Deep Throat

Depending on your view of history, Deep Throat is a culturally iconic phrase from politics or from porn. Released in 1972 and starring such classic porn personas as Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, Deep Throat was the first porn film to achieve national notoriety, reportedly making millions of dollars after being made for a mere $25,000. A little outside of the normal Movie Trivia topics, but too good to pass up.

The FBI released documents under the Freedom of Information Act this week revealing a nationwide FBI investigation into Deep Throat and an active campaign involving high level FBI administrators, including Mark Felt, later known as the Deep Throat informant in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon.

Why was the FBI involved with a porno? Because at that point the FBI was still pretty heavily involved in dealing with the widespread cultural and sexual revolution. Imagine it. FBI agents did everything from seizing copies of the film to analyzing them in labs- even interviewing actors, producers and delivery-people involved with distributing the film.

"Today we can't imagine authorities at any level of government - local, state or federal - being involved in obscenity prosecutions of this kind. The story of 'Deep Throat' is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream,” said Mark Weiner, constitutional law professor and legal historian at Rutgers-Newark School of Law.

In essence, the involvement of the FBI reflects a very different time, one that it is hard to imagine for people raised on the Internet. Porn movies seem an ingrained part of American culture, and with their easy online access, not to mention their availability at video stores, the idea that producing a porn film would warrant an FBI investigation is hard to imagine. 2009 – 1972 = 37 years. Not that long in time. Pretty long in cultural standards.