Search - Inside Deep Throat - R-Rated Edition on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 11/5/2023...

Interesting beginning and then dragged on. Could have been a 30 minute documentary. The crazy part of this was the evolution of directors. A bit of a HBO docu fail.

Damian M. (ratchet)
Reviewed on 3/11/2009...

A very interesting documentary about the role that this movie played in challenging and changing obscenity laws in the US. Among the interviewed were 70s icons such as Norman Mailer, John Waters and Gore Vidal. Linda Lovelace must have been the stupidest person ever! Clay to molded for whoever had an agenda, going so far as to claim she was raped in the movie! When feminists and Christians side together, you know we are all in trouble! This movie started upper class people and many women going to pornos. Interesting is the belief that Hollywood and porn would merge and create epics laced with porn (Caligula is truly the only one that I can think of that comes close). The trouble was that in many locales Deep Throat was illegal so the mob got involved. If the government stays out of people's business, many fewer problems would occur. I have yet to see the actual movie; this version does NOT show the act in question.

"I wanted to see a dirty movie... and I enjoyed it!"

M. J Leonard | Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/21/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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.
"

An interesting documentary that places DEEP THROAT in histor

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 05/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whether one likes or dislikes the legacy of DEEP THROAT, there is simply no question that it is a film that for good or ill had a significant impact on American culture. To this day it remains one of only two or three porn films that the vast majority of Americans can identify by name. This interesting documentary certainly does not attempt to make a case for DEEP THROAT as a work of art and does not try to argue that it is more than what it is: a smut film. The focus instead is more on the overall cultural impact of the film and the fate of the major participants in its making and distribution. It also attempts to use the film as a measure of where the United States was in the late sixties and where it is today. It is also, I should add, a quite funny film.

That DEEP THROAT spawned major changes in American life is beyond debate. The debate comes over whether that is a good or bad thing. What has always amazed me is the widespread popularity of porn movies in American life, a popularity that is acknowledged through statistics but not many other places. As the film indicates near its ends, during the VHS era sales and rentals of porn videos far outstripped those of mainstream movies. Now, that has changed since the advent of the Internet and DVDs (most porn sales today are over the Internet), but the fact remains that pornography accounts for more sales than mainstream feature films. The brute fact of porn is difficult to dismiss. A good friend of mine who ran a video store said that he was always amazed at the sheer breadth of people who rented porn. He told me, "Just look at anyone who passes you on the sidewalk, no matter their sex or age. That's who rents porn." And there are stats that show porn is more popular in the red states than in the blue states. This alone justifies a film about the movie that started it all off. The documentary is a bit vague on the state of porn before DEEP THROAT. I suspect too much credit is given in it for its being the first. I suspect that it is more correct to say that it was the first well known porn film. Either way, it clearly is the one that got the ball rolling.

The film is dispassionate in its approach. Does it take sides? This is hard to say. It is true that most (though by no means all) of the people involved in the making of the film are more likable than those who opposed and prosecuted its makers, especially the truly awful Charles Keating, the most famous felon to come out of the S&L debacle at the end of the Reagan era (a scandal that many economists estimate cost the American people around a trillion dollars, a fact often overlooked by those who like to fantasize that the Reagan era was a highpoint of economic development). Not that I want to be Gerald Damiano's buddy. But Damiano and Co. for the most part come across as relatively normal though quirky people.

I wish the film had done a somewhat better job of delving into Linda Lovelace, truly one of the most difficult to understand celebrities of the past few decades. In the film she seems to emerge as someone used and exploited by a host of people. One of the saddest moments may have come from a TV interview from her feminist period, in which Gloria Steinem and a talk show host talk back and forth about Lovelace as if she weren't even there, though she often seems as if she wants to say something on her own behalf. I've never been able to accept theories or her later protestations that she was an unwilling victim in the making of the film. This was not a case of white slavery. But she does seem to be a person who was never in control of her own life.

This is not a masterpiece. It is not propaganda for any political cause. It is merely a look at an important artifact of late-twentieth century American life that changed irrevocably our culture. I should add that it is probably true that our national attitudes towards sex were certainly changing anyway and we would probably still be where we are today even had the film not been made. Still it was the lightening rod for the issue. I definitely recommend this documentary to anyone who wants to see how we got to where we are.

I saw the NC-17 version of the documentary. Unlike the theatrical release this contains some brief hardcore sex (namely, Linda Lovelace demonstrating the title of the film). If you are disturbed by extreme sexual content, I would recommend seeing the R-rated theatrical release instead."

Perfect fodder for the next mock-umentary from Christopher G

Durling Heath | Cohoes, NY | 02/13/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A film documentary of the making, the release, and the lasting effect of film "Deep Throat," "Inside Deep Throat" is an somewhat interesting, if not revolutionary look at the original film, the culture of the 1970's, and pornography. As much as Bill Clinton's claim that the oral sex that Monica Lewinsky performed on him was not considered "sex" by the "reasonable person" has changed the way people in this country view fellatio, "Deep Throat" actually introduced the idea of fellatio to millions of unsuspecting Americans in 1972.

The film "Deep Throat," starring Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, was financed by organized crime and produced for $25,000, was the story of a woman, Linda, who could not be satisfied by traditional sexual intercourse because her clitoris was located in her throat rather than in her vagina. As such, Linda must go to great lengths, pardon the pun, to achieve sexual satisfaction. Although rated NC-17, there is very little pornography in "Inside Deep Throat." The rating, obviously, is derived from an actual cut from the original film footage of Linda performing extraordinary fellatio on her costar. (The viewer, of course, has to see how the movie got its title!) "Inside Deep Throat" explores the social, political effect of the film as well as the consequences of the film on those people who participated in it.

Appropriately narrated by the perfectly lascivious voice of Dennis Hopper, "Inside Deep Throat" includes interviews with producer/director Gerry Damiano, Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems, other members of the production crew, as well as with past and present cultural icons like Erica Jong, Hugh Hefner, Dick Cavett, Helen Gurley Brown, Norman Mailer, Carl Bernstein, Wes Craven, Larry Flynt, Bill Maher, Camille Paglia, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Charles Keating, among others. From these interviews, we learn a great deal about the film and how it affected social mores. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato frame the both Richard Nixon and Senator Charles Keating as pragmatic opportunists in the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people in the context of the battle to censor "Deep Throat." At a time when support for the police action in Vietnam was waning, "Deep Throat" provided plenty of distraction and a political plank for the administration. "Inside Deep Throat" also exposed the corruption behind the making of the film. Financed by Mafia money, producer/director Gerry Damiano was muscled-out of the film as a partner, and therefore was not able to share in the more than $600,000,000 the film has made during the past three and a half decades. They made him an offer he could not refuse.

Other interesting facts uncovered in "Inside Deep Throat" include:

- Linda Lovelace, who refuted the pornography industry and then embraced it again, died penniless in a car accident.

- Linda's fee for her part in the film was $1,200.

- Harry Reems, who was originally offered the part of the coach in the movie "Grease" only to have the offer later rescinded by Paramount and given to Sid Caesar, is now a born-again Christian and real estate agent.

- The viewer learns during an interview with Erica Jong, that a woman's clitoris is NOT, in fact, in the back of a woman's throat and fellatio is NOT a necessarily pleasurable experience for the performer, as much as men think and hope that it is.

- Gloria Steinem is a very repressed and unhappy woman.

- Helen Gurley Brown instructs the audience about the benefits of semen as a face cream.

- Porn star, Amber Lynn, apparently embarrassed (Huh?) attempts unsuccessfully to explain how to "deep throat" without gagging.

While "Inside Deep Throat" does provide some interesting and thought-provoking perspectives of the film "Deep Throat," the pornographic industry, and society, it is not a "keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat" film. Some of the other interviewees are flaky, as might be expected from an industry that does not include too many Rhodes Scholars. The reporting is sometime slanted, but seems to slant to and fro, or perhaps "in and out." (Another bad pun.) In fact, "Inside Deep Throat" might be the perfect fodder for the next mock-umentary from Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer."