Wistfully conjuring daydreams and calling them goals, some often say that before they die they'd like to travel the world, or finally read the complete works of Shakespeare. To those people, let me say this: Everything worth seeing in Europe is on top of a hill, and the important characters in Shakespeare all die. Actually, I don't recall anyone dying in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but that's beside the point. What I'm getting at is that these lofty goals are frequently not worth pursuing. Europe is exhausting and Shakespeare is sad. Instead, may I recommend you turn your cultural attentions to classic porn? Nobody gets stabbed with a poisoned sword and everyone gets laid. And sometimes, they have funny haircuts.
One of the best, and most overlooked among the "good ol' day" roster of porn titles is Easy. Shot long ago during the Carter administration, Easy is an edgy story of a well meaning school teacher turned disillusioned slattern. Jessie St. James, who looks at once like a California beach blonde and an exotic beauty from parts unknown, works overtime here as she appears in almost every scene. And that's a good thing by the way.
St. James' legend isn't as great as some of her contemporaries. You're not likely to find the same kind of following for her as you will someone like Marilyn Chambers, but the following she does have is just as loyal. She's hard to explain. I think her appeal may be that she's sexually aggressive without appearing over the top, but Easy does a better job of illustrating her intense sexuality than any amateur porn critic can in describing it.
The film begins with St. James being forcefully seduced by a student who may be better served to think more about baseball and less about sex when committing acts of verbal assault. You'll see what I mean. Beginning with these opening moments, St. James' character sets out on what could be described as a sexual journey. Conventions tell us that these kinds of journeys begin with the hero (or heroine) starting the trek in a state of not knowing something, and ending it with having learned something very important. That's not so much the case here. St. James moves from one humiliating experience to the next. She's raped, insulted, dumped, and raped again, but by a woman the second time around. I'm not sure she ever learns anything.
Still, Easy is not a misogynistic movie. At least, it's no more misogynistic than any other well made adult film, and certainly less so than any five minutes of a poorly made one. Yet, Easy could not be made today. You're not going to find many rape fantasies on your video store's shelves, and scenes like the one in which St. James covers her fingers with butter and sticks them up a blind man's ass are, well, not kosher by today's standards. If all this were played like some kind of live action sex cartoon, then no one would bat an eye. But it's not directed by an abusrdist. It's intended to be intense, and it often is. Easy is an old film, but it's also a kinky one. Don't go mistaking it for dry hippie porn. It's not.
