Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Directed and Edited by Scott J. Gill
Original Songs & Music by Carvin Knowles
Starring Ron Jeremy, William Margold, Al Goldstein, Al Lewis, Veronica Hart, Larry Flynt, Seymour Butts, Anita Cannibal, and Phoebe Dollar

Features:

• Runnning audio commentary with Jeremy and director Gill
  
• Deleted Scenes
  
• Ron's Filmography and Pornography
  
• Filmmaker and Crew Biographies
  

My Advice: Rent it

This is Ron Jeremy. He is one of the most widely known and used male adult film actors in the industry. Unlikely, you say? Absolutely. Nevertheless, it's true and he has led a rather interesting life. After earning his Masters degree in Early Childhood Education and teaching for a while, he decided that he was not going to be happy until he had gotten his chance to make it big in Hollywood. I don't want to give too much away, so let's just say that he is probably one of the most normal guys that you'll ever meet...it's just that he has slept with thousands of women while a lot of people were watching.

Wow. Ron Jeremy is just an average guy. He has never let his fame go to his head, and he really wants to work (and has) in the legitimate film industry. Those are the ideas that this documentary tries to get (and succeeds in getting) across. Much like any other biographical documentary, this one breaks sections of his life down and provides you with interviews with the people who are the most closely related with the subject in those areas. The interviews with his father are a riot. Jeremy's a workaholic and he is an unrelenting self-promoter, but any actor worth his salt has to be in order to get noticed at first. Then he can hire someone to do that for him. The difference is that Ron Jeremy has still not hired anyone. He is still promoting himself like there is no tomorrow. Perhaps the best part of this documentary is that there is still a "little boy" quality about Ron Jeremy in his everyday life that is probably what has kept him sane, clean, and sober for the vast majority of his life.

I can't imagine trying to watch a documentary about the life of a porn star that has an "R" rating. If you are going to watch this, make sure that you watch the unrated and "uncut" version. I mean, why not get a clear look at your subject, right? That having been said, this one is still pretty tame, and the majority of the "potentially offensive" material is in the form of language, not visuals. I must say that doing it any other way, would have diminished the impact of the story of this man. Scott J. Gill did just that.

Well, if the documentary itself wasn't enough, try watching this film with the commentary track running! As it should be, you learn more about the man himself by hearing his conversation with Gill while it's playing out before your eyes. This is simply outstanding. The deleted scenes were obviously cut because their subject matter was just a little too...um...touchy to include in the main feature. Still, it's a good thing that they included them here because they do give you yet another look into this man's life. After all, that's the purpose of the whole project, right? Perhaps the most intriguing part of this DVD is the look at the "canon" of Jeremy's work; both legitimate and pornographic. He has wound up both in and on the cutting room floor of many films that you would recognize as something that you have seen even if you never would have seen one of his literally thousands of porno flicks. The cast and crew filmographies are more obligatory on this DVD, since it is supposed to be about the main subject, but it's nice to see where the people who are presenting this to us are coming from. It gives you an idea of how objective they are being in their presentation.

The cover of this DVD alone should make you curious enough to want to see it at least once. I would recommend not denying that impulse. It's a look at one of the most unlikely success stories of the century.