Red, White and Blue (1971)

Genres - Culture & Society  |   Sub-Genres - Media Studies, Social Issues, Politics & Government, Sexuality  |   Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Clarke Fountain

In the late '60s and early '70s, U.S. obscenity laws were in a state of uncertainty and change. One of the Supreme Court's codewords for acceptability was "socially redeeming value." As a result of their troubles in court, lawyers advised pornographic filmmakers to add or insert materials of a documentary or apparently documentary nature to their otherwise wholly pornographic offerings. This advice resulted in the production of some historically interesting oddities such as the present film, which is mostly documentary, though not without prurient interest. Interspersed with interviews of prominent producers of pornography, in which they discuss free speech and the Constitution, are quasi-documentary scenes of Entertainment Ventures, Inc. Chairman David Friedman giving testimony before a Congressional committee. The testimony in the imaginary committee hearing involves showing moments from his wholly pornographic film Trader Hornee. The film Red White and Blue was apparently designed to serve as a guarantee that footage from the porn film would get shown in this "documentary," even if the other film was suppressed.

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Keywords

Constitution, film-clips, film-producer, filmmaker, freedom-of-speech, interview, law, obscenity, pornography, testimony