is about the making of the film, while the second deals the ramifications of its release, the effect Deep Throat ultimately had on its stars, and the U.S. Government's desperate, and often successful attempts to have the film banned.

It's probably a bit of a stretch to say that Deep Throat single-handedly changed the nature of the industry. But the film definitely served a purpose and came along at a time when the sexual revolution was changing the way people thought about sexual activity. After hearing Johnny Carson's jokes about the movie on the Tonight Show - middle-aged, older, and intrigued suburbanites would line up at seedy theatres all across the country just to get a glimpse of Linda Lovelace's oral abilities. An act that had previously been considered an obscenity and socially forbidden, had now gained a glimmer of respectability- the New York Times even labeled the movie the new "porn chic."

Inside deep Throat does a great job of showing how the movie's fame and notoriety ultimately lead to the victimization and ill treatment of its stars. Linda Lovelace spent her life constantly vacillating between being proud of what she did, and later becoming a spokesperson for the feminist revolution against pornography by claiming that her performance in Deep Throat constituted rape. Approaching middle age and penniless, she desperately cashes in on her fame by appearing nude in an issue of Playboy.

Harry Reems, the hot, young male star who, at the last moment, shed his title as a production assistant to become the primary object of Linda's affections, initially enjoyed celebrity, but found fame and recognition fleeting. Deep Throat had branded him, and he found it impossible to be taken seriously as an actor. Harry faced serious jail time in a federal trial, and spiraled downwards into alcoholism and drug abuse when he couldn't get any conventional acting jobs.

Of course, the advent of the VCR in the late seventies meant that people could watch adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, and the moral crusade against hard-core adult entertainment in movie theatres somewhat tempered. Sharply edited, with a great sense of pacing, and often very funny, Inside Deep Throat is recommended for anyone who lived through the freewheeling, hedonistic days of the seventies. The movie also serves as a reminder that the culture wars, social morality, and issues of censorship are still as relevant today as they were thirty years ago. Mike Leonard February 05.

If you're old enough to have seen DEEP THROAT when it was first released in 1972, then the documentary INSIDE DEEP THROAT will perhaps be a rewarding trip down Nostalgia Lane (assuming your memory cells weren't fried by all the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll of the 60s).

DEEP THROAT was the first porn film exhibited in public theaters, and the first to be viewed openly by mixed couples, undoubtedly elbowing out the raincoat crowd. It was produced for $25,000; to date, it's grossed $600 million, and is the most profitable, independently produced film of all time. Oh, and it's centerpiece attraction was actress Linda Lovelace fellating a goofy doctor character, played by Harry Reems, who's diagnosed Linda's character as having her clitoris in her throat. Do you get the naughty picture?

This film is a montage of archival footage from the era liberally sprinkled with interviews with the principals - producer Gerard Damiano, Lovelace, and Reems - and many others, including Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dick Cavett, former porn stars Annie Sprinkle, Georgina Spelvin and Andrea True, plus authors, feminists, and the legal eagles that argued their respective sides in the legal battle that ultimately found scapegoat Reems guilty on obscenity charges. (Damiano and Lovelace had court immunity.)

The roughly 90+ minute film summarizes DEEP THROAT's conception, creation, release, distribution, and co-optation by the Mob, the anti-obscenity furor that the film sparked, and the ultimate acceptance of porn that followed due to it's wide distribution and availability via the introduction of the home video player around 1979. Mind you, the government anti-obscenity laws that convicted Reems still stand; they've just been overwhelmed by indifference and the glut of smut.

Is INSIDE DEEP THROAT graphically sexual? Well, yes and no. It does linger lovingly on that famous sequence where Linda orally engulfs all of Harry's member, but otherwise the sex scenes are no more graphic than in other recent mainstream releases - MONSTER'S BALL (2001) and IN THE CUT (2003) come to mind. That said, however, I have to believe that the rating board would have assigned an "X" instead of an "NC-17", based solely on the display of Linda's swallowing ability, if the former category was still in existence. Unless, of course, the board believes Bubba's Oval Office Oral Copulation Postulate, which is that the act isn't really "sex". Sure fooled me.

This documentary may illustrate the difference in the genre between then and now. In the 70s, porn actors and actresses seemed to be having more fun, and there was a certain relative innocence to it all missing in today's productions, which are cranked out in volume to maximize profits, and in which the performers labor joylessly to maximize the raunch for sheer shock value. "Debbie Does the Entire 1st Marine Division In One Night" - who cares?

Perhaps the most telling (and pathetic) point was made in a contemporary interview with Larry Parrish, the Memphis prosecutor who successfully convicted Reems under anti-smut laws extant in 1976 (only to have the verdict overturned on a technicality by a federal district court in '77). He wistfully observed that if the troublesome Al Qaeda terrorists would only go away, then the government could then refocus its energies on the more meaningful battle against porn. Puhleeze! God save us from the morality zealots of any ilk, Muslim or Christian! Perhaps "Debbie" needs to show Parrish a good time.

Culled from over 800 hours of interviews into a feature-length documentary and narrated by Dennis Hopper, this really is a magnificent look at the cultural impact of the most successful porno film in history. To date the film has grossed over $600 million and still counting. And let's not even discuss the revenue generated for video pirates!

The film contains on-screen interviews (new and archive) with a whole range of people such as John Waters, Harry Reems, Gerard Damiano, Norman Mailer, Larry Flynt, Warren Beatty, Georgina Spelvin, Jack Nicholson, Linda Lovelace, Hugh Hefner, Xaviera Hollander, Gore Vidal, Camille Paglia, Al Goldstein, etc. Even Wes Craven comes along and confesses that he directed hardcore porno films to break into legitimate Hollywood fare.

This is a brave and timely piece that explores the issues of censorship and the right of the artist to express their views. And to think that the decision banning the film in theatres still stands. It has never been overturned in the USA.

And to their credit, the BBFC (British Censor Board) allowed through some hardcore footage of fellatio into this courageous film. And it really is a shock to see a 30 foot penis been swallowed wholesale on the huge cinema screen.

The music is brilliant too, there's original stuff, re-mixed themes from the original kitsch soundtrack and tunes from the 1970's that really conjure up a lost time when the world seemed so fresh and colourful.

The film moves at a break-neck speed, packs volumes of information, is both funny and heart-breaking, stunningly edited into a cohesive whole and very entertaining.

Recommended.

Whether one likes or dislikes the legacy of DEEP THROAT, there is simply no question that it is a film that for good or ill had a significant impact on American culture. To this day it remains one of only two or three porn films that the vast majority of Americans can identify by name. This interesting documentary certainly does not attempt to make a case for DEEP THROAT as a work of art and does not try to argue that it is more than what it is: a smut film. The focus instead is more on the overall cultural impact of the film and the fate of the major participants in its making and distribution. It also attempts to use the film as a measure of where the United States was in the late sixties and where it is today. It is also, I should add, a quite funny film.

That DEEP THROAT spawned major changes in American life is beyond debate. The debate comes over whether that is a good or bad thing. What has always amazed me is the widespread popularity of porn movies in American life, a popularity that is acknowledged through statistics but not many other places. As the film indicates near its ends, during the VHS era sales and rentals of porn videos far outstripped those of mainstream movies. Now, that has changed since the advent of the Internet and DVDs (most porn sales today are over the Internet), but the fact remains that pornography accounts for more sales than mainstream feature films. The brute fact of porn is difficult to dismiss. A good friend of mine who ran a video store said that he was always amazed at the sheer breadth of people who rented porn. He told me, "Just look at anyone who passes you on the sidewalk, no matter their sex or age. That's who rents porn." And there are stats that show porn is more popular in the red states than in the blue states. This alone justifies a film about the movie that started it all off. The documentary is a bit vague on the state of porn before DEEP THROAT. I suspect too much credit is given in it for its being the first. I suspect that it is more correct to say that it was the first well known porn film. Either way, it clearly is the one that got the ball rolling.

The film is dispassionate in its approach. Does it take sides? This is hard to say. It is true that most (though by no means all) of the people involved in the making of the film are more likable than those who opposed and prosecuted its makers, especially the truly awful Charles Keating, the most famous felon to come out of the S&L debacle at the end of the Reagan era (a scandal that many economists estimate cost the American people around a trillion dollars, a fact often overlooked by those who like to fantasize that the Reagan era was a highpoint of economic development). Not that I want to be Gerald Damiano's buddy. But Damiano and Co. for the most part come across as relatively normal though quirky people.

I wish the film had done a somewhat better job of delving into Linda Lovelace, truly one of the most difficult to understand celebrities of the past few decades. In the film she seems to emerge as someone used and exploited by a host of people. One of the saddest moments may have come from a TV interview from her feminist period, in which Gloria Steinem and a talk show host talk back and forth about Lovelace as if she weren't even there, though she often seems as if she wants to say something on her own behalf. I've never been able to accept theories or her later protestations that she was an unwilling victim in the making of the film. This was not a case of white slavery. But she does seem to be a person who was never in control of her own life.

This is not a masterpiece. It is not propaganda for any political cause. It is merely a look at an important artifact of late-twentieth century American life that changed irrevocably our culture. I should add that it is probably true that our national attitudes towards sex were certainly changing anyway and we would probably still be where we are today even had the film not been made. Still it was the lightening rod for the issue. I definitely recommend this documentary to anyone who wants to see how we got to where we are.

I saw the NC-17 version of the documentary. Unlike the theatrical release this contains some brief hardcore sex (namely, Linda Lovelace demonstrating the title of the film). If you are disturbed by extreme sexual content, I would recommend seeing the R-rated theatrical release instead.

I loved it. I really did. I don't know how they could improve the film. Of course, nothing is ever really perfect, so who cares? I found this film so very interesting and so very informative. It was interesting to me to see how this simple, "dirty" little picture which (according to the star) only took a couple of weeks to make (if that)and changed the course of history! Ha! What other film has had the same effect on the world? And, might I add that, according to what I have heard and read, the film grossed millions of dollars and none of the participants in the making of this film (except for those who put up the money to make it) got rich from it. Poor Linda Lovelace. It thrust her into the spotlight overnight...something I believe she wanted BUT not in the way she achieved it and she got much fame but never became rich and died poor.

I especially like watching the film with one of the commentarys "on"...not the directors so much but the one with all comments from many of the people they interviewed about the film. I like those tidbits of information.

Wow. It's amazing. Many, many Americans went from being prudish about oral sex back then or not even knowing what "deep throat" meant to kids nowadays thinking that the act isn't even sex (it is).

I found it both amusing and sad as well that, towards the end of the film, some current porn "stars" didn't even know who Linda Lovelace was and never heard of the film which started it all. Yeah, I think those girls are in the right place...

A film documentary of the making, the release, and the lasting effect of film "Deep Throat," "Inside Deep Throat" is an somewhat interesting, if not revolutionary look at the original film, the culture of the 1970's, and pornography. As much as Bill Clinton's claim that the oral sex that Monica Lewinsky performed on him was not considered "sex" by the "reasonable person" has changed the way people in this country view fellatio, "Deep Throat" actually introduced the idea of fellatio to millions of unsuspecting Americans in 1972.

The film "Deep Throat," starring Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, was financed by organized crime and produced for $25,000, was the story of a woman, Linda, who could not be satisfied by traditional sexual intercourse because her clitoris was located in her throat rather than in her vagina. As such, Linda must go to great lengths, pardon the pun, to achieve sexual satisfaction. Although rated NC-17, there is very little pornography in "Inside Deep Throat." The rating, obviously, is derived from an actual cut from the original film footage of Linda performing extraordinary fellatio on her costar. (The viewer, of course, has to see how the movie got its title!) "Inside Deep Throat" explores the social, political effect of the film as well as the consequences of the film on those people who participated in it.

Appropriately narrated by the perfectly lascivious voice of Dennis Hopper, "Inside Deep Throat" includes interviews with producer/director Gerry Damiano, Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems, other members of the production crew, as well as with past and present cultural icons like Erica Jong, Hugh Hefner, Dick Cavett, Helen Gurley Brown, Norman Mailer, Carl Bernstein, Wes Craven, Larry Flynt, Bill Maher, Camille Paglia, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Charles Keating, among others. From these interviews, we learn a great deal about the film and how it affected social mores. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato frame the both Richard Nixon and Senator Charles Keating as pragmatic opportunists in the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people in the context of the battle to censor "Deep Throat." At a time when support for the police action in Vietnam was waning, "Deep Throat" provided plenty of distraction and a political plank for the administration. "Inside Deep Throat" also exposed the corruption behind the making of the film. Financed by Mafia money, producer/director Gerry Damiano was muscled-out of the film as a partner, and therefore was not able to share in the more than $600,000,000 the film has made during the past three and a half decades. They made him an offer he could not refuse.

Other interesting facts uncovered in "Inside Deep Throat" include:

- Linda Lovelace, who refuted the pornography industry and then embraced it again, died penniless in a car accident.

- Linda's fee for her part in the film was $1,200.

- Harry Reems, who was originally offered the part of the coach in the movie "Grease" only to have the offer later rescinded by Paramount and given to Sid Caesar, is now a born-again Christian and real estate agent.

- The viewer learns during an interview with Erica Jong, that a woman's clitoris is NOT, in fact, in the back of a woman's throat and fellatio is NOT a necessarily pleasurable experience for the performer, as much as men think and hope that it is.

- Gloria Steinem is a very repressed and unhappy woman.

- Helen Gurley Brown instructs the audience about the benefits of semen as a face cream.

- Porn star, Amber Lynn, apparently embarrassed (Huh?) attempts unsuccessfully to explain how to "deep throat" without gagging.

While "Inside Deep Throat" does provide some interesting and thought-provoking perspectives of the film "Deep Throat," the pornographic industry, and society, it is not a "keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat" film. Some of the other interviewees are flaky, as might be expected from an industry that does not include too many Rhodes Scholars. The reporting is sometime slanted, but seems to slant to and fro, or perhaps "in and out." (Another bad pun.) In fact, "Inside Deep Throat" might be the perfect fodder for the next mock-umentary from Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.

I just have a small clarification regarding A. Joseph Haschka's excellent review. The MPAA no longer issues "X" ratings. "X" used to be included in their ratings guide, but it was intentionally not trademarked, so films could use it without submitting to rating by the MPAA.

Eventually, the MPAA decied to distance themselves from the "X" rating, which had become synonymous with pornography, and created the trademarked "NC-17" rating. (HENRY AND JUNE was the first movie to receive an NC-17, in 1990.) "NC-17" is the most restrictive rating the MPAA issues. "X" no longer has any official standing, although it is still used in advertising to identify pornography. And Vin Diesel movies, I guess. :^)

Everyone has a "Deep Throat" moment, the first time they seen the much publicised film. This documentary does that and more! It goes from its humble New York roots, to the Florida back roads, to mainstream America and beyond! It also tells the story about censorship, moral righteousness and free expression! But most of all, it tells about the lives of everyone who was associated with the movie and how it changed their lives. In essence, this film is about us and how we never can give up on a guilty pleasure. Check out the extras, including more trial footage from different cities and what the outcome was.

"Inside Deep Throat," a documentary about the notorious porno film (starring Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems) credited with (or blamed for) bringing porn into the mainstream back in the early '70s, is a time capsule of that contentious era dominated by Women's and Gay Liberation, Vietnam, Watergate, and, yes, "Deep Throat."

I never saw the film that inspired the documentary and believe it's probably less entertaining than the jokes and commentaries it inspired, but this documentary is an intriguing look at an earlier cinematic era. The usual suspects are rounded up to comment on the film and the controversy it inspired, some of whom haven't been seen since the days when Johnny Carson ruled the airwaves and made "Deep Throat" a subject for discussion thanks to his infamous nightly "monologue."

There's Helen Gurley Brown, Hugh Hefner, and a very amusing Dick Cavett. And, of course, Gore Vidal. I had to chuckle when Vidal made his appearance. Wearing a flannel shirt, all he needed was a pitchfork in hand, and he'd look like a farmer.

But the most intriguing moments aren't provided by the celebrities. Those who put their careers, and, in some cases, their lives on the line by producing, distributing, or in some way involving themselves in the cash cow that was "Deep Throat," provide the most entertaining and informative moments.

Brian W. Fairbanks

"Inside Deep Throat" is the documentary tale of the first porno film to ever go mainstream, and the aftermath that followed.

"Deep Throat" was a cultural phenomenon in the early 70's, a humorous little tale of a woman who is diagnosed as having her clitoris in the back of her throat...causing her to obtain and acheive an orgasm by fellatio alone.
No problem for Linda Lovelace, the films star; a woman who seems to have been born without any type of gag reflex! ;-)

"Inside Deep Throat" covers the making of the film, the personal background of Lovelace and Harry Reams (her co star), the smashing success of the movie and how it effected the people surrounding the project.

Here are a few tidbits:

New York tried to ban the film when it was first released in movie theaters, causing it to be a huge underground success. The more they tried to sweep the film under the rug, the more popular it became.

The film turned Lovelace into a household name. Eventually there was a serious backlash, and Lovelace became somewhat of an advocate against porn and for women rights. She tried to fade into obscurity without to much success and eventually died penniless.

Harry Reams was prosecuted for his role in the film. The first time ever an actor had been indicted for a role that they portrayed. Mainstream celebrites rallied in his favor for the right to artistic expression. Eventaully, Harry was abandonded by mainstream Hollywood and turned his back on the porn industry.

The italian mob financed the film.

Shot for 25,000, it went on to gross over 600 million.

"Inside Deep Throat" is presented objectively and thoroughly, with plenty of current and past interviews with the people involved in the film- including the films director Gerard Damiano, Harry Reams(both of whom are still alive today) Lovelace, and many other celebrities and industry insiders.

Its a fascinating glimpse into a time of sexual revolution and liberation, when X rated films where shot on film, presented on movie screens, and stood a chance of blending into mainstream Hollywood.

As a huge fan of the subculture of the X rated film industry, present and past; this film is a must see.

Recommended!