Deep Throat
Dir: Gerard Damiano
1972
**
OK, before I begin I just want to stress that I don't review porn films, mainly because I don't watch porn films but also because I honestly don't like them. Yeah yeah, think what you like but I honestly think the porn industry has a lot to answer for as far as the deterioration of society is concerned. I'm no prude either, but when something that is essentially private or at least something that belongs behind closed doors suddenly becomes mainstream you need to check the ramifications. Kids shouldn't have access to this kind of thing but they do. Young people don't just imitate but think that this stuff is normal. Add the way women are generally treated in these films and you have got yourself problems. Anyway, like it or not, Deep Throat is culturally significant so I watched it. I also watched it after seeing Inside Deep Throat (a great documentary) and Lovelace (a dramatisation of star Linda Lovelace's side of the story) to fully understand both. I don't really have a lot to compare it to, it's probably quite mild compared to some of today's material but I can see how it was shocking for the time. Innocent fun though it might seem, Deep Throat had a huge impact on porn, film, distribution, censorship and what we deem acceptable today. It rewrote the book. On reflection I'm not sure that says anything good about us as a species.