The R2 DVD edition via which I finally got to watch this “cultural phenomenon” and “censorship milestone” has to be the most atrocious and redundant in existence. I’m sure that even those film buffs personally unfamiliar with the film are aware of what its title is alluding to, but the uninitiated would not really be any the wiser after having sat through it in this truly lamentable guise! Finding the film to be so (intentionally) comical was surprising enough – snatches of dialogue and especially the song lyrics heard throughout are virtual howlers – but I certainly wasn’t expecting the most infamous of theatrically-released adult movies to be this chaste: in fact, it is so heavily cropped on this disc that its hardcore content is virtually nullified entirely. I’m fully aware that what one doesn’t see (but only imagines) is usually more effective than what he does get (or is permitted) to view – but this travesty is simply too ridiculous for words. “And deep throat to you all” indeed!
All that is left for me to do, therefore, is to tell of what it is about and something of its legacy. Linda Lovelace plays a woman who has been born with a misplaced clitoris and, consequently, doesn’t enjoy the physical act of love. Her best friend doesn’t seem to have any such problems and, in fact, arranges marathon lovin’ sessions for Lovelace at her home but to no practical avail. Thus, she visits a nerdy sex therapist who not only manages to identify her organic oddity in no time but, understandably enough, comes up with the obvious solution faster than you can say “Deep Throat”! The cure works wonders and Lovelace is soon employed by the therapist to service his own case studies and himself personally in her own spare time…
Unlike common knowledge, DEEP THROAT was not the first hardcore movie to be exhibited theatrically in America but it was easily the most notorious one of its era. Its unequivocal and overreaching cultural standing need only be assessed by the fact that the mysterious insider in the 1974 Watergate scandal which shook the nation chose to be identified by (of all things) the name of this porn flick! Besides, Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols is said to have personally recommended the film to controversial novelist Norman Mailer at the time of release! While Lovelace appeared in an official sequel two years later and the film itself inspired a feature-length documentary in 2005, there are at least two more adult movies – released in 1987 and 1989 – with “Deep Throat” in their title but these are apparently unrelated to the original.
All that is left for me to do, therefore, is to tell of what it is about and something of its legacy. Linda Lovelace plays a woman who has been born with a misplaced clitoris and, consequently, doesn’t enjoy the physical act of love. Her best friend doesn’t seem to have any such problems and, in fact, arranges marathon lovin’ sessions for Lovelace at her home but to no practical avail. Thus, she visits a nerdy sex therapist who not only manages to identify her organic oddity in no time but, understandably enough, comes up with the obvious solution faster than you can say “Deep Throat”! The cure works wonders and Lovelace is soon employed by the therapist to service his own case studies and himself personally in her own spare time…
Unlike common knowledge, DEEP THROAT was not the first hardcore movie to be exhibited theatrically in America but it was easily the most notorious one of its era. Its unequivocal and overreaching cultural standing need only be assessed by the fact that the mysterious insider in the 1974 Watergate scandal which shook the nation chose to be identified by (of all things) the name of this porn flick! Besides, Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols is said to have personally recommended the film to controversial novelist Norman Mailer at the time of release! While Lovelace appeared in an official sequel two years later and the film itself inspired a feature-length documentary in 2005, there are at least two more adult movies – released in 1987 and 1989 – with “Deep Throat” in their title but these are apparently unrelated to the original.