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• Tis is going to suck so bad. I like Wilson's work overall, especially The Royal Tannenbaums, but this thing is obviously a typical "Porn - Threat or Menace?" Reefer Madness Hollywood treatment of a time and place from which there are many, many surviving witnesses, self included.

  While no one disputes that mob money funded the legal porn business in the beginning, a good ten years before the period setting of this film, by the 1980s it had already begun its evolution toward traditional corporate ownership. Reuben Sturman was already up on tax charges and only a few small, marginal companies still had direct ties to East Coast outfits.

  And violent? Fucking violent? I don't think so. Can anyone come up with an actual case of porn-industry-related violence prosecuted during the 1980s? Go on, I dare you.

  From the title I assume they'll once again dredge up the Wonderland Ave. murders for which John Holmes did time, but those were DRUG-RELATED crimes having nothing whatsoever to do with the porn business. It was understood even my the OGs who set up the first few production companies that the law would be keeping a close eye on the whole business and any act of violence associated with it would lead to a huge crackdown.

  There was plenty of disorganized crime to be sure. Lots of scams and rip-offs involving producers and distributors, but these things were settled by lawsuits if they were settled at all.

  Occasionally I get asked in interviews why I gave up a career in mainstream film to work in porn. My answer is always the same: you meet a better class of people on this side of the line. And I'm only half-joking.