In 1972, a few years into the sexual revolution, a light-hearted blue movie started receiving attention from mainstream media. When the authorities decided to use it as the scapegoat to prosecute pornographers, they unintentionally catapulted the film’s fame to unprecedented heights. The New York Times did a big piece on it. Huge celebrities like Jack Nicholson or Truman Capote became major advocates of the film. It was the first porno to draw mass audiences. Curious non-regulars were now showing up to these theaters. All of a sudden, it wasn’t just dodgy single men in line, but many upper-middle class married couples, several public figures, even some senior citizens.

Socially speaking, there hasn’t been a more important adult movie. Deep Throat, for better or worse, changed the way a lot of Americans viewed the adult industry. Everyone seemed fascinated with the apparent sophisticated sexual freedom of the movie. For many people, saying they went to see Deep Throat wasn’t obscene anymore, it was suddenly a cool thing to do.

I don’t think anyone could have predicted such an outcome. The premise of the movie is as silly as they go: It follows Linda Lovelace, a sexually frustrated young woman who finds out – through her very unethical doctor, of course – that her clitoris is located in the back of her throat, so only a man with a big penis will be able to stimulate it, by introducing his whole manhood down Linda’s throat.

In all fairness, Deep Throat wasn’t trying to be edgy, serious, or even a good movie. It was a cheesy comedy with a low budget; there was no intention of making this a genre-establishing film. It just happened, and Deep Throat had the good fortune of being at the forefront at the right time. Had the movie not been the object of a government persecution and, eventually, been used as a poster for free speech, it would have probably gone unnoticed.

Objectively, and especially 40 years later, it’s not particularly funny, but there’s a certain charm in the good-spirited bad jokes; there’s something almost vaudevillian about the way the script and the music complement each other. It feels valiantly naïve, and maybe this is one of the reasons of its success: It was simple, tongue-in-cheek and innocent enough to shock by its novelty, but not by having too controversial content.

Even though Deep Throat was made for only US$25,000, it is rumored to have grossed more than US$600m, which would make it one of the most successful films of all-time, adult or otherwise.

Much has been made about Linda Lovelace (including a recent well-known Hollywood biopic) and the subsequent claims that she was being exploited and forced to shoot the movie, which in a way made Deep Throat a pioneer in other negative stereotypes that the genre hasn’t been able to shake off through the years.

Deep Throat even inspired the code-name for the key Watergate informant; perhaps a fitting finale for Richard Nixon, who was a very outspoken opponent of the movie.

Linda Lovelace wasn’t a traditionally hot chick. She wasn’t a girl-next-door type, either. She was just a normal woman who had an exceptional skill. How exceptional? Enough to make a movie about this!

Hey, it’s a classic for a reason…