WADD: The Life And Times Of John C. Holmes Review

Running Time: 105 min.

Production Date: Unknown

Director: Cass Paley, listed here as Alan Smithee

Cast: John Holmes and interviews with people such as John Leslie, Ron Jeremy, Larry Flynt, Al Goldstein, Bill Margold, Gloria Leonard, Miss Sharon Mitchell, Aunt Peg, Jim Holliday, P. T. Anderson, Bunny Bleu, Annette Haven, and Bill and Duke Amerson just to name a few

Initial Expectations: I’ve heard that VCA is extremely proud of this DVD, and the cover includes comments from magazines such as Time and Entertainment Weekly. This one appears like it’s going to be one heck of a winner!

Initial Reaction: It’s an amazing documentary, and perhaps the best DVD I’ve seen from VCA.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody interested in John Holmes or the golden age of porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for wanking material

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects vary a bit, but is all treated very well. It mixes new interview footage with footage from John Holmes’ movies. Both of them are handled very well, and the audio is nicely put over the original audio with a great balance. The interview segments are extremely clear, and look and sound as good as one would expect from VCA. The footage from John’s features has a bit of grain, but that’s to be expected with the age of the feature. It appears to have been remastered, as there’s barely any artifacts and it sounds great. It looks like VCA has put quite a bit of effort into the transfer, and it’s payed off very well.

Music: Most of the music appears to be from the original features, which helps give the feature a feel for the time John exploded on the screen. There’s also a little bit of music that has almost a mainstream feel to it and also adds a lot to the overall film.

Menus: The menus are probably the best I’ve seen from VCA. The main menu has a very little bit of the movie and includes many of John’s own words. The chapter menu is done similarly to those on mainstream DVDs, and seems perfect.

The Feature: Long before there was Lexington Steele, there was John Holmes and his thirteen and a half inch cock. John was the original king of porn, and probably the most recognizable name ever associated with the adult industry. The first feature that always seems to be brought up when one talks about John Holmes’ life is Julia St. Vincent’s Exhausted, which contains many interviews with John and those around him. Unlike the aforementioned film, which was shot while John was still alive and some of which is also used here, Wadd is a retrospective look at the star, including both his rise and fall.

Most of the feature is made up of interviews from those around John. Smithee starts with John’s childhood, and moves on with his entering and rising to the top of the adult industry, getting married, and his involvement and fall due to drugs, AIDS, and lies. Bill Amerson pretty much leads the interviews, as he was John’s manager and ended up almost like John’s father. Bill talks about both the highs and lows, and knew John well and long enough to be able to tell what was real and what was lies and myth about John. There are also interviews with stars such as Miss Sharon Mitchell, Ron Jeremy, Annette Haven, John Leslie, and Aunt Peg, as well as a long list of others. They all give stories of their experiences with John, and are used to paint a full and realistic picture of John Holmes.

There’s also a lot of footage from John’s movies (which are listed in the credits), including his gay porn. The clips of John’s movies are often cut together with the interviews, or have the interviews used as a voice-over with them, to add a little more color to the subjects being covered. It’s amazing how well they merge together. If a person didn’t know, I’m sure most of them would think the clips were all footage shot from different points in John’s life. Although the interviews provide most of the substance of the feature, the clips seem to do a great job of providing the glue to hold them together.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the feature is the detail the director went to in creating it. There’s a lot of attention given to John’s ability to lie to people, and to say that he could sell iceboxes to Eskimos would be barely brushing the surface. There’s also quite a bit of attention given to the drug culture John became a part of to the point of being a drug mule, as well as looking into the murders John was accused of.

Amidst all this darkness about John Holmes, the light around John is also added. Although smoking around five packs a day, John’s ability to lie and persuade people let him convince many of those around him to quit smoking, among other things. Perhaps the most human stories, however, came from John’s godson Duke Amerson and goddaughter Denise, the children of his manager Bill Amerson. Duke tells several stories about John acting as a father figure to him, even though he was spiraling downwards fast himself. It’s really an amazing balance, both in the movie and in John Holmes himself.

Wadd had me completely drawn in within the first ten minutes. It consistently amazed and shocked me, both in its apparent honesty and the range of people it drew in to help with the feature. There are no punches pulled throughout the entire feature, yet it never feels like the director is trying to show John in one light or another. It just feels like he’s trying to show John and his life, including both the beauty and the warts. If you have any interest whatsoever in John Holmes or the golden age of porn, Wadd should be at the top of your list.

Extras: The first extra that stood out to me was the feature having an interactive mode. This has been done many times with mainstream DVDs, but this is the first time it’s been done with an adult feature that I know of. The interactive mode lets you know when more information or video is available, and gives you screen icons (which can be turned on or off) whenever something’s available. The links often lead to bios, which is really great since it’s great to see a little background on the people contributing to the feature. They also lead to some of John’s scenes and extra interviews. You can choose to integrate all of these things with the movie as they come or watch them at a later time. Sometimes the connections between the movie and the extra video is a bit on the loose side, but if does add a lot to the movie.

There are several short bios, which more just serve as giving a little bit of background on many of the contributors to the feature. Bob Vosse, Al Goldstein, Bill Margold, Gloria Leonard, Annette Haven, Jim Holliday, Bob Chinn, Miss Sharon Mitchell, Aunt Peg, Bunney Bleu, Anne Perry, Bobby Hollander, John Leslie, Candida Royale, and Kitten Natividad are all included, and each bio gives a little information about them, a photo, and a list of some of the person’s film credits. It’s a really great idea, and definitely a great extra for a DVD like this. Of course, there’s also an audio bio for John Holmes which even has his birth certificates.

There’s also a director’s commentary. He identifies many of the people in the feature, as well as talking about the difficulties finding them and their responses to the film. He also talks about some of the difficulties of separating the truth from the legends surrounding John and the problems when some of the contributors backed out of the project. He separates which scenes are from John’s movies and which are from personal photographs and footage, as well as extrapolating on some of the interviews in the feature and adding a bit of extra information, such as trying to track down where John was infected with HIV. There’s quite a bit of dead footage, but it’s also quite interesting.

Five bonus scenes from John’s features are also included. They all look extremely good and appear like they might have been remastered. If you watch them in the interactive mode you never get any identification of the original movie, but they’re all named very nicely in the XXX-Tras menu. The scenes do a nice job of showing John and his talents, and are taken from The Best of Seka, where Jamie Gillis helps John handle Seka, The Best of John Holmes 2, Taxi Girls, and Around the World with Johnny Wadd. They’re good scenes, and a great extra.

There are also eight extra interviews that weren’t included in the feature. They cover things such as the police stings at the time, John’s good side with helping people out, his bad side including a trunk full of blackmail material, and John’s effect on people. They’re done by people such as his co-workers, his wife, his mistress, and his godson. All of them are interesting, and do a great job of shedding light on the various aspects of John’s personality.

Of course, the standard extras are here also. The photo gallery includes well over one hundred of the photos that were used in the main feature, and I’m guessing maybe a few that weren’t used. Trailers are included for White Lightning, Still Insatiable, and The Top 25 Adult Film Stars of All Time. Finally, there’s special thanks and internet information.

Themes: Documentary, straight, anal, group, rimming (male > female), male masturbation, toe-ing, and gay

Raincoat Factor: Very low

Overall: Currently, Wadd can be found online for between $20 and $25. Even at the high end, this is a steal. The movie is extremely well done, and VCA has given it a great transfer and packed it full of extras. Every fan of John Holmes needs this DVD!

Note to VCA: You really did an amazing job here, and should be very proud of it!

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight