Societal attitudes toward sex are something that fascinates me. Last night, Laura and I watched the documentary Inside Deep Throat about the first porn movie to really hit the big time. Deep Throat , which I'm yet to see¹, has been described as the most successful and influential pornographic movie ever made. The stories behind the individuals involved and how Deep Throat was made, promoted and distributed is fascinating (and in many ways, very sad). However, by far the most interesting thing to me is the reaction of various elements of society (especially, the People and the Government) and the far reaching affects it had (or at the very least, threatened to could have had).

The personal stories involved, primarily those of Linda Lovelace², Gerard Damiano (the writer/director), and Harry Reems tell, above anything else, very sad stories. For starters, none of them made any significant money from Deep Throat. Linda was paid something in the order of $1,200, Harry Reems even less and the writer/director was muscled out of his one third share of the profits by the other two partners who were part of the Mafia.

Linda, after staring in the box office failure Deep Throat Part II in 1974 eventually became a vocal anti-pornography campaigner on the back of the Feminist and anti-pornography movements in the early 1980s. In 2001 she did a pictorial (once again as Linda Lovelace) for a magazine called Leg Show prompting Hustler to name her asshole of the month for March 2001. Drawing any conclusions from a film about issues like whether or not Linda was forced to perform in Deep Throat is an obviously impossible task, however, since the movie prompts one to do so, I will. I'm led to think that Linda was probably pressured into making the film, but that overall, her character was very malleable and that it wouldn't have taken much to convince her³.

Harry Reems' story is possibly the saddest of the lot⁴, and is linked inextricably with the political and social struggles that made the movie so famous. Harry Reems was eventually used as a massive scape goat by the FBI when he was indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. Even though he was initially found guilty, the charges were clearly a load of crap⁵. Many of the big names in Hollywood⁶ got behind Harry, simply because they saw the charges as an attack on art and freedom and also to be an underhanded attempt at censorship. The charges were eventually overturned. Unfortunately, the social revolution and the idea that pornography would become more main stream and accepted in society had lost steam. Hollywood still wasn't willing to risk casting well known porn stars in main stream roles, and consequently Harry began a descent into alcoholism due in part to his inability to find work.

The film seems intent on trying to convince us that there is an even greater extent of censorship and repression in today's society, and therefore the revolution started or spurred on by Deep Throat hasn't been successful. What I think it fails to recognise is that this is the kind of battle that will never be won. There will always be liberals and conservatives in society, and I guess it's just a question of who has the upper hand. Without claiming to have a great understanding of the political and social climate before I was even born, it's my feeling that in many ways society is more liberal than it ever has been, however there is the constant threat that it won't stay that way. One thing Inside Deep Throat did concede is that the massive scale of the porn industry today is, in some senses, evidence that the 'battle' was won.

One thing that struck me toward the end of the film is the similarities between the pornographic movie⁷ and music industries. There is a huge volume of content created and the vast majority (and, unfortunately, often the most popular) is total rubbish.

This has been a very poor synopsis of Inside Deep Throat. If you want to know more I suggest you see the film or have a read of the insightful user comments over at IMDb⁸.

1. But I'm downloading it as I type. [↩]
2. Later preferring to be known by her real name, Linda Boreman. [↩]
3. Although, it has been admitted by her husband at the time of making the movie, Chuck Traynor, that he was excessively controlling, more serious allegations made by Linda, such as rape, have been strenuously refuted by Traynor and others involved with making the move. [↩]
4. However, it does seem to have a happy ending, I think. [↩]
5. At least they were to any rational mind. [↩]
6. Notably, Jack Nicholson and Warren Baetty. [↩]
7. In this I would include all movies that attract a restricted rating for their sexual content. [↩]
8. You may need to sign up, which is free and easy. It really is worth the effort. [↩]