Post by StevePulaski on Aug 7, 2013 22:36:11 GMT -5
Deep Throat (1972)
Directed by: Jerry Gerard
Directed by: Jerry Gerard
Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems.
Rating: ★★★
Dr. Young: *inspecting Linda Lovelace's vagina* What do we have here?
Linda Lovelace: "Don't tell me someone left their watch."
Humor like this plagues Deep Throat, which was a landmark for the pornography industry upon its release in 1972 and it a landmark for me as a film critic being my first "official" review of a film of the genre (not counting the softcore shlock Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the String, a film I reviewed out of sheer boredom). Am I wasting my time or simply using it wisely? Contrary to what some people may believe, I'm a supporter of the porn industry and regard its works in the early seventies as a staple of low-budget erotic filmmaking, as many do. Popular porn-star Ron Jeremy stated in his documentary, Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, that, in its inception in the seventies, low-budget porn films were equal to Hollywood's B-movies on a production level.
Just watching Deep Throat in 2013 is a pretty fun experience; it isn't plagued by the soulless, plastic qualities of contemporary pornography, which appears as if the actors and actresses can't wait to take their clothes off during the preceding skits. Deep Throat was the first pornographic film to, well, take its character seriously, giving them development, and encasing its sex acts and fellatios into a plot, regardless of how ridiculous and asinine it is.
Not to mention, even the sequences that aren't intently focused on the sex are enjoyable and fun to experience. The film stars Linda Lovelace in a breakout role, who plays Linda, a girl who feels completely unfulfilled during traditional vaginal intercourse. She can't get in the proper mood to enjoy the sex, and she can never reach orgasm, even after talking with her close friend Helen (Dolly Sharp). She claims to only achieve excitement and sexual fulfillment when performing a fellatio. Dr. Young (the iconic Harry Reems) informs her that this is because her vagina lacks a clitoris and her clitoris lies in the deeper end of her throat. Shall I go further?
The humor in this film is extremely tongue-and-cheek, and I'm trying incredibly hard to avoid puns. But Deep Throat is full of them and this provides the film to be viewed as more than a piece of erotic cinema that should be used to give males and females pleasure. There is enough humor here so that a lonesome viewing isn't enhanced by the awkward thought that you're watching something like this. Too often does pornography get the reputation of being a "last resort" to someone's source of pleasure, or just an awkward medium in general.
Let me sample some lines of dialog, as I did above. When a man is performing cunnilingus on Helen, she goes to light up a smoke and asks the man, "do you mind if I smoke while you're eating?" "Not at all," he states. When Linda is trying to explain to Dr. Young that she can't achieve orgasm, she states, "there should be bells ringing, dams busting, bombs going off." The only logical thing is for Dr. Young to begin singing the similar lines of the national anthem. And finally, when Dr. Young informs Linda how she doesn't have a "tinkler," and states it's not so bad, she replies, "how would you like it if you had balls in your ears?" "I could hear myself cumming!," he ecstatically replies.
Finally, there are the sex scenes, which still bear a shocking explicitness that will make it comparable to the mainstream genres of contemporary porn. All parts of the male and female are shown, and sex scenes are sometimes held for an upwards of eight minutes. The arousal level is pretty slim, considering how humorous and light-hearted the entire thing is, but there is a surprising level of attraction to the sex as it goes on. Vintage pornography is known to lose its effect predominately because so much more risque material is out now, with the creation of the internet and internet pornography. Deep Throat maintains the graphic and elegant standard of pornography.
Deep Throat is a film you'll know if you want to see before you ever read a review or before you do further research outside of a basic plot description. All I can give is a basic analysis, a cheap star rating, and leave you with something to contemplate, as always. A deep throat to you all.
Starring: Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems, Dolly Sharp, and Carol Connors. Directed by: Jerry Conrad.