Porky’s: DVD Review

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Porky's, movie, image, — This publicity still for Porky's was scanned from an original in the Northernstars Collection.

Porky’s: Special Collector’s Edition DVD

Review by Paul Townend

Porky’s made a ton of money, and executive producer Harold Greenberg built the Astral Communications empire on its profits. The North American box office was so huge (making $105 million on a budget of just $4 million) that no other Canadian film even comes close. It spawned two sequels, Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983) and Porky’s Revenge (1985), and has enshrined itself as the most reviled film in the Canadian canon.

The reviews at the time of its release were so harsh – Variety called it “astonishingly vulgar… has to be seen to be believed” – that Porky’s has been dismissed as an aberration, a bad joke; however, given the vulgar comic extremes of films

This poster for Porky's was scanned from an original in the Northernstars Collection. — This poster for Porky’s was scanned from an original in the Northernstars Collection.

such as American Pie (director Paul Weitz claims it was the inspiration for his film), Porky’s juvenile, foul-mouthed humour seems more like a harbinger of things to come.

Written and directed by American Bob Clark, who was working in Canada during the tax-shelter years, it won the Golden Reel Award for the highest-grossing Canadian film of 1982. In a cast of virtual unknowns, Porky’s features a young Kim Cattrall in an unenviable role as a repressed, horny gym instructor. She would later achieve stardom as the sex-obsessed Samantha in Sex and the City.

This not-at-all “special” DVD edition comes from Maple Pictures on the 25th anniversary of Porky’s original release. Disappointingly, it contains no commentary or outtakes, but it does have a double-sided second disk with the sequels. It also comes at an interesting time, since Porky’s was just dethroned from its spot as the highest-grossing Canadian film at the domestic box office. Bon Cop, Bad Cop, has made more in Canada, but not in inflation-adjusted numbers. It was reported a few years back that vulgar shock-jock Howard Stern picked up the remake rights, but nothing has come of this yet.

Also see: The Cast & Crew of Porky’s