Inside Deep Throat

Two events in June 1972 profoundly changed America: on June 17, a bumbling crew burgled the Democratic Party's headquarters in the Watergate hotel complex. Five days earlier, Deep Throat opened in Times Square. It's not clear which event has the more lasting impact.

Inside Deep Throat, a lively documentary from 2005 by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, covers the history and legacy of the film from A to Z. They have extensive interviews with the director (Gerard Damiano, who is now deceased) and star Harry Reems, plus many members of the crew and lawyers who both prosecuted and defended the film in court. According to the documentarians, it is the most profitable film of all time, costing $25,000 to make and grossing $600 million, but that last number is likely fanciful, since the accounting records are sketchy, to say the least.

Pornographic films, up to that time, were seen in discreet places, normally associated with men in raincoats. To keep in accordance with the law, they had to be "educational," or otherwise have a socially redeeming nature to them. Deep Throat was the first to attempt to marry the production values and narrative structure of mainstream films with pornography, and the result was a sensation. Lines went around the block, and for the first time women felt comfortable going to an X-rated film. Certainly fellatio, which up to that time was something not discussed and not considered an activity performed by respectable women, was all of a sudden an essential part of lovemaking. As one interviewee puts it, it's now an activity that kids don't even consider to be sex.

But the film was also nefarious. The backers of the film were from the Colombo crime family, and their system of distribution wasn't the norm, as many theater owners were shaken down for larger takes than usual (one interviewee was a theater manager in Miami Beach, and as he recounts his experiences his wife hectors him from the other room). Damiano sold his interest in the film, saying he didn't want his legs broken.

The film was also vigorously prosecuted. Amazingly, the film was found to be obscene in New York City, though in other places, from Binghamton, New York to Beverly Hills, it was not. Reems, who had made $250 for starring, was put on trial in Memphis and convicted. He was facing five years in jail but the decision was overturned on appeal.

Deep Throat permanently changed the culture, for good or bad. It ushered in the first wave of "porn chic," which hasn't really left. Of course many decried it, both from the pulpit and from intellectuals. Porn, when it was something rebellious and sinister, may have been more interesting. Of course it's prevalent today, available to anyone within few clicks of a mouse, but many, including Damiano, bemoaned the way porn changed from an art form to just a money making enterprise, as the industry has gone back to the days when a film is just a collection of scenes without plot.

The saddest part of the Deep Throat story is of Linda Lovelace, who was the female star. She was a celebrity for a few years, and then claimed she was forced to do it against her will by her Svengali-like partner, Chuck Traynor. She became an anti-porn advocate and then, unable to find work, went back and posed nude for a magazine at the age of 51. She died in a car accident in 2002. Her sister provides some pointed and trenchant comments about her sad life. I admit that I'm a connoisseur of porn and feel that it should be available to any adult who wants it, but I also believe that performers, especially young women, should not get into the business unless they can handle it. Linda Lovelace clearly could not.

This is a fun film for those interested in the subject. Those who aren't should stay away, as it is rated NC-17, and contains graphic clips from the film in question, particularly those that explain just what deep throat is. There are a wide variety of talking heads, including Normal Mailer, Gore Vidal, Eric Jong, Camille Paglia, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Hugh Hefner and Al Goldstein. It also has a killer soundtrack, with lots of great hits from the seventies, and is narrated by the recently departed Dennis Hopper.