Delayed Reaction: Porky's

Premise: A bunch of high school "boys" have a series of sex-based adventures in Florida in the 1950s.

 

I'd say it's hard for me to find a movie I've seen that has aged as poorly as Porky's. However, to age poorly, the contents of a movie have to be seen positively at the time only to be reevaluated negatively later. Blackface is a great example of this. I think there was the idea of "respectful blackface" not even that long ago, but in the modern lens, it's never OK. Trans representation is another example to look to. Felicity Huffman got an Oscar nomination for Transamerica 15 years ago that was well-intentioned but would be roasted if done today. Porky's, on the other hand, is a movie plenty of people found objectionable when it was released. And I don't mean pearl-clutching "Greatest generation" types scared of sex on screen. I mean, Porky's is casually racist and anti-Semitic with a low view of women. This was all part of the critical assessment at the time. I don't have the time or research to explain why Porky's became such a huge hit - making over $300 million, adjusted for inflation. It launched the raunchy comedy era of 80s films that not coincidentally coincided with the slasher era of horror. Perhaps the X-rated movie successes of the 70s eventually reminded audiences that they would like to see nudity for no reason in movies, and a lot of people cashed in on that while not putting much thought into the screenplay, direction, or acting.

 

I tried to meet this movie on its level. I love other movies that aren't exactly progressive. Superbad is an all-time favorite of mine, for example. On paper, not much about Porky's is worse than Animal House, which I like. What lost me more than anything about Porky's is that it isn't that clever. The scene I keep thinking of is actually the one after the famous shower scene. Coach Balbricker is in the principal's office with the boys and principal, explaining that she wants to do a penis lineup to identify the culprit. The whole scene is everyone laughing the whole time at Balbriker until the principal finally breaks and laughs too. Now, my question is, in 1982, was this a scene that audiences were also busting a gut watching? The bet of the movie seems to be that the penis grab scene is so hilarious that it needs another entire scene to recover from. I don't think it was THAT funny. Of course, the 2021 part of my brain is thinking about how that was assault on Balbricker's part and a full-on sex crime by the boys. And there's the lizard part of my brain that is annoyed that Pee Wee ruined a good thing by revealing them.

 

I found this movie deeply unpleasant to watch. I'm trying to not say that in a moralizing way. I loved Good Boys which is super sophomoric. I'm no more mature than this movie. I just found the characters unlikable. There was a complete lack of stakes. The screenplay is disjointed in a bad way. It's hard to find much to appreciate about this movie when Fast Times at Ridgemont High came out the same year, was just as sex-crazed, and did everything better.

 

Verdict: Strongly Don't Recommend