Porky's: the 1982 film that launched the teen sex comedy genre
Although certainly not the first of its kind, the runaway box office success of this Canadian-American production ensured studios would forever be looking for one more film about young men and their desperate desire to "lose it".
Porky's
Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight
Director: Bob Clark
Although certainly not the first of its kind, the runaway box office success of this Canadian-American production ensured studios would forever be looking for one more film about young men and their desperate desire to "lose it".
Porky's remains to this day the highest-ever grossing Canadian film - incredible given that critics rounded on the movie for its misogyny and crude humour (which seems so tame on rewatching). But its success was built on two things that fascinate all teenage boys: breasts. Or at least it was based on the hope the film's predominantly young male audience had of getting a glimpse of a few.
An "R" rating limited who could see the film on its initial theatrical release, but it was like manna dropped from heaven in the 1980s once your parents invested in a VCR and left you and your friends to your own devices. The plot is aimed squarely at teenage boys and plays (in quite sinister fashion, on reflection) on the shared fascination and/or fear they have for women and the female form.
The trailers promised a shower scene and the film delivered as the group of lads at its centre took turns peeking through a hole they drilled into a girls' shower room. If you wanted to go high-brow, you might point to the objectification that pervaded the entire production, but the filmmakers were obviously setting their sights on matters more, shall we say, south of the border.