As far as I know Linda Lovelace is the first porn ‘star’. Her debut film Deep Throat is universally known by millions, even though a great many haven’t even seen it. The remarkable fact is that Lovelace was a working porn actress for all of 17 days…
And while Lovelace depicts a backstory filled with equal parts apathy and emotional and physical manipulation, the depressing reality is that it is likely a tale replicated a hundred times by unfortunate young girls driven to desperate lengths by tragic circumstances.
Even the recipe is probably the same: add one pretty young girl (Amanda Seyfried) who is not as worldly as she thinks she is. Give her a slutty best friend who encourages her to explore, a sleazy and opportunistic guy with drugs to lubricate and many promises to leave unfulfilled. Most importantly though seems to be a parent (Sharon Stone) who proves so overbearing and times her nagging assaults to arrive just as doubts arise.
In Lovelace’s case a quickie marriage and financial difficulty seemingly leave ‘no other options’, but the reality is that the film clearly paints her husband Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) as the main villain and prime driving scumbag behind things.
Linda is remembered because of her one ‘special skill’ which provided a memorable hook in an industry which to that time was apparently quite ‘vanilla’. While this film has greasy guys, white lies and promises broken, I would suspect that it’s a tale replicated since the 1970s and through to modern times on almost a daily basis.
Calling the events of this film a tragedy is no akin to making a car crash film and labelling it same. Sure it’s true that those involved are perhaps imperilled and in some cases impacted forever, but it happens all the time to someone.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. Oh and I’m supposed to call Amanda Seyfried ‘brave’ because she takes her clothes off a few times. Apparently that’s the rule.
