Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy

I'm female, well-educated, mid-40s. I've seen maybe 3 dozen porn movies in my lifetime, and in my opinion, and apparently Ron Jeremy agrees with me, porn does not degrade women. Nor does it degrade men. These actors are well paid for what they do. Some women may do it because they can't get any other kind of work, but you could say the same thing about waiting tables or working fast-food. Anyway, I digress. This movie is a funny, behind-the-scenes peek into the business. Ron is a personable, self-deprecating man, who is driven to be somebody. Anybody. He just wants people to pay attention and to notice him. More than likely this drive resulted from his mother's sudden death when he was 10 years old. What a devastation that must have been to a young boy. So he grew up wanting the attention and adoration he probably didn't get enough of as a child. And he certainly has succeeded. As an actor who has appeared in over 1,500 x-rated films in his lifetime, Ron Jeremy has achieved cult status. His only wish is to make it into mainstream film and leave his past behind. He's had bit parts here and there, but the majority of mainstream Hollywood won't give him a chance because of the stigma he carries. This is his life. Don't watch this movie expecting to see graphic sex scenes because you'll be disappointed. You'll see nudity and even a few glimpses of Ron's 9 3/4" (his measurement, not mine) but that's about it. Mostly what you see is lots of interviews and clips about his life. It's worth a rental, especially if you are a fan of x-rated films or Jeremy himself. If you don't like nudity or porn, then skip this one.

Ron Jeremy is the biggest (wink wink, nudge nudge) porn star in the world. With over 1600 adult films to his credit, Jeremy has been working in the adult film business for nearly a quarter of a century. One would expect a documentary about his life to be salacious sleazy stuff and while Porn Star does have elements of baseness (how could it not?) it chooses to focus on Ron Jeremy the man, not the movie stud. We learn that he holds a Master Degree in special education, and was once a teacher. All his friends talk about his legendary cheapness. Jeremy is very open in front of the camera, sometimes almost too much so. He can be a charming guy when he wants to, but there is an air of desperation that bleeds through his well constructed public persona. Director Scott J. Gill humanizes Jeremy and somehow makes you feel pity for a man who says he has slept with over 4000 women.

Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy proves my point that you can always learn something from a documentary. I started watching this on a lark and figured it would be pretty mindless entertainment; and it was, but it was still fairly enjoyable. Scott Gill's documentary style wasn't anything ground breaking, rather it was pretty standard with straight interviews and photos. It was the subject who actually made this film as enjoyable as it was – as notorious as he is, he is actually pretty engaging at times, and it was interesting to see how a Jewish kid from New York who received a teaching degree eventually became a very unlikely porn star. His following is pretty rabid, and that's a good thing since he is full of self-promotion. What I thought would be a film solely worthy of a couple of eye rolls turned out to not be fantastic, but interesting nonetheless.

--Shelly

This documentary was an enjoyable watch. Pretty much anybody who has seen a porno at one time or another in their life has seen Ron Jeremy. I have seen plenty over the years, but I particularly like his work in clothes-on roles in non-porn films, such as Citizen Toxie, Orgazmo, etc.

Here, we have an interesting look into Ron's personal life. We all know Ron for all of the women he's had sex with in his lifetime, despite having a less than perfect physical appearance. Or, as Ron puts it in this movie, he proves that "anyone can get laid!" Despite all the women, however, Ron's life is fairly rough. This film lets you take a look at Ron's PACKED schedule and gigantic book of phone numbers, and we see that this guy is ALWAYS on the road and is ALWAYS busy. All of the travel has got to be hard on his body (although Jenna Jameson will help soothe his wounds).

Basically, you'll end up cheering on Ron for all of the beautiful women he gets paid to {sleep with}, but you'll also feel sorry for him when you see how tough his life really is.

A documentary looking into the up bringing, family, career and future dreams of porn star Ron Jeremy. It uses old footage, interviews and clips from his films to show a guy who wants to be centre of attention and be talked about.

This documentary is not one of the type I usually like to watch relating to porn. I usually like the ones that are done by people from outside – it tends to be less airbrushed! For example everyone should check out Channel 4's Hardcore (UK) it's an excellent documentary and will make it harder to get turned on next time you're watching porn. However this is more of a human interest story that a documentary – it's like those polished celeb features you see sometimes where a little bit of bad or unfortunate stuff is wheeled out, but not much. So we naturally have lots of porn celebs being interviewed as well as family and lots with Jeremy himself.

However this is all still interesting – after all, how can you not be interested in a man who is one of the most famous males in porn for decades despite looking like a slob! But it does go beyond just the surface – we start with the idea that Jeremy is a pretty nice guy (not anywhere near as arrogant as you'd expect for a guy who gets sex so much!). But during the film little things come out – he is insecure, he wants to be the centre of things and maybe has too much importance put on himself.

I did feel disappointed that it didn't push deeper when Jeremy was vulnerable. At times you can see sadness and hurt just behind his eyes but the director doesn't move at these times – instead the hurt is only really referred to in voiceovers by the narrator or by other people. It felt at times that the film was helping Jeremy to get exposure without actually letting us inside his character.

However overall I enjoyed it. There is some nudity but it doesn't use the porn footage for titillation – instead most of the porn footage is old dialogue scenes. If you hate porn then this will be too glossy for your taste – but if you like it or just leave it alone then you should get something out of this.