Inside Deep Throat (2005)

VERDICT:
7/10 Sword Swallowers

Well, it sure ain’t about Watergate.

Inside Deep Throat is a documentary about one of the most profitable movies ever made that sparked a sexual revolution in America, helped turn the porn industry into the freakin’ beast of a success that it is today and made the God squad right wingers totally lose their shit until this sick filth was tarred, feathered and banned from every house, home and theater in the country.

Those Nixonites, man. Freakin’ tightasses.

Hoo, boy. So, it’s a movie about good ol’ Deep Throat. Never watched the source of inspiration myself and since I don’t foresee Cut The Crap Porn Reviews coming up on the horizon any time soon, I doubt that’s gonna change. Anywho, if this is all news, all you need to know is that Deep Throat is a porno that came out ’72 about a poor gal who discovers that the reason she couldn’t “get there” is because her…let’s just call it a “rabbit” for all the younger readers out there who should probably be catching up on iCarly reruns instead of reading this garbage…because her “rabbit” is located in the back of her throat. And that’s about it. The whole movie is about her finding a way to scratch that itch, it was made for $25,000, it brought in millions upon millions thanks to a whole lot of mob involvement, and everyone from Dr. Ruth to Jackie O. bought a ticket.

Sex. Effing. Sells.

But as interesting as it is to hear about how the movie came together, the “talented” individuals in front of and behind the camera, how none of them thought it was gonna be a success and how effed up their lives became once their 15 minutes clocked out, the reason this thing is worth watching is to see how times both have and haven’t changed over the course of some thirty-some-odd years. Going into this, I had no idea how sexually sheltered the American public was before this movie (total prudes), had no idea of the political firestorm this caused afterward, and as influential as that short-lived “sexual revolution” was, the strangest thing is that sex is still very much demonized. Yeah, it’s everywhere these days and as long as you’ve got a computer you can even be a porn star yourself, maybe you’ll even get famous, but there’s still a whole lot of idiots out there teaching from an abstinence-only curriculum, too.

Look, rarely do I ever talk about porn with folks. Not that I find it disgusting or immoral or any of those choice SAT words, it just ain’t kosher for conversations is all. But isn’t that so American of me? Bringing up sex with Americans will absolutely make anyone and everyone within earshot break into a cold sweat of sheer terror. It’s like an epidemic over here, something to be feared and shunned rather than celebrated, and as result, it’s not helping anyone. I mean, unless you’re Jim Cameron, you go ahead and put bare boobs in a movie, you just landed yourself a big old R. But substitute that with someone getting their head cut off and chances are you can get away with a family-friendly PG-13.

Alright, getting a little off-topic here, but that’s the stigma and it’s totally fucking backwards.

And that’s the tricky thing about porn: it would break my heart if my kid ever got into the business and I don’t want to endorse it because it’s definitely taken the low road of mindless sex and objectification that will never find itself among the same ranks as non-pornographic Hollywood efforts. But, like sex, the answer isn’t to ignore it because it’s not going away. And it’s easy to write off something like Deep Throat as no different because even though there’s hardly a script, there’s hardly acting and the driving force behind it is to watch this chick live up to the movie’s title, at least it got people talking and I think the country was better off for it.

The tragic thing about it all is that it was ultimately banned and silenced by those in power to the point where there wasn’t even a conversation to be had and it doesn’t seem like a whole lot has changed since in that regard. People are afraid, they think that their kids are gonna walk into health class and then skip Chemistry to go have a gangbang in the locker room, and that’s what happens when fear-mongering starts getting in the way of the bigger picture. What a shame, because the less people talk, the less people know, and the more you tell someone they can’t do something even though the Constitution says they can is just gonna make people do it that much more.

You go over to Europe, the people there talk about sex, they educate their kids, they embrace it so that everyone has the facts and don’t end up learning shit the hard way. And that’s the way it should be, that’s the mature thing to do. Not like anyone ever died from watching porn anyway, and if they somehow did, it was probably their own damn fault.

Sorry for the rant, but it’s a movie that gets you thinking. Might not want to watch this one with the in-laws since it very much lives up to the NC-17 rating and leaves nothing up to the imagination when it comes to the title, but Inside Deep Throat is pretty interesting stuff. Pacing could have been sped up, it’s decently made from film making standpoint, and I was definitely drifting at parts, then again, it’ll get the conversation going again and that’s the whole point.

God, it’s embarrassing how embarrassed we are to talk about sex. At least Salt-n-Pepa knew what was up.