Inside Deep Throat DVD Review:

Nobody is arguing that Deep Throat is a terrible film. The acting stinks and it is a horrible plot based on a male fantasy that oral sex can possibly give pleasure to a woman because she has one of her sexual organs in the back of her throat for some reason. It is simply a bad porno film, but it also happened to come out at a time in which it struck a chord, became popular, and then was used as an example in a war against pornography. While I have never been able to bring myself to watch Deep Throat despite its influence in film, I can respectfully say that Inside Deep Throat is a fascinating documentary about all of the reasons people felt compelled to see the film when it was originally released.

The first reaction most have when told that there is an NC-17 documentary about Deep Throat is that the film must be obscene. It is almost the same reaction that I would expect people had about Deep Throat. What amazes me is that Inside Deep Throat is a tasteful examination of the events which led to Deep Throat and the backlash that was caused because of it. The porn industry existed before Deep Throat, but it was never an issue until this film. There were trials in numerous cities banning the film over and over again, and at one point the lead actor nearly faced jail time because of his involvement with the film.

The documentary is actually somewhat slow at points, because it gets rather frustrating watching the yo-yo effect of the film succeeding and then being taken away. The most fascinating part of the documentary are some of the interviews, especially with some of the more unique “celebrities”. Some of the most humorous interviews are in the special features by celebrities who are unrelated to the film but have a lot of great things to say about the issues.

Inside Deep Throat is available on DVD in its theatrical NC-17 version as well as an R rated version. I’m certain that the R rated version would be fine for most people, except for those who need their curiosity satisfied slightly, without having to see Deep Throat in its entirety.

The DVD has an extremely large number of special features, some of which are fascinating, while others could have been left off of the DVD. There are numerous sections which were obviously left off of the documentary, including interviews from members of the town which first fought the banning of Deep Throat. There is also an interesting section with a discussion about America’s attitudes on sex, with interviews from Bill Maher, Wes Craven, Hugh Hefner and many others. The special features which could have been left off the DVD include a very strange fire dance by a woman. Why this is on the DVD, I will never know. There is also a commentary track by directors Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, but I have always found commentary tracks on documentaries to be somewhat redundant and this is no exception.



Ryan Izay