Behind the Green Door (1972)

The best-known X-rated feature films are in fact pornographic films. They are Deep Throat (1972), Behind the Green Door (1972)  and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973). Deep Throat and Miss Jones were shot on the east coast by Gerard Damiano, while Green Door was shot on the west coast, in the Bay Area, by the Mitchell Brothers.

Common criticisms of pornographic films include trite story, bad acting and shoddy production. At the same time one could say that the very things that make a film "trite," "bad" and "shoddy" make them worth watching.

Someone who belongs to YouTube thought so when they found a way to post Green Door. Where once we had sexually explicit scenes, now we have a head-shot of the principal actor (Marilyn Chambers) inserted before them, a gesture that makes these scenes as much about breathing as looking.