Board of Reviews

Richard C Walls, in Detroit's Metro Times, says Inside Deep Throat is "fast-paced and hugely entertaining" but that it doesn't entirely explain "the appeal of fellatio as a male fantasy that quells performance anxiety."  Well, if you have to ask. . . . 

But within [its] narrow focus, the film is about as thorough as one would wish. It offers a heady look back at a time when porn could actually be viewed as something liberating rather than desensitizing; an amateur's craft (or hustle, with the mafia lurking in the background), rather than a billion-dollar industry riding formulas as woefully predictable as TV sitcoms. It has a comic cast of retired hustlers, professional bozos, one borderline insane evangelical and iconic talking heads like Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. It also has about 10 seconds of graphic footage from the original film, hence the NC-17 rating.

If you just can't get enough of Inside Deep Throat and don't mind rereading  "$25,000" and "$600 million," there is this recent story on CNN.com. 

Showing the notorious sex act was necessary for the documentary, said "Inside Deep Throat" directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the filmmakers behind such acclaimed documentaries as "Party Monster" and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye."  "There was no way we were going to make a film called 'Inside Deep Throat' without including the act," Barbato said. "Our film is not salacious or gratuitous. That scene needed to be in there."

Four-time Pulitzer Prize honorable-mention winner, Richard Cohen (who looks a bit like Gerard Damiano, don't you think?), chimes in on Inside Deep Throat in his NY Daily News column.

I know "Deep Throat" was porn and I know "Inside Deep Throat" is about the cultural importance of that film, but to me it's just a sad story about the lure of fame - more boxers on the way to Palookaville, more actors mistaking the actual end of their careers for the beginning.