Strange as it may seem for those who didn't experience the 1970s, there was a time when cinematic porn briefly achieved a level of (near) respectability, inasmuch as "regular" people saw the films at "regular" theaters. The "porno chic" fad was characterized by three major films, Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones and brothers Jim and Art Mitchell's groundbreaking Behind the Green Door. This is not really a film to which one can apply traditional critical standards, and its cultural significance definitely outshines its artistic merit. Nevertheless, for a film in a genre that had never been known for quality of any kind -- and given that an important 15 minutes of film burned up in the developing lab -- Behind the Green Door is an impressive achievement. It looks fairly good, has decent music, something of a story, and the men in it don't look like underfed car thieves. To an extent, reviewing Behind the Green Door is more like a litany of trivia. The film stars then 19 year old Marilyn Chambers, previously known to America as the girl on the box of Ivory Snow (for you high school students out there, this is what's known as irony). She continued to bare her all on celluloid well into the 1990s. The performances of professional athletes (star Ben Davidson, of the Oakland Raiders, and former boxer Johnnie Keyes) only adds to the film's singularity, as does the knowledge that almost twenty years later Jim Mitchell shot and killed his brother Art. The film earned almost $50 million off an investment which was one-thousandth that amount, making it something of a pornographic Blair Witch Project. As for what is behind the green door, you'll have to watch the movie. Just exercise some discretion -- the "cultural significance" line might not fly anymore.
by Matthew Doberman
review
