Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato/USA/2005; R4
Magna Pacific, NZ$tbc | Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

IN 1972 the porn movie Deep Throat was made. The film starred Linda Lovelace, and was named after her special talent. By today’s standards the movie is barely smutty – aside from the close-up on the titular act. In fact, it’s downright boring as a movie – a kitsch-classic at best – but the story behind that story is deeply fascinating. And so, Inside Deep Throat attempts to shed some light on this morally dark tale.

But this riveting documentary quickly sheds its ostensible skin and pokes its head in to three decades of civil unrest in America; showing how the, erm, smallest thing can evoke a giant scandal.

1972 was an interesting time for America. The Vietnam War is cranking, but the 1960s are over, bringing with them the death of the hippie dream. Woodstock and Altamont saw to that, going from peak to valley in just four months. And there’s been a real rise in political/cultural dissenters – from filmmakers like Robert Altman (M*A*S*H) and Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Catch-22) to writers as iconic as Hunter S. Thompson (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72). America is a head full of bees, making it worse, Nixon is back in power. And the religious right gathering behind him is starting to muster steam. The 1960s revolt is an act worthy of punishing – and it seems that America’s brief trip away from conservatism is going to cost it a McCarthyism-styled lock-down.

The filmmakers behind Inside Deep Throat understand that context is crucial – and so one of the great counter-cultural voices is the voice of their film; Dennis Hopper. Now Hopper is a great voice-talent, a perfect narrator, but in this context (as when he voiced Rolling Stone magazine’s 20th Anniversary documentary) he has his own philosophical bit-part to play too. This helps. For it was people like Hopper that were as much in support of Deep Throat as it was anyone in the porn-world. Deep Throat opened in general cinemas and attracted people like Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty at its premieres. It was the thing to do if you were on the scene – go to this movie. The nation (and the world, by extension) wanted to be titillated.

Assembling a formidable cast of who’s who, both from the porn-world and of that era, as well as modern-day commentators (Bill Maher for instance), no stone is left unturned.
And Inside Deep Throat manages to explain the sad life of its star – Linda Lovelace – as well as explaining the political saga that made this film. And the ironies within that.

Deep Throat was made, with the help of borrowed mob-money, for about $25,000. It went on to create a $600 million empire. This meant that the mob wanted more of a piece – and suddenly theatres were getting mysteriously burnt to a crisp. The male lead was replaced at the last minute by production assistant Harry Reems. He was prosecuted for obscenity under America’s bizarre federal law system; Lovelace was left to slowly destroy herself. The film went on to get shut down in several cities by court-order; only to pop up in nearby towns.

The bitter pill of this story is that Deep Throat went on to be so much more than it ever wanted to be. Spawning half a dozen embarrassing, inferior (eventually straight-to-video) sequels, even though one of its main stars wasn’t allowed to act in any more films for a while and the other lost the plot, denouncing pornography altogether – eventually claiming that it was the equivalent of being raped on film, only to run out of drug-money and eventually go back to this seedy film choice.

Inside Deep Throat is a constantly fascinating film – a potted history of the conflicts that occur and hypocrisies that are common-place in America’s legal system. And most importantly – it’ll save you from ever having to watch the original film. You get to see the famous (impressive) act in archival footage – and you get to engage in a stimulating debate afterwards.


A WAD of extras includes some spot-on comments from modern-day pun-lovers and pundits – namely, the aforementioned Bill Maher, Hugh Hefner, Wes Craven and others thrashing America's attitudes towards sex – as well as further interviews and footage excluded from the original cut.