Heh, I noticed this film in the article Mary posted about the BOP review. I remeber hearing about it a long time ago already, but sadly its release keeps being pushed back. Its about the porn that actually became famous more because of Watergate than anything. I remember reading a an article that discussed how Deep Throat bridged the gap between the seedy pornography, activism, and the main stream, and was the first such film to actually be a large success (in the sceme of things) box-office wise. It also showed in general theatres unlike its many predessors. I think a documentary on it could be quite interesting if intelligently done and could comment on the commercialization of sex in the film industry.

It is now getting limited release Feb. 17th, and has an NC-17 rating. RT does not have reviews up for it yet, but here is the synopsis from the site.



Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer (Friday Night Lights, A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile) teams with acclaimed directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Party Monster, Monica in Black and White, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) on the new motion-picture documentary INSIDE Deep Throat.

INSIDE Deep Throat examines the unanticipated lasting cultural impact generated by Deep Throat, a sexually explicit film first shown in a midtown Manhattan adult theater in June 1972 that quickly became the flashpoint for an unprecedented social and political firestorm.

Generally considered the most profitable film of all time (produced for less than $25,000), Deep Throat unexpectedly became a cultural phenomenon at the moment when the nation's movements of sexual liberation, equal rights and questioning authority demanded a combustible focus. The barely one-hour long adult title became compulsory viewing for millions of Americans.

More than 30 years later, INSIDE Deep Throat examines the chasm between the modest intentions of the filmmakers behind Deep Throat and the unforeseen, ironic impact and legacy that their film left on society.

INSIDE Deep Throat is an Imagine Entertainment in association with HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Brian Grazer Production in association with World of Wonder. It is produced by Brian Grazer, and written, produced and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.

Saw at the trailer for Kinsey - it seems to have been done as a documentary on the making of it with all of the players involved.

So just a "making of" type documentary? I was under the impression from the article and the rt synopsis that it had more to do with the film's cultural reception. That's what had me so excited about it. I remember last year they even showed it in DOC Films at UofC in Chicago in the middle of the day. Its become a bit of an "arts house" flick, which I think is more interesting to contemplate than just how it was made. Hell even Boogie Nights would be more interesting than that. I've already seen a doc on Ron Jeremy that was fun, but there's only so far a "making of" type documentary can go as far as pronography goes before I want to see a bit of synthesis around politics, etc.

We were just talking about People vs. Larry Flynt (not the movie, I haven't seen it, the actual court cases) last night and how Hustler and Playboy actually "paved" the way for other forms of freedom of press, right to privacy, etc, that became very important in other social movements. Anyways, I hope Inside Deep Throat goes into that as well?

Sorry you are correct - it is more than a making of it.

They talk about all aspects of the movie. The way that the trailer went. It went through the players - the proformers, the producers, the state, the DA, etc - and those people were talking about it with lots of older clips. There could be alittle more as I was partly talking during it and wasn't fully paying attention.

Maybe you people can see the article from NY times :razz:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/movie ... ner=rssnyt



The Long View on 'Deep Throat'
By LAURA M. HOLSON

Published: September 5, 2004



LOS ANGELES

TO hear Brian Grazer tell it, "Deep Throat" did wonders for his sex life.

It was 1976 and Mr. Grazer, who was then a struggling producer trying to make it in Hollywood, had been invited to the home of a wealthy real estate lawyer for a screening of the X-rated film about a woman seeking physical gratification through oral sex. "I remember going there and feeling kind of out of place," Mr. Grazer recalled in a recent interview at his hillside home in Pacific Palisades. "There was a barbecue. It was up in the hills of Beverly Hills and I remember feeling just like, God, out of place because everyone was older and cooler, fancier and richer and I was just figuring it out."

But when the lights went down, Mr. Grazer said, an energy gripped the partygoers, making not only the women there more appealing to him, but him to them. "I literally became infinitely more attractive after that movie." Some couples repaired to private bedrooms, he said. Mr. Grazer, now 53 and an Academy Award-winning producer of family fare like "Apollo 13" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," said he went home with a brown-eyed Brazilian woman.

It would be the beginning of a 28-year obsession — not just with his after-party sexual escapade ("Of course I remember it clearly," he said), but with the impact the movie had on the pornography industry, now a profitable big business, and on popular culture. The result of that obsession is "Inside Deep Throat," a documentary that Mr. Grazer produced with HBO and which will be released in theaters next year.

When it was released in 1972, "Deep Throat" ignited a firestorm of criticism as local and federal authorities tried to prevent theaters from showing it, claiming the movie violated obscenity laws and threatened the moral underpinnings of American society. Despite that — or because of it — "Deep Throat" became the first pornographic film to be embraced by a wide audience, openly attended by the likes of Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Jacqueline Onassis.

The movie, made for under $25,000, became the 11th-highest-grossing domestic film of 1973. With subsequent videocassette and DVD sales and rentals, it's now made more than $600 million, making it one of the most profitable films in history. As Mr. Grazer and the film's makers see it, the success of "Deep Throat" was the first real evidence that mainstream America's sexual curiosity could be turned into a corporate money-making machine.

"The sexual revolution was already happening, but hard-core sex hadn't crossed over," said Randy Barbato, who wrote and directed the documentary with his filmmaking partner Fenton Bailey. "It became a flashpoint for the commodification of sex. No one knew hard-core could sell so much."

Mr. Grazer, who put up $1 million of his own money to make the $2 million documentary, said he met Mr. Bailey and Mr. Barbato two years ago. They were introduced by Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary and Family, who recommended the filmmakers — previously responsible for documentaries about sensational topics like Tammy Faye Bakker and Monica Lewinsky, and "Party Monster," a fictionalized account of Michael Alig, the New York club kid now serving time for manslaughter — for Mr. Grazer's project. Originally he had wanted to make a feature film based on the life of Linda Lovelace, the star of "Deep Throat," who eventually renounced the film and the fame that it brought her. But as he learned more about the movie, he said he became even more fascinated with how it reflected a changing society.

Before "Deep Throat," pornographic films were limited mostly to 10-minute "loops," which were viewed privately in the back rooms of adult bookstores or at small clubs. "Deep Throat," which was nearly an hour long and had a satirical, almost campy, plot about a woman who discovers she has a clitoris at the back of her throat, was different. Couples went to see it; it became chic. And the moviegoers weren't all young: Mr. Grazer's own grandmother urged him to see it.

"What was special about `Deep Throat' was that it required of people to expose themselves, to go into a theater, to be seen walking in or walking out," said Gay Talese, the best-selling author of "Thy Neighbor's Wife," a 1981 study of sexual behavior in the United States, in a recent interview. "That was a revolutionary act in the 1970's."

Mr. Barbato and Mr. Bailey interviewed more than 60 people, including crew members, actors, First Amendment lawyers, prosecutors and cultural commentators. The almost serendipitous making of the movie is recalled by the cast and crew, many of them now senior citizens. Its director, Gerard Damiano, recounts how the location scout never found a place to shoot the film, so the actors were forced to shoot it at the Miami motel, the former Voyager Inn, where they were staying. Harry Reems, who was paid $250 to play the lead role, recalls that he got the part only after the original star didn't show up.

The graphic sex in "Deep Throat" offended some feminists — even Erica Jong, whose novel "Fear of Flying," about a woman's sexual liberation, had caused its own stir. "I was appalled at how offensive the idea of a woman with a clitoris in her throat was," she said in a recent interview. "How patriarchal."

The feminists found otherwise unlikely allies on the right. Using interviews and grainy television news clips, the filmmakers show local and federal authorities (spurred by the Nixon administration's fight against smut) confiscating prints of the film, closing down movie theaters and suing those involved with the movie using the Supreme Court's obscenity rulings. Government agencies were concerned, too, that organized crime, which many believed help to finance "Deep Throat," was reaping most of its profits.


The outcry galvanized civil libertarians and celebrities who spoke out in defense of the movie and the First Amendment. Johnny Carson joked about the movie on "The Tonight Show." The term even entered the language: the Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward gave their secret Watergate source the nickname "deep throat."

" 'Deep Throat' was like a virus," Mr. Bailey said. "It spread from the dirty raincoat brigade to suburban America."

The documentary ends by bringing us up to the present. Ms. Lovelace died in a car accident in 2002; Mr. Damiano, the director, became a golf caddy. And pornography became a big business, reflected in many facets of popular culture.

Ms. Jong, who appears in the documentary, sees a disconnect between the freedom of expression that "Deep Throat" promised and what actually transpired. "Now we have total liberation of sexual things but we also have the Patriot Act," she said. "We never made the connection between sexual speech and political speech. Sex today has nothing to do with revolution anymore. It's about capitalism and protecting little profit centers."

Recently federal legislators increased the penalty to broadcasters for so-called indecency. At the same time the Internet has opened vast new markets for pornography. And a wave of porn-star confessionals, including the new best-seller "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale," by Jenna Jameson, are flooding bookstores.

"I was in Toronto recently, and Toronto is like being in middle America," Mr. Grazer recalled. "And you've got very hot, young, 18-to 20-year-old girls with tongue studs and they are simply, publicly advertising that they are interested in and capable of giving you really good oral sex if you're interested. And that's not even designed to be shocking."

In the meantime, Mr. Barbato suggested, the sort of outward expression of interest spurred by "Deep Throat" in the 70's has turned inward 30 years later, largely because technology allows those who want to indulge their prurient tastes to do so in the comfort of their homes. "Pornography used to be in the back room," Mr. Barbato said. "Then it came out for a minute. Now it is again in the back room — the back room of every house with a computer."

Still, what "Deep Throat" unleashed is unlikely to go away, Mr. Grazer said. "I think we are sexually anesthetized at this point," he said. "There isn't anything we don't consume that doesn't involve sex to sort of grease the pathways. How do I say it? The marketing of anything today worth marketing involves sex."

Haha Mary! That's the exact article I read, thanks for finding it. I remember that first line...how classic is that. I'm glad its going to turn out to be a descent film as its looking so far.

You know, this looks interesting, but I'd be afraid to see it at the theatre. I know it's a documentary and everything, but some scuzzy guy will probably show up...and show his "support" for what he's seeing.

Yuck.

The offical news blog of this movie

http://worldofwonder.net/insidedeepthroat/

Doubt it...if there's one thing I'm learning is that people who are into porn don't necessarily like to *think* about it. Where I used to work we rented porn (tons of horrible stories heh) but I can safely assure you with rare exception did the customers that rent porn rent *anything* else. We used to ponder these thigs. Seriously, on two-for-one tuesday they'd get six, and I'd point out that all 6 were due back the next day and well...they rented them anyways. A couple people weren;t like that, but again, those are also people I would not be weirded out by if I saw them in the theatre. I'm all for being cerebral about sex, so thats that. But those *support* guys will be damn dissappointed when they have to watch interviews with unattractive directors, distributers, and models without make-up on. Meh...it must be tough with no fast-forward button...so anyways, I'm going to go check it out if it finally comes out here and I hope you do to. If you're worried, go with some friends and sit between them.

The BOP review Mary posted a few days ago was so dissappointed it hasn't been released yet, so it piques my interest even more than the Times article (mary also posted just now) did. I'll start letting everyone know about the RT ratings when they start getting submitted.

*sniff*

My gender...is...inferior...

*sniff*

I've never heard anything about "Deep Throat" though. Hmmph. When it's edited and on AMC, I'll watch.

Your gender is Inferior? You really have no idea what this movie is about do you?

Its totally chauvanistic by today's standards...its about a woman who's clit is located in the back of her throat (hence her tendency to, you know...well read the goddam title of the movie ). Anyways, it was a huge success made bigger by the fact that the inside info leek from the Watergate scandal called himself Deepthroat (I'm not joking). Go check out All the President's Men for more on that. But this doc is about the actual porno...not the Watergate scandal, lest someone get confused. :wink:

At least you would know that the sticky stuff on the floor wasn't coke or pepsi that was spilled. \:D/

*runs off quickly before the girls in this thread start swinging fists in my general direction*

The interesting thing about the article is the movie's grosses. I think over at Mojo it was always claimed that Deep Throat made 600 Million and should have shown on the all-time lists, but this puts it in more perspective. Theatrically it didn't seem to make (that) lot of movie, if it was only the 11th biggest of 1973...

Well Levy, its with sails and re-release, etc. As I mentioned it played last year in an independant theatre in UofC. I know that BO isn't collected directly for that anymore (I don't think, but I don't know) however at one point DocFilms would have had to buy the reel, so there's hidden money there. And of course, sales and rentals would be the biggest market here. Still 11th for the entire year would be like Shark Tale or The Polar Express in 2004. You know what that is for a pron film? Its pretty much was our contribution to the film industry's sexual revolution. The French contributed Bridget Bardot in the 50's and 60's, we contributed Deep Throat. Well, not really, I have no idea, but even by today's standards an being just shy of the top ten grossers of the year is a pretty big deal if the movie is a low-budget indie.

Is this the part where the funkadelic guitar riff music plays.
*Bwra Brwing *
*Bwra Brwing *
*Bwra Brwing *
*Bwra Brwing *

I'm talking about Libs' comments. About some scuzzy guy showing up...

The idea that there are old (AND young) men who relish in such disgusts me. And, the thing is, there probably WILL be some guy who shows up expecting a porno.

First five rt reviews have been submitted, and Throat is going 4/5. At 80% the one cmmenter who was not taken by the film said its because besides alot of biographical and production history, there's not much to the film that we don't already know.

I find that an interesting comment considering he's assuming everyone already knows about the porn industry and more importantly, its consumption and entrance into the mainstream. We don't, most of us have just seen Boogie Nights, which isnt the same thing at all, seeing as how it dramatized the fall of the porn industry rather than just its new veiwership. New viewership actually means a rise in the porn industry, just not in the same way as anticipated. I think there is more to this. I saw the trailer last week and there are plenty of interviews not just with people who spoke about watching it when it first came out, but also academics, historians, etc.

It actually looked to be alright, not particularly creative in its production style, but full of interesting content (aside from the actual clips of course).

There was also a comment about mafia involvement that I was not aware of. This film stands at the intersection of many interesting points of history, society, and sexuality, so I guess we'll just have to see it three months from now.

umm .. and why were people interested in watching a movie about a woman with a clitoris behind her neck/throat for the sake of porn? i dont know about you but i'm not into that ....

@Dolce. You're right about the deep throat thing. It's actually become a term now, with many people who leak out info or give out inside info (who wish to remain unidentified) calling themselves by that name.

One more week...rt doesn't have much in the way of reviews going yet. What have people heard about it?

Opens Limited release this week, so I'll try to go in and review it for y'all asap. Hot of the presses. Its doing okay over at rt, but not stellar. Its being updated as we speak, but last I checked it was hovering at 80%, which is good for a movie, but probably only average for a doc, which critics tend to be mor lenient on.

RottenTomatoes Update

84% Fresh (36 Fresh + 7 Rotten)

Consensus: A documentary on the film that brought smut mainstream, Inside Deep Throat is gaining praise as an entertaining look at a pop culture milestone. However, some critics say the film could have gone a little deeper into the people involved.

This movie is getting so-so reviews in New York.

Saw it today...full review will be up soon. It wasn't so bad actually. I wouldn't go so far as to give it an A but it wasn't rotten either. Maybe a B. It touched upon many issues, but each one only lightly. In that aspect, it opened up alot of interesting angles, but it was also a bit expository about some of them, and clearly poked fun at those condemning it rather than contextualizing the release of the film. The weakest point is probably editing, as the movie felt a bit frenetic. But it mentioned the mafia connections, media sensation, chronicled the lives of the director and actors, spoke about feminism and how it handled the three year release (changed opinions part way through) and explored how vhs pretty much killed the porn industry. Yes they did have clips of the rocket orgasm, and they had a list of interviewees that was insane. Everyone from Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner to John Waters and Gore Vidal.