Changing delivery systems and economics have likely killed the Porn Superproduction, films like TAILGUNNERS or the famous pair of PIRATES movies. Free porn and streaming of individual scenes makes elaborate, lengthy features an anachronism.
Watching TAILGUNNERS a decade after it was made I found the movie still entertaining, and refreshing in its attention to detail and narrative content. Going back to early porn I always enjoyed a good story and still hope against hope that the pendulum will swing back after folks get sick of generic gonzo junk.
World War II saga has many interesting characters and like the war itself, different theaters of action. Evan Stone is undercover in France getting intel on German airfields and armaments, while a female staff of intelligence officers (nerds like Edward Snowden need not apply - we probably would have lost the war had he been around back then here or in England) working in a fictional CIA antecedent are doing their part.
Austyn Moore is a bright spot as the Midwestern girl who becomes a breakthrough female pilot in, as the title suggests, the film's central story. Not only is she sexy in the XXX scenes but she is a good actress to boot. Film's technical side is admirable, with sex in the cockpit visualized in later reels using a technique recalling the front-projection pioneered by Stanley Kubrick and Doug Trumbull no less, for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Star of the film is delicious Carmen Luvana, top player of her day in films like this and LADY SCARFACE and hopefully still revered by the notoriously fickle Adult audience. She's the villain, a sexy but creepy Argentine propagandist working for the Germans and torturing our hapless heroes and heroines, with well-cast Katja Kassin as one of her key subordinates.
With the president of distributor Adam & Eve Pictures portraying (in a non-sex role) a not-really FDR president of the U.S., Kylie Ireland makes for an uninhibited (including mixed combo and d.p. action) First Lady, any resemblance to Eleanor nonexistent. The big cast has great sex scenes from Flower Tucci, Roxetta and Vanessa Lane as well.
With shooting days stretching over an 8 month period, this is a blockbuster project that the industry needs. Whether the market for pornography can support such undertakings in future remains to be seen; perhaps Adult video games and virtual reality shows will replace ambitious films and videos altogether, a loss for traditional fans.
