Inside Deep Throat (2005)

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

While hardly shocking by standards today, the adult film 'Deep Throat' caused a stir when released in 1972 and this informative documentary recounts its notoriety as well as the subsequent careers of its director and stars. A few amusing bits aside, 'Deep Throat' is not a particularly well-made movie and the documentary benefits from acknowledging this with 'Deep Throat' director Gerard Damiano even agreeing. The source of fascination then becomes the fact the film has made so much money and was so widely seen despite being so amateurish. Reasons thrown up include its banning increasing demand, its graphic depiction of fellatio and the influence the movie had on adult films to come. We might never know the exact reason, but the documentary does a good job prodding. For a 90-minute doco though, 'Inside Deep Throat' is incredibly busy and explores a few too many avenues at once. Harry Reams is a fascinating subject (almost jailed for acting in the film when he was an eleventh hour casting decision, paid a mere $250), but it feels like more attention should have been thrown Linda Lovelace's way. The doco is also a little bloated with tons of interviews involving people such as John Waters and Larry Flynt, who were never involved with the actual film. Wes Craven makes for an interesting subject though as he started in porn himself, which he terms an "entry level job". Or at least it was back then. 'Inside Deep Throat' acutely reminds us of how much times have changed in addition to posing the expected freedom of expression questions.

Even if you've never actually seen the movie in question, you've heard of "Deep Throat". And the beauty of "Inside Deep Throat" is that the movie's place in American history is a fascinating story. For one, it's the most profitable movie ever made (it cost $250,000 and made 600 million), sparked national outrage and brought smut to the fore, was at one point banned in 23 states, and is probably the most iconic porn film in existence. And there are some riveting ins and outs to this tale; the mob ties, costar Harry Reems' exoneration due to Nixon's resignation, and the fact that the government led a moral crusade against this movie drove up interest to maddening heights. And what's hilarious is the prosecution's unbelievable ignorance during the trial. The documentary moves at a fast clip, with Dennis Hopper's assured narration. The interviews are insightful, archival footage a nice time capsule trip; it's well-produced, informative and surprisingly involving ... even if you're not a porn fan. 7/10

Inside Deep Throat really left me quite surprised, I must say. It takes the startlingly successful hardcore porn film, Deep Throat, and comments on its cumulative effects upon the American way of life (what started in the lower rungs of NYC soon spread across the country to theater chains thanks to the mob!), pop culture (nowadays scantily clad men/women are everywhere; sex sells), politics (obscenity laws pushed by Nixon's administration; eventually, Deep Throat male stud Harry Reems was tried (and convicted!) in a court of law just because he starred in the movie!), sexuality (oral pleasure and "clitoral pleasure" were awakened to a larger public who perhaps never experienced sex quite like it prior to Deep Throat's success), and human rights (feminism condemned how women were exploited as sexual objects; Linda Lovelace would later claim she was abused and worked in Deep Throat against her will). The hardcore industry, as narrated by Dennis Hopper (!), is covered in depth, and the history lesson runs until today; the porn industry under the microscope is primary treated respectfully, although today's industry is held in contempt by some of the interviews (like Norman Mailer!) for its lack of artistry and gravitation towards money as the sole reason behind its engine. Even the likes of Wes Craven (obviously not proud of his association with porn), Peter Gruber, and Gore Vidal comment on the hardcore industry. We learn the tragedy that would befall Lovelace who retreated and "retired" from the industry to raise a family, joined forces with a feminist to speak against porn, and later tried to capitalize on what little fame remained as a much older woman (she tried to go straight, but because of her affiliation with Deep Throat, working in any professional capacity seemed non-existent), eventually dying in a car in accident in 2002. Harry Reems' treatment in a court of law seems positively frightening. That he almost went to jail simply by having sex on camera for a theatrical audience seems too surreal to be true…but it almost happened! There's some explicit sexual acts shown, like Lovelace's amazing ability to deep throat Harry's erect member (it is the primary reason behind the title of the film and its marketability), and scenes that depict lovemaking in hardcore, but to have the industry as its subject and completely censor it from the documentary would kind of defeat the purpose of the fight against censorship, right? Reems comes off extremely likable and his candidness about descending into drugs and alcoholism when he went to LA to make it in Hollywood is admirable. How the mob was so intrinsically involved in the spread of the film (they would go to theater chains with an offer "owners shouldn't refuse") and highway robbery from the man who directed it (Gerard Damiano; also quite open and honest about the experience; he never made a dime from his work in the film!), not to mention, how little Lovelace made from the film considering her "performance" and face ($1200! That's it!) contributed highly to its success, says a lot about how the criminal element operate as outright thieves and bullies with very little involvement on an artistic level. I think what remains so compelling is how controversial and polarizing Deep Throat was (Damiano equated it to "opening a can of worms") to the mainstream, political, and public opinion.

The documentary "Inside deep throat" analyzes the facts involving the premiere and the distribution of the most famous porn movie ever and gives us each and every detail about the big controversy that generated. We can hear opinions from the protagonists and from those that fought against the screening of the movie.Everything in "Inside deep throat" is so dynamic and direct, they made a huge work of editing, and because of all that it's a pretty entertaining documentary and so educational. Otherwise, this is a magnificent radiography of that disgusting double standards in the more puritan sections of the USA.*My rate: 8/10