X-Rated Ambition: The Traci Lords Story

'X-rated ambition' presents a good documentary about Traci Lords, an American teenage-girl that made herself an everlasting name in porn.

During 1984-1986, Traci Lords reached spectacular heights in American porn, thanks to (1) her professional devotion, (2) her physical beauty, and (3) her ability to act. Apart from this, Traci's career was also favored by the introduction of the mobile movie-camera, resting on the cameraman's shoulder.

All these ingredients, as well as a few others, provide a true first-class story. It's historical correct; it's a story that even involves US President Ronald Reagan (in an honorable way).

You will see it all in this documentary. Featuring many interviews with people working with Traci at the time.

This is a short, but interesting British-made documentary on 80's underage porn star Traci Lords. It is definitely rather one-sided since Traci herself refused to talk about her porn career for years (before completely glossing over it in her self-serving and sanitized autobiography). Without the participation of Traci herself, they mostly just interview her then-colleagues like Ginger Lynn, Amber Lynn, ex-boyfriend Tom Byron, and the ubiquitous, motor-mouthed Ron Jeremy. They are all obviously bitter, but surprisingly pretty fair to Lords. They also interview one of the vice cops who were chasing porno crews around back then trying to get them for "pandering" (Some of the more paranoid people think Traci Lords was a mole sent in by the authorities to wreck the industry).

It is interesting how little most people know about this scandal. Far from being the innocent "porn victim" she has often allowed herself to be portrayed as, Traci Lords got into porn using a fake ID that was so convincing it even fooled US customs agents, who issued her a US passport to pursue her porn career in Europe. She rose to great fame in the porno industry, and it was only conveniently AFTER she turned 18 that the truth came out. She then nearly destroyed the porno industry as they lost millions recalling all her tapes, and many people were threatened with long prison sentences. Meanwhile, her only "legal" XXX appearance was in her self-produced "Traci, I Love" made after she turned 18 and released in the wake of scandal. (You can at least UNDERSTAND the conspiracy theories. . .) What is more irksome (to me) is the way her "victim" status has allowed her to enjoy measured success in the "legitimate" Hollywood film industry whereas Ginger Lynn Allen (who went to jail, partly in retaliation for her refusing to testify for Traci) has been shunned--even though she was only a few years older than Traci. And if you think things have changed, look at how Sasha Grey, the latest porn starlet to attempt a legitimate career, is treated right here on her IMDb page. Get into porn at 16, you're an innocent victim, absolved of ALL moral responsibility, but get into porn at 18, you're branded for life as a shameless slut unworthy of legitimate employment.

Perhaps, the most controversial aspect of this documentary is that it contains underage nudity (although of course not graphic sex) of Traci in scenes from her porn career. But this also serves to show how PHYSICALLY indistinguishable she was from her slightly older contemporaries like Ginger Lynn, Amber Lynn, and Christy Canyon. One of the STUPIDEST things today is the way many confuse the natural attraction men feel towards 16 or 17-year-olds like Traci, who could easily pass for 25, with "pedophilia", which is an attraction to PREPUBESCENT children. Gee, if you're attracted to 25-year-old women, how could you NOT be attracted to physically mature teenage girls who LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME?

Though admittedly "one-sided", this documentary really puts this scandal in perspective, and it's a perspective that is often lost in the moral hysteria of today.

X-Rated Ambition: The Traci Lords Story is a British made television documentary hence why it could get away with showing nude images of Miss Lords when she was over 16 years of age because of then different censorship laws.

Made in anticipation of Traci Lords biography it tells her quick rise in the mid 1980s porn scene which soon came crashing down once it was found out that she was under 18 years of age for most of her porn career which caused problems for adult film companies and porn producers, especially the rumoured money men reputed to be the Mafiosi types.

The film does not feature any interviews from Traci, since her bad days she has actually found modest success in mainstream television and films, especially B movies.

It does feature interviews from veterans from the 1980s Hollywood porn scene such as Ron Jeremy, Tom Byron, Ginger Lynn, Peter North, Nina Hartley and Amber Lynn. I felt the interviews were rather catty and self serving. I guess a lot of them were not happy they were carted off by the FBI once they found she was under aged and also had scores to settle because Traci was reputed to be the highest paid performer in her heyday.

I felt the documentary went through a lot of lazy tropes of porn documentaries. I actually thought it was poorly made and researched. There was little here that I actually did not know about; the Traci Lords saga is well known even if you are not a porn aficionado. The lack of Traci Lords talking about her porn days is a glaring omission.

I'm at a house party—latter half of the 80s—wandering around looking for my drink when I spy something that stops me in my tracks: a video playing on TV shows a big-breasted blonde nurse with a bee-sting pout enthusiastically getting jiggy with a randy doctor. I forget all about my drink.

Asking around, I learn that the video is called 'Love Bites' and that the woman with the killer curves is Traci Lords, the No.1 US porn-star of the mid-eighties; what I don't discover till several years later is that the story behind Traci's adult movie career is almost as incredible as her insatiable libido and voluptuous physique.

X-Rated Ambition: The Traci Lords Story is a made-for-TV documentary that charts Traci's rise to success as a porn-star and tells of the shock revelation that brought the whole US adult movie industry to its knees: Traci was only 15 when she began her career! Through a series of interviews with key players of the Hollywood porn scene during the 80s—Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn, Peter North, Tom Byron, Nina Hartley—we learn the facts behind Traci's amazing rise and fall as a sex performer, how she duped everyone into believing she was twenty one when she was in fact under-age, how she demanded the highest wages, and how she was finally rumbled by the government, sending a shock-wave through the entire porn industry. We also get to see some non-explicit moments from some of her adult classics, including the rubber rat scene from Black Throat, a personal favourite of mine.

Sadly, without any input from the lady herself, we learn little about Traci's true nature except that she is a calculating, business-minded individual who used her body to catapult herself to fame. Well... that and the fact that she genuinely seemed to enjoy her 'work'.