The most profitable film in motion picture history, Deep Throat, was filmed in six days for $25,000. This 1972 U.S. movie grossed 600 million dollars but was banned in 23 states. It is now the subject of Inside Deep Throat, a documentary recently released on DVD.

Deep Throat caused near mass hysteria upon its release. Throngs of celebrities, including former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, lined several city blocks to see it. Everyone who was old enough wanted to know what the fuss was about, so they got in line to find out.

Director Gerard Damiano never intended to make this film in the first place, and he certainly didn't envision the cult status it would attain. In fact, all he wanted to do was use Linda Lovelace, who had captivated him in one scene of a movie he was already making. Truth be told, Damiano wanted to be a mainstream filmmaker but nobody would take him seriously. He lacked the training and experience to prove he had what it took to helm a major movie. If he wanted to make it in the film industry, Damiano felt he had no choice but to turn to porn and blend it with his mainstream plots.   

During his work as a hairstylist, Damiano would overhear gossip from female patrons who also often spilled out intimate details about their own lives. He decided to take what he learned about women -- their relationships, emotions and desires -- and blend this with his ideas into a funny, artistic, dramatic full-length blue movie. Although wishing it could have been a conventional and mainstream film, he claims he had no choice in the matter. His biggest problem? Because of the laws about morality, nobody had ever tried such a thing before. 

With the mob controlling all the adult theaters as well as the blue movie business, Damiano knew there was a way for his movie to be seen. However, he never fully anticipated all of the legal troubles that would ensue, nor could he foresee being ripped off by partners said to be in deep with the mob. They took all the proceeds from the movie. None of the cast and crew, not even the star Linda Lovelace or her male counterpart Harry Reems, ever saw a dime for Deep Throat.

Damiano hoped Deep Throat would lead to a successful merger between art and sex on film and become the norm. Instead, his movie was -- and perhaps still is -- viewed as smut. The film spawned government outrage, two presidental commissions, and trials against Harry Reems for indecency. Reems was convicted and spent nearly five years of his life behind bars, even though Hollywood actors Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty defended his right to freedom of expression under the constitution.

Deep Throat was probably successful in attracting crowds because the nation was moving toward sexual liberation during that time. Ideas about equal rights for the sexes and  counter-cultural values were boiling over. The film became a pawn in the war for freedom from government control over what we see, hear and have access to. Had it come along at another time in history, Deep Throat might have been viewed merely as an awful movie.

Still, the film was a cult hit despite what anyone thought negatively about it, and there are some historians and critics who say it still impacts us today. Inside Deep Throat pulls no punches in examining the true intentions of the filmmakers, and each person in the documentary has an interesting, chaotic and sometimes tragic tale to tell. 

Linda Lovelace (nee Boreman), the lead in Deep Throat, is perhaps the most tragic of the figures involved this story. Her sister, Barbara Boreman, is interviewed at length. She says she knows who Linda Boreman is -- but not who Linda Lovelace was. The feels Lovelace's husband, Chuck Traynor, was an abusive, sick, evil individual. Boreman insists her sister fell under his hypnotic spell. She believes Traynor beat, tortured and forced LInda into sex films. Linda, who went on to denounce Traynor, returned to her maiden name and speaks out against pornography. She contends that every time the movie plays, someone is watching her rape caught on camera.

Making sure they got more than their cut, those who controlled the prints of Deep Throat hired checkers who used a crude counting device to determine how many people saw the movie at each screening in any state. An enforcer would then show up the same time each week and tell theater owners to fork over 60 per cent or more of the box office take that week. After one theater owner refused, his theater was burned to the ground. An enforcer believed to have pocketed the proceeds from a theater was found dead in a pickup truck.

This documentary is rated NC-17, which is the equivalent of an X in some countries, because of some unwise decisions to include actual pornographic scenes from Deep Throat. The movie should have allowed the interviews and tactful discussion (considering the topic) of the film to reveal why  Deep Throat is significant in the history of film and in the battle for freedom of expression. Many important ideas about censorship, liberation, tragedy, betrayal, and where the government should or should not be in our lives are presented here. Although these issues are covered in some of the most engaging and candid of interviews, the documentary is marred by inclusion of graphic language and film sequences.  

Inside Deep Throat delivers on its promise to be a controversial and entertaining documentary that provokes a response and assaults your senses. However, it's incredibly hard to strip away the negatives resulting from so many lewd discriptions, pornographic images and excessive blue language. 

(Released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment and rated "NC-17" for explicit sexual content. An "R"-rated version of this documentary is also available on DVD.)