Like most recent porno docs, this is a lot more entertaining than the actual movie its about (although I don't suppose people would watch it for quite the same reason). The "curse" is pretty overstated though. It's not too surprising, for instance, that the producer of the movie was mobbed up. The Mob was deep in the porno industry in those days (fortunately things are much better today now that big corporations like the Hilton hotel chain are underwriting the gang-banging and sodomy of 18-year-old girls). It's also not too surprising that one of the actresses O.D.ed.--woman that will have sex for money on film are usually not too emotionally well-adjusted. And though lead actress Bambi Woods has "disappeared" most people interviewed in the documentary agree that it's more likely that she just doesn't want to be found than that something nefarious happened to her. All but one of the the women in the movie seem to have "disappeared" in the sense that they have left the industry and refused to appear in this documentary--and who can blame them? If you're a middle-aged woman with a husband and kids living in the suburb, would you want everyone to know you used to be a porn star?
That leaves only the men to be interviewed, and they also seem to have suffered a "curse" of a kind. They all seem somewhat wistful about how their porno work has ruined their career ambitions and wasted their lives. The most entertaining and candid is Robert Kerman (although I was disappointed he didn't mentioned his Italian cannibal films--but I guess he wasn't too proud of those either). This movie doesn't really show the "dark side" of porno as it purports too, but it is nevertheless a good antidote to recent porno puff pieces like "Family Business" that try to portray the "adult industry" as somehow healthy or normal. The truth is the modern "industry" is a hypocritical, money-making, soul-devouring abomination that almost makes me miss the days of the Mob and 42nd Street and the pimply skanks with visible track marks. Wherever Bambi Woods is I'm sure she's in a better place
That leaves only the men to be interviewed, and they also seem to have suffered a "curse" of a kind. They all seem somewhat wistful about how their porno work has ruined their career ambitions and wasted their lives. The most entertaining and candid is Robert Kerman (although I was disappointed he didn't mentioned his Italian cannibal films--but I guess he wasn't too proud of those either). This movie doesn't really show the "dark side" of porno as it purports too, but it is nevertheless a good antidote to recent porno puff pieces like "Family Business" that try to portray the "adult industry" as somehow healthy or normal. The truth is the modern "industry" is a hypocritical, money-making, soul-devouring abomination that almost makes me miss the days of the Mob and 42nd Street and the pimply skanks with visible track marks. Wherever Bambi Woods is I'm sure she's in a better place