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116 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I wanted to see a dirty movie... and I enjoyed it!", February 21, 2005
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.
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75 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back when screen porn was innocent fun, February 24, 2005
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A plea for the end to censorship., June 22, 2005
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.
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