Debbie Does Dallas (1978)
Directed by Jim Buckley
Debbie Benton is the captain of her high school cheerleading squad, and has been accepted to try out for the Texas Cowgirls. Her parents disapprove, though, and refuse to pay the fare to Texas. In a bid to help Debbie, her cheerleader friends Lisa, Roberta, Tammy, Pat, and Annie decide to accompany her to Texas. They have two weeks to raise the money, and swear off any sexual activity with their boyfriends and form a company, called "Teen Services", offering help.
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What critics compared Debbie Does Dallas to
With echoes of everything from “The Shining” to “Psycho” to “Boogie Nights” to “Alligator” to “Hardcore” to infamous porn films such as “Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie” and “Debbie Does Dallas,” this is an homage but also a strikingly original and cheerfully grotesque work, filled with dark humor, relatively complex subtext and gung-ho, all-in performances from the talented ensemble cast.
Her partner, the much older and sleazy smooth-talker Wayne (Martin Henderson), convinces her to star in a pornographic film titled The Farmer’s Daughter ; the success of which needs to make half as much as Debbie Does Dallas (1978) to quash their financial woes.
RJ views the film as “art” while Wayne views it as a cash cow ala Debbie Does Dallas.
He’s our 40-something patriarch who sees the outsider success of recent pornos like Debbie Does Dallas as a way to escape the doldrums of everyday life.
And also a brief course in film history, with particular attention to “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and shout-outs to “Psycho” and “Debbie Does Dallas.”
A strong constitution is certainly required for watching this early Blair Witch precursor, which purports to tell the real-life tale of a professor (Debbie Does Dallas porn legend Robert Kerman) who goes in search of missing documentarians in cannibal-infested Amazonia, discovers their celluloid last will and testament, and then watches their filmed demise at the hands (and mouths) of organ-eating tribesman.
Even worse, the movie tries to be "When Harry Met Sally" and "Debbie Does Dallas" at the same time, mixing serious relationship scenes with impressive levels of raunch, nudity and creative sexual positioning.
But then they take a nighttime stroll on the town and pass under a marquee playing Debbie Does Dallas, which premiered in 1978.
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Twenty years ago, this movie would’ve been as scandalous as Catherine Breillat’s “Romance,” and doomed to the same distribution woes, but in these ultra-pornified times it doesn’t feel transgressive so much as it does a forensic analysis of something we see all the time — less “Debbie Does Dallas” than “CSI — the Valley.”
Sure, there's a bit of The Game here and Debbie Does Dallas there, but, overall, this is something different.