While hardly shocking by standards today, the adult film 'Deep Throat' caused a stir when released in 1972 and this informative documentary recounts its notoriety as well as the subsequent careers of its director and stars. A few amusing bits aside, 'Deep Throat' is not a particularly well-made movie and the documentary benefits from acknowledging this with 'Deep Throat' director Gerard Damiano even agreeing. The source of fascination then becomes the fact the film has made so much money and was so widely seen despite being so amateurish. Reasons thrown up include its banning increasing demand, its graphic depiction of fellatio and the influence the movie had on adult films to come. We might never know the exact reason, but the documentary does a good job prodding. For a 90-minute doco though, 'Inside Deep Throat' is incredibly busy and explores a few too many avenues at once. Harry Reams is a fascinating subject (almost jailed for acting in the film when he was an eleventh hour casting decision, paid a mere $250), but it feels like more attention should have been thrown Linda Lovelace's way. The doco is also a little bloated with tons of interviews involving people such as John Waters and Larry Flynt, who were never involved with the actual film. Wes Craven makes for an interesting subject though as he started in porn himself, which he terms an "entry level job". Or at least it was back then. 'Inside Deep Throat' acutely reminds us of how much times have changed in addition to posing the expected freedom of expression questions.
Review of Inside Deep Throat
