Day 227: "Deep Throat forged the sexual revolution, good or bad."

Be warned: today's movie is a documentary about the making of and cultural impact of one of the single most controversial films ever made.  Inside Deep Throat is an uncompromising examination of the 1972 film Deep Throat.  It takes a hard look at the film's production, but more importantly, it looks at the impact its production and release had on the United States.  Made for 25 thousand dollars in 1972, it has since grossed over 600 million dollars in the decades since, making it the single most profitable movie in history (sorry, Blair Witch Project).  Now I am not saying that Deep Throat was a good movie (it's really bad actually), but Inside is a fascinating look at its legacy.  The original was doing alright at the box office until a New York Times article entitled "Porn Chic" was published and put the movie into a "must see" status for readers, of which there were millions.  The U.S. government, at the time, was doing a scientific study on whether or not pornography was actually a physical health concern.  The confluence of the movie and the report's release created a whirlwind of controversy, and all hell broke loose.  The report was eventually decried as a failure, and in the wake of its failure, another report was commissioned on the mental and social ills of porn.  This report was almost a killing blow.  One of the actors in the film was actually put on trial for, get this, conspiracy.  He almost went to jail for 5 years for simply being an actor in Deep Throat.  Not a writer, not a producer, not the director, and not a distributor.  An actor.  That's like putting the store that sold the paint an artist used in a painting now considered obscene on trial for conspiracy.

I was very surprised when I watched this and discovered the consequences that everyone involved in the creation of this movie had to endure.  Deep Throat was made almost as a lark.  Everyone involved just thought they were making a funny little dirty movie.  No one had any idea that it was going to explode into a cultural game-changer.  Like I stated in the beginning of this: BE WARNED.  Inside Deep Throat is very graphic in what it shows from the original film.  If porno puts you off, this is not the movie for you, but, if you want to see how an insignificant 1972 "blue" movie changed the entertainment industry, see it.  8.5/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!