Inside Deep Throat

I knew it was coming.

I checked out my updated Netflix que a couple days earlier, so I knew it had been mailed. Netlix films typically arrive at my house two days after they've been mailed, so I knew the red envelope was in the mailbox, even before I looked inside.

Yep. Inside Deep Throat.

As soon as I pulled out the envelope I had a flashback. I wouldn't call it a Post-Traumatic Stress flashback really, but the memory is one that causes me a high level of anxiety. Walking back up the driveway toward the garage opening, I remembered the vivid details:

During Junior High football season, between classes ending at 3:00pm or so and the time we were scheduled to leave for an away game, some of us would walk to Summersville's Main Street to get a bite or shoot some pool at the arcade.

Some of us.

Others would, on occasion, head to Rite Aid and check out the porn magazines that, at the time, were openly available at the magazine rack. One day--being 13 and all--I decided that group of guys would be fun to hang out with. So I did.

Rite Aid had Oui magazine. At the time I didn't know the title was French, and I pronounced it like it was an acronym: O.U.I. Anyway, I liked Oui. It wasn't too perverse, but not as whitebread as Playboy. It was just right for a early teen just starting to like girls. And porn.

So I headed toward that section of the rack.

I stayed a little longer after my buddies left, and felt really bold leafing openly through the magazine. Scott Moore always put his porn magazine between the covers of another, more acceptable book. Not me, man...If I'm lookin' at it, I ain't gonna hide it. Say something to me if you like, but it's my right and I'm gonna fight for it.

Yeah, that's the ticket...

Suddenly, I hear the cashier speaking. And she's right beside me. Seems I became so engrossed in Miss October that I let the enemy sneak up on me:

Her: "What are you looking at?"

Me: "...A magazine."

Her: "It's a dirty magazine! Are you 18?"

Me: "...yes..."

Her: "No you're not, you're a kid! You can't look at that."

Me: [Staring blankly at her]: "..."

Suddenly, I dropped the Oui on the floor, and ran past her. Fast. As fast as I could. I ran all the way up the hill, to the school. Didn't stop. Couldn't stop, until I got to the gym.

I didn't go back to that Rite Aid for years.

The memory faded by the time I made it in through the garage. Truth is, I was excited to see Inside Deep Throat. It was produced by Imagine co-founder Brian Grazer--anyone who hangs out with Opie can't be a bad guy--and tells the story of the single most profitable film ever made. That's right: Deep Throat was made for $25,000, and grossed over $600 million.

That's because the film became an instrument of cultural change. It was the event that caused American society to re-examine our obscenity laws, and re-think our views on sexuality. Inside Deep Throat does a great job of detailing the social and economic ramification of the original film, as well as explaining how organized crime used the film to make millions of dollars themselves. Inside Deep Throat does this without showing graphic sexuality (there is only one sex scene from the movie used in the documentary) by interviews with the major Deep Throat players who are still alive.

It's smart, well done and relevant to many issues of today, such as censorship.

I really liked it. Check it out, if only to be reminded of the Puritan-like views America had regarding sexuality prior to the early 1970s.

Yeah, that's Inside Deep Throat in my hand. Whatcha lookin' at !?!