Inside Deep Throat

Inside Deep Throat is a 2005 American documentary film about the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat, at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn, and its effects on American society.

Content

The film discusses how Deep Throat was distributed to theaters. Prints would be hand-delivered and employees would count heads of moviegoers and then collect the cash profits from the theaters. This process was known as sending "checkers and sweepers".

It features scenes from the film, news of the time and interviews, both from archive and purpose-made, with director Gerard Damiano, actor Harry Reems, actress Linda Lovelace, Gore Vidal, Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner, John Waters, Erica Jong, a prosecutor, Reems' defense, Mafia money collectors, and other people involved or just commenting on the film. Much of the material was compiled from approximately 800 hours of interview and archive footage collected by the filmmakers.

Cast

• Dennis Hopper
• John Waters
• Hugh Hefner
• Larry Flynt
• Annie Sprinkle
• Gore Vidal
• Gerard Damiano
• Dick Cavett
• Wes Craven
• Bill Maher
• Harry Reems
• David Winters
• Norman Mailer
• Erica Jong
• Catharine MacKinnon
• Camille Paglia
• Tony Bill
• Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Archive footage

• Linda Lovelace
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Warren Beatty
• Johnny Carson
• Bob Hope
• Jack Nicholson
• Gloria Steinem
• New York City Mayor John Lindsay

Production

Narrated by Dennis Hopper, the documentary was written, produced, and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and produced by Brian Grazer. It is a production of Imagine Entertainment, HBO Documentary Films, and World of Wonder, and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Rating

Inside Deep Throat was rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America for explicit sexual content; specifically, explicit excerpts from the original film. It was the first NC-17 film to be shown on HBO and it was the first film rated NC-17 to be released by Universal since Henry & June in 1990, which was the first film to receive the NC-17 rating.

An edited version received an R rating for "strong sexuality including graphic images, nudity and dialogue". In addition, Arrow Productions edited the original, pornographic version of Deep Throat to get an "R" rating, and also submitted the original for reclassification. Both versions were released theatrically in 2005, in a double-bill with this documentary.

External links

• Official website
• Inside Deep Throat at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Inside Deep Throat at IMDb
• Inside Deep Throat at AllMovie
• Inside Deep Throat at Box Office Mojo
• Inside Deep Throat at Rotten Tomatoes
• Inside Deep Throat at Metacritic
• Inside Deep Throat at AdultDVDTalk
• Film critic Anthony Lane of The New Yorker discusses the pros and cons of the sexuality debate that has ensued from the production of Deep Throat and Inside Deep Throat