DVD Review: “The Decline of Western Civilization Part 69: The Porno Years”

If you want to know a little about the porn industry and the people upon whose backs those dubious figures are made (director and star Kurt Lockwood says it's $15 billion), you should buy or rent this movie.

You don't learn about distribution or boxcover art or DRM technology, but you learn a lot about the self esteem, resentment, ambition, and joy with which porn stars view their work. Read our review after the gap. - G. Ponante

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"The Decline of Western Civilization Part 69: The Porno Years"

Studio: Sex Z Pictures
Director: Kurt Lockwood
Cast: Kurt Lockwood, Samantha Ryan, Monica Mayhem, Eve Mayfair, Alektra Blue, Venus, Naudia Nyce, Eve Larence, Charlie Lane, Alexis Amore, Ron Jeremy

Review by Gram Ponante

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Interviewer: Back in the 80's there was a big movement in music.
Kurt Lockwood: Yeah.

Interviewer: Now there's a big movement in porn. How do you compare the two?
Kurt Lockwood: I came out to be a rock star. Didn't quite make it. But porn is a good consolation prize. I still get a lot of pussy.

Let's say Oskar Schindler himself took over for Liam Neeson in "Schindler's List", and also directed the movie. That is what "The Decline of Western Civilization Part 69: The Porno Years" is like: a great movie about a fascinating subject (Lockwood), except that this viewer couldn't shake the uncomfortable knowledge that Lockwood made the movie about himself.

If this movie were a documentary about Lockwood and his exploits commissioned by someone else (like the BBC), or even if it was revealed that Lockwood had paid someone to make a documentary about him, the uncomfortable feeling would go away. As it is, the thrilling feeling that we are watching what Lockwood wants us to know about him pervades the movie.

For example, in the beginning of the film we are treated to a music video of Lockwood's song "Strip". Lyrics are included so the viewer can sing along: "She razzle dazzle/She rock 'n' roller/She superhero/She holy roller".

It is, unfortunately, clear why Lockwood did not make it as a rock star. That he is fantastic in his consolation prize should be the theme of this movie. Instead, interstitial shots of sex as only a person who has a lot of it can conceive (with women one wants to have sex with again and again), are mixed with just the type of tiresome noodling one expects from the cute guy who thinks it would be a good idea to get a band together.

We watch Monica Mayhem fuck Samantha Ryan with a strap-on while Lockwood, getting his ass eaten by Ryan, jerks off on her stomach. Who needs the rock music?

The movie is, like the Penelope Spheeris movies it seeks to emulate, all over the place. The high points are the sex and the interview segments, the former no-nonsense, fast, and visually arresting and the latter frank, informative, and competently edited and shot. Attempts at humor by people playing characters ("Reverend Brimstone"), however, fail.

But the simple truths revealed in the movie (Eve Lawrence—who has since left the adult business—says "I'm cute and I'm smart and I make a shitload of money") or Lockwood's observation that it's not the porn stars who are buying porn movies—it's all of us—really make this porn movie into an effective document.

"In the future, there will be no difference between mainstream celebrities and porn stars," Lockwood says after the big orgy at the Roosevelt Hotel, an orgy that in itself should be a How To Have an Orgy movie.

Of course the statement isn't true. As close the worlds of porn and mainstream come to each other, one will never be confused with the other, only compared when it is convenient, like an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. But Lockwood really wants to believe otherwise, and there's something to admire about that.

· Order: "The Decline of Western Civilization Part 69: The Porno Years" (Adult DVD Empire)
· Sex Z Pictures (sexzpictures.com)
· Kurt Lockwood (kurtlockwood.com)

Previously: Porn Valley Dispatch Archive