Getting It On! (1983)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
When we covered The Girl Next Door recently, we
were surprised to find how many people still either were shocked by the content
or heard so many bad things about it, that they thought it was some sleazy
comedy and avoided it altogether. With
all the overtly sexual imagery and sexploitation in current music genres (along
with more hatred and misogyny than anyone wants to admit), the reaction to a
smart, honest film like this seems more political than actual. Looking back just over twenty years ago, Getting
It On! (1983) covers some similar territory, if not as good a film.
Writer/director William Olsen did his best to do a teen
sex comedy that is shocking by the dumbed-down gross-out cycle today. It is not as intelligent as the best teen
film of the last quarter century (Real Genius, My Bodyguard, Little
Darlings, the brutal Bully, Rollercoaster (1999) and Donnie
Darko, the latter two reviewed elsewhere on this site), yet is the end of
an era that reached its brainless-but-profitable peak with the Porky’s
films. Two teens (Martin Yost and Jeff
Edmond) cannot get their minds off of sex and money is not far behind.
They decide to launch a new business with the new
technology of videotape and capture girls undressing and even having sex. Unlike The Girl Next Door, the need
and pretension of the girl(s) needing or having a “pimp” is nonexistent. The difference is the sexual revolution
versus regression, a relatively more honest look at the way teens really are,
though Girl Next Door was a revelation versus most of the garbage films
we have been getting on the subject, adult cast films included. This film suffers from its low budget, age
and the inexperience of its director, yet is surprisingly watchable today and
works more often than not.
Though it has early 1980s technology at the crux of its
story and bad early 1980s technopop, the film is much more of a 1970s piece,
the way Porky’s was no matter when it was set. One great ongoing joke that became prophetic is all the radio and
television media that plays nothing but “Christian” programming that opposes
everything in the film. What has now
become radical, mainstream and even fascistic pseudo-moralism was recognized as
such openly and very correctly in those days.
The country is not getting more moral, just more dumbed down.
On that level, a problematic film that is still open and
honest enough about how somewhat unbastardized teens see sex can beat all the
tired formula films Hollywood pushes any day of the week. Too bad this is not better, because this
could have been a gem, but it is not sexploitation. It is sometimes funny, including for reasons unintended. The film also has some surprising moments of
political incorrectness that help.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image is the longer
director’s cut, meaning this got a fair review based on its full-length
version. The color in the print and
some of its detail are slightly dulled, showing it age a bit, but this was a
low budget production. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is not bad for its age, but shows it slow budget origins. The combination is still oddly better than
most digital productions we have seen to date, in part because this is about
people and film remains king in that respect.
The sung music is derivative all the way and an amusing weak point of
the film. Extras include a commentary
by Olsen that has its moments, text bio of Olsen, stills with commentary,
audition tapes from the New York casting call and the original theatrical
trailer. That is not bad, but also
makes for an interesting study of teens in cinema and even the perception of
sex on screen. Getting It On! is
worth a look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
