"A Sad Tale of Abuse"
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What You Need To Know:
LOVELACE is a bizarrely structured drama about Linda Lovelace, the notorious star of the 1972 porn movie DEEP THROAT. The movie’s first half treats Linda’s relationship with her first husband and her role in DEEP THROAT, as a lark. However, the second half tells a different story. It shows how her husband abused her and forced her into the porn industry. At one point, he even forces her into prostitution. At the end of the second half, Linda seems fully recovered from her soul-destroying days, with a new, kindly husband and a young son. She also appears on talk shows to promote a book exposing the porn industry.
LOVELACE shows the sensation DEEP THROAT created when it came out. However, it also shows the porn industry as the sleazy business it really is. Eventually, Linda reconciles with her mother and father, who’s comforted by Linda in the movie’s most touching, heartfelt scene. That said, LOVELACE the movie contains extremely lewd content, lots of foul language, explicit nudity, and intense scenes of domestic violence. Despite the positive ending, it’s not really acceptable viewing.
HEADLINE: ** A Sad Tale of Abuse **
Title: LOVELACE
Quality: * * Acceptability: -3
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LLL
Violence: VV
Sex: SSS
Nudity: NN
MPAA RATING: R
RELEASE: August 9, 2013
TIME: 92 minutes
STARRING: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Chris Noth, Bobby Cannavale, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, Chloë Sevigny, James Franco, Debi Mazar, Wes Bentley, Eric Roberts
DIRECTOR: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
PRODUCERS: Jason Weinberg, Jim Young, Heidi Jo Markel, Laura Rister
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: John Thompson, Mark Gill, Merritt Johnson, Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson
WRITER: Andy Bellin
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A
DISTRIBUTOR: Radius TWC/The Weinstein Company
CONTENT: (PaPaPa, CC, BB, Ho, LLL, VV, SSS, NN, AA, DD, MM) Very strong mixed pagan worldview (almost schizophrenic) with very strong pagan content focusing on the pornography “business” mixed with some overt Christian, moral, pro-family elements where the female protagonist who reforms her life has Christian parents and a Jesus prayer is said before the meal but her mother remains more emotionally distant than the father despite a reconciliation scene at the end, plus one or two lesbian homosexual references; at least 39 obscenities (including many “f” words), eight strong profanities, and nine light profanities; intense scenes of domestic abuse includes husband throws wife across hotel room after slamming her into wall several times, husband hits wife, woman falls down in street and cuts her face while running away from abusive husband, implied rape, forced sodomy rape, husband uses gun to force wife to get involved in pornography industry for money and to force into prostituting herself for money, pornography producer has henchmen hold down abusive husband so the producer can whip the guy with a belt against the back of the husband’s shirt; very strong sexual content and references includes depicted and implied oral sex, depicted intercourse between husband and wife but later the scene is replayed as a scene of forced sodomy (implying that’s what really happened), unmarried couple has secret sexual rendezvous in kitchen while woman’s parents are watching TV, implied gang rape, husband forces his wife into prostitution, and many verbal references crude and not so crude; shots of upper female nudity and some upper male nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking and some cocaine use depicted; and, boyfriend/husband appears to be nice and caring at first but is later shown to become abusive, female protagonist’s mother is emotionally distant to her daughter throughout movie despite a reconciliation hug at the end, greed, exploitation.
GENRE: Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults
REVIEWER: Dr. Tom Snyder
REVIEW: LOVELACE is a bizarrely structured drama about Linda Lovelace, the notorious star of the 1972 porn movie DEEP THROAT.
The movie’s first half treats Linda’s relationship with her first husband, and how he got her the part in DEEP THROAT, as a lark. However, the second half tells the story from her viewpoint and shows how her husband physically and sexually abused her and forced her to take the part against her will. Her husband even forces Linda to prostitute herself and, at one point, tricks her into being gang-raped. At the end of the second half, the movie shows Linda fully recovered from those earlier soul-destroying days, with a new, kindly husband and a beautiful young son. It also shows her reconciling with her mother and especially her father, who’s comforted by Linda in the movie’s most touching, heartfelt scene.
LOVELACE also shows the sensation that DEEP THROAT created when it came out in 1972. One of the keys to understanding its popularity at the time is the fact that the movie doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Allegedly, it was the first scripted feature-length “hardcore” movie to feature a story along with some jokes and satire.
One of the more interesting facets of LOVELACE the movie is that it clearly shows how sleazy the producers of porn movies were and are. However, near the end, when the main producer behind DEEP THROAT learns how Linda’s husband was physically abusing her, he becomes a “good” guy and whips the husband with a belt, telling him to never come around Linda again, or else.
All that aside, the movie contains very strong sexual content, lots of explicit nudity and foul language, and some intense, disturbing domestic violence committed against Linda by her first husband. Thus, MOVIEGUIDE® can’t really recommend LOVELACE as acceptable viewing for anyone, even though it has a happy, positive ending where the protagonist finally becomes a morally upstanding member of the community with a loving family.
On a tragic note, the movie’s end credits relate that Linda Lovelace died in 2002 after a car accident, when she was 53. (The movie, however, leaves out some of the complexities of Linda’s biography. For example, she eventually divorced her second husband, Larry Marchiano, but he and their children were at her deathbed when she died.)
Please send your thanks or concerns, and copy us, to:
Jason Janego and Tom Quinn, Co-President, Radius-TWC
Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company (Radius-TWC/Dimension Films)
345 Hudson Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10014
Phone: (646) 862-3400; Fax: (917) 368-7000; Website: www.weinsteinco.com
SUMMARY: LOVELACE is a bizarrely structured drama about Linda Lovelace, the notorious star of the 1972 porn movie DEEP THROAT. It tells her story from two totally different perspectives, treating her porn career first as a lark, but then as a brutal example of domestic marital abuse and forced prostitution. Despite a positive ending showing Linda recovered from the abuse she suffered, LOVELACE contains extremely lewd content, lots of foul language, explicit nudity, and intense scenes of domestic violence.
IN BRIEF:
LOVELACE is a bizarrely structured drama about Linda Lovelace, the notorious star of the 1972 porn movie DEEP THROAT. The movie’s first half treats Linda’s relationship with her first husband and her role in DEEP THROAT, as a lark. However, the second half tells a different story. It shows how her husband abused her and forced her into the porn industry. At one point, he even forces her into prostitution. At the end of the second half, Linda seems fully recovered from her soul-destroying days, with a new, kindly husband and a young son. She also appears on talk shows to promote a book exposing the porn industry.
LOVELACE shows the sensation DEEP THROAT created when it came out. However, it also shows the porn industry as the sleazy business it really is. Eventually, Linda reconciles with her mother and father, who’s comforted by Linda in the movie’s most touching, heartfelt scene. That said, LOVELACE the movie contains extremely lewd content, lots of foul language, explicit nudity, and intense scenes of domestic violence. Despite the positive ending, it’s not really acceptable viewing.
Content:
(PaPaPa, CC, BB, Ho, LLL, VV, SSS, NN, AA, DD, MM) Very strong mixed pagan worldview (almost schizophrenic) with very strong pagan content focusing on the pornography “business” mixed with some overt Christian, moral, pro-family elements where the female protagonist who reforms her life has Christian parents and a Jesus prayer is said before the meal but her mother remains more emotionally distant than the father despite a reconciliation scene at the end, plus one or two lesbian homosexual references; at least 39 obscenities (including many “f” words), eight strong profanities, and nine light profanities; intense scenes of domestic abuse includes husband throws wife across hotel room after slamming her into wall several times, husband hits wife, woman falls down in street and cuts her face while running away from abusive husband, implied rape, forced sodomy rape, husband uses gun to force wife to get involved in pornography industry for money and to force into prostituting herself for money, pornography producer has henchmen hold down abusive husband so the producer can whip the guy with a belt against the back of the husband’s shirt; very strong sexual content and references includes depicted and implied oral sex, depicted intercourse between husband and wife but later the scene is replayed as a scene of forced sodomy (implying that’s what really happened), unmarried couple has secret sexual rendezvous in kitchen while woman’s parents are watching TV, implied gang rape, husband forces his wife into prostitution, and many verbal references crude and not so crude; shots of upper female nudity and some upper male nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking and some cocaine use depicted; and, boyfriend/husband appears to be nice and caring at first but is later shown to become abusive, female protagonist’s mother is emotionally distant to her daughter throughout movie despite a reconciliation hug at the end, greed, exploitation.
More Detail:
LOVELACE is a bizarrely structured drama about Linda Lovelace, the notorious star of the 1972 porn movie DEEP THROAT.
The movie’s first half treats Linda’s relationship with her first husband, and how he got her the part in DEEP THROAT, as a lark. However, the second half tells the story from her viewpoint and shows how her husband physically and sexually abused her and forced her to take the part against her will. Her husband even forces Linda to prostitute herself and, at one point, tricks her into being gang-raped. At the end of the second half, the movie shows Linda fully recovered from those earlier soul-destroying days, with a new, kindly husband and a beautiful young son. It also shows her reconciling with her mother and especially her father, who’s comforted by Linda in the movie’s most touching, heartfelt scene.
LOVELACE also shows the sensation that DEEP THROAT created when it came out in 1972. One of the keys to understanding its popularity at the time is the fact that the movie doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Allegedly, it was the first scripted feature-length “hardcore” movie to feature a story along with some jokes and satire.
One of the more interesting facets of LOVELACE the movie is that it clearly shows how sleazy the producers of porn movies were and are. However, near the end, when the main producer behind DEEP THROAT learns how Linda’s husband was physically abusing her, he becomes a “good” guy and whips the husband with a belt, telling him to never come around Linda again, or else.
All that aside, the movie contains very strong sexual content, lots of explicit nudity and foul language, and some intense, disturbing domestic violence committed against Linda by her first husband. Thus, MOVIEGUIDE® can’t really recommend LOVELACE as acceptable viewing for anyone, even though it has a happy, positive ending where the protagonist finally becomes a morally upstanding member of the community with a loving family.
On a tragic note, the movie’s end credits relate that Linda Lovelace died in 2002 after a car accident, when she was 53. (The movie, however, leaves out some of the complexities of Linda’s biography. For example, she eventually divorced her second husband, Larry Marchiano, but he and their children were at her deathbed when she died.)
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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