"Inside Deep Throat" is a documentary that examines the players involved in the film, the social controversy it caused and the somewhat divisive legacy it left behind. The film leaves no doubt that the movie was an important cultural lynchpin in the '70s, but its import may have been swept away by the introduction of VCR.
As stories go, it's more compelling, particularly the sections dealing with the film's obscenity trials, one of which resulted in the conviction of star Harry Reems, and its complex finances. Made with organized-crime backing, the film's supposed $600 million in profit disappeared into a network of "checkers and sweepers."
It's all told in a romping those-were-the-days style, and it could have been an entertaining film — except for a shadow so dark, it overpowers any lightness. The strange, sad life of Linda Lovelace (born Linda Boreman), star of "Deep Throat," is etched here briefly.
After an abusive marriage to the man who got her into porn, Lovelace later became an activist, writing books and speaking out against pornography and the violence she endured as a battered wife. She died penniless in a 2002 car accident, having seen none of the movie's millions. In the doucmunetary, it is shown her as saying: "When you watch 'Deep Throat,' you are watching me being raped."
Director Damiano insists today, rather chillingly, that Linda just needed someone to tell her what to do. But her words, and her sad eyes in a black-and-white glamour shot, hang over the film and change it, perhaps unintentionally. It's impossible to join the applauding of "Deep Throat" as a celebration of sexual freedom, when the sexual freedom of the woman at its center is questionable at best.
