Inside
Deep Throat, certainly sounds like a sequel to the landmark skin flick, but you’ll
actually find it shelved among the regular videos and not in that little alcove
with the beaded curtain. Documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (The Eyes
of Tammy Faye, Party Monster) have stitched together their best effort to date
with this mostly fascinating look at what one little dirty movie did to a great
big country (pronounced cown-tree).
As
narrator Dennis Hopper tells us, in the early 1970s former hairstylist and beauty
shop owner Geraldo “Jerry” Damiano, traded in his blow dryer (pronounced
Blee) for a camera and started making a living making movies. America’s sexual
revolution was in mid-swing and with it came a mainstream curiosity with movies
that cut to the sexual chase. Damiano liked the idea of combining an actual story-line
(complete with badly acted, funny dialogue) with explicit sex - and by virtue
of a gimmicky little twist was to make the most profitable motion picture ever
made.
The documentary
weaves stock footage of the day, recent interviews with an interesting variety
of celebrities, pundits and politicians, and of course enough T and A to hold
the attention of even your below average mouth-breather. For a documentary the
tragedy is kept to a minimum, as well as any sort of agenda on the part of it’s
creaters. By and large, Inside Deep Throat plays as two hours of voyeuristic pop
culture fun. I’m sure some would point to liberal leanings, but everyone
involved are pretty much presented as they were or are and if they come off looking
provincial and/or insane it’s their own fault.
Those
interviewed range from the predictable - Hugh Hefner, John Waters and Dr. Ruth,
to the more interesting Norman Mailer, Dick Cavett and Gore Vidal. Some of the
more compelling footage from the past includes some fun with Johnny Carson goofing
on the film in his monologue, Walter Cronkite discussing it on the Evening news
and Harry Reems flanked by Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty taking up the cudgels
for the adult actor after he is ridiculously singled out as a scapegoat and was
facing 5 years in prison.
The
film sags a bit because too many of the interviews are conducted with several
old skeeziks involved in one way or another with the production of the film. Some
of this stuff gets interesting when the involvement of the mob comes into play
(the mob made off with the lion’s share of the unprecedented ticket sales),
still the film would have clipped along at a more lively pace had some of this
pedestrian business been clipped out.
The
film packs quite a few interesting reveals, including a moment early on when Damiano
is asked if he thought that Deep Throat was a good movie, to which he matter-of-factly
answers “no.” Also interesting was the process whereby the Columbo mob
controlled the porno film industry at the time, by shaking down theater owners
across the country. I’m sure many of you have followed the strange course
of Linda Lovelace’s post-Throat life. As a young woman she is interviewed
upon emerging from a gala screening of the film where she remarks that she only
received $1200 for making Deep Throat, but that was okay because she’s known
now. Aspiring to a mainstream acting career she was blissfully unaware, as were
most, that por-notoriety was pretty much a worthless commodity outside of the
world of adult entertainment. After making several more adult movies she would
eventually feel the sting of the proliferation of the VCR, which changed the nature
of the porno game overnight.
Later
Lovelace would join forces with the feminist movement who used her fame to further
their cause. There was the famous Donahue footage where she breaks down and declares
that every time that someone watches Deep Throat they’re watching her being
raped. A statement that Phil Donahue knew to be absurd and somewhat mercilessly
called her on it. Afterward she would be shepherded about by Gloria Steinem. A
few years before this, we see Hugh Hefner squaring off against feminists on the
Mike Douglas Show and getting handily outwitted. Cut to the mid nineties when
Lovelace had changed her colors once again - posing nude in several men’s
magazines. The interviews with her at this point were the most revelatory as to
the negative consequences that Deep Throat had brought upon the great fellator.
She was killed in a car accident in the late 90s.
As
I alluded to earlier the biggest flashpoint of the Deep Throat controversy came
when a federal court charged Harry Reems with felonious something or other just
for acting in the film, which truly polarized the nations politicians and law-makers.
Reems would eventually convert to Christianity and is presently a real estate
agent in Park City Utah. Which, of course is the home of the Sundance Film Festival
where the documentary premiered. Reams was on hand for the event, looking like
Jeraldo Rivera’s long lost twin.
Strangely
the filmmakers seemed to sidestep the issue of what happened to Jerry Damiano’s
marriage. It was suggested by several of his colleagues that Jerry started making
adult films to get laid, but at the time he was married. Later Damiano is shown
with his children and is interviewed at length, but never do we hear anything
about what happened to his wife. One can only assume that his marriage was one
of the casualties of Deep Throat. Still the real fun of the film is it’s
examination of America at a time of great upheaval and shift from traditional
mores concerning human sexuality, to more open acceptance. Viewed solely as a
cultural phenomenon, and the great political and religoius divide, Deep Throat
is fascinating subject matter, and Bailey and Barbato are to be commended for
assembling a compelling scrapbook primarily aimed at a generation who were too
young or unborn at the time when it all went down. (Pronouned “went down”).
