Review of Inside Deep Throat (2005) by Mitch P — 25 Mar 2005

[font=Century Gothic][color=blue]The first time I ever saw a pornographic film was my sophomore year in college. A few of my friends had access to a particular tape which they showed to me. It was plotted like an exercise tape. I was very excited at the beginning of the tape when the stars of the film got undressed and down to action. Ten minutes later, I was very bored...which is how I feel about pornography in general. Basically, a good idea but never well made enough to maintain my interest. And it just makes me thankful for the fast forward button on the remote.(While at college, friends would tell me that it was always more interesting watching me waching sports and pornography, then what was going on screen. I never figured out what exactly they meant.)[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=blue]"Inside Deep Throat" is a breezy documentary that features interviews with the surviving makers of the landmark pornographic film "Deep Throat", various people who were tangentially involved in the aftermath of the film's release and various cultural figures like Gore Vidal, Erica Jong, Norman Mailer and John Waters. Footage is also shown from the film and interviews conducted at the time. I liked the film but I do not really agree with its conclusions:[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=#0000ff]1. The feminist bashing rubbed me the wrong way. Feminist thinking is more diverse than just being anti-pornography.(For example, Susie Bright has always been pro-sex.) I can understand some feminists' dislike of pornography since so much of it is simply male fantasy, though. Especially, "Deep Throat" which is about a woman whose clitoris is at the back of her throat. What this indirectly says is that women can receive sexual pleasure from giving blow jobs...which is rather hard to believe.[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=#0000ff]2. I don't think there was ever a chance for pornography to cross over to the mainstream. I think this is less a matter of censorship, than of economics. Studios know that PG-13 movies make more money than R rated movies, so why even bother making something as risky as a NC-17?(There have been several NC-17 movies released over the past year but for the most part, they have been independently made.) The one movie that came closest to this imagined hybrid was "Last Tango in Paris" which was released in 1973 but it was not mentioned in the documentary. "Deep Throat"'s legacy was to convince untold numbers of filmmakers that they too could make an adult film for very little money in hopes of making the huge profits that "Deep Throat" reportedly did.(There are mentions of how very little of the profits the filmmakers saw. More than 25 years later, the lack of compensation would again arise in the documentary "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story". Oh those, wascally capitalists!)[/color][/font].