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Behind the Green Door is my first foray into “Golden Age” porn. I chose it for all the reasons listed on its Wikipedia page. Simply put, it’s one of the first, and one of the biggies. This feature length film from 1972 introduced a mainstream audience to pornography, and they enjoyed it. I felt it was a good place to start since, up until now, I have only covered modern, mainstream, parody releases. Quickly, I’ll explain my reasons for that choice as it is in direct correlation to why this film is being covered here.

The decision to analyze porn parodies was made because I wanted to see how modern pornography handled a ready-made plot.  It’s as if most of the work was done for them. Characters, settings and situations all existed and many of the viewers would come with their own knowledge to fill in any blanks. Naively, I thought this existing source material would yeild a porn film with a plot, something that could be watched from beginning to end. I learned very quickly that this is not the case. Just because the source material is a cohesive film, the same can’t be said for the end product. What many of these porn parodies give us is the antithesis of what is presented in Behind the Green Door, a film with little plot.

Marilyn Chambers is kidnapped and used as the center of a surreal sex show. The film’s hour and change run time is filled with the result of that painfully simple setup. Unlike many modern porn films (even those with “built in plots”) BtGD can be watched from beginning to end. Taking place on one static set, the sex manages to be entertaining without ever being “extreme.” (I place extreme in quotes because, at the time, interracial and lesbian sex was extreme to many.) There are no by-the-book,  loosely strung together scenes taking place in varying locations. The sex takes place in real time and involves “real” people. The act appears mysterious and alluring when the sharp lighting, deliberate angles and couch are removed.

This films succeeds as a film because it is infinitely watchable. There is very little dialogue and a simple setup, but BtGD is presented to the viewer as a movie that includes sex, not a sex movie. This distinction is what makes attempting to view modern porn as viable cinema difficult.

BtGD plays like an experimental film, with a 7 minute, slow-motion ejaculation scene, jazz music to punctuate key moments, bizarre costuming, and kinky sex. It plays like an experimental film, because that’s what it is, and that’s what makes it a perfect entry in the “porn as paracinema” series.

Check out previous entries in this series: Official Psycho Parody & The Breakfast Club: A XXX Parody