# WADD: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (1998)

### reviewed by
Shane Burridge

WADD: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (1998) 110m.

Commendably objective documentary takes a frank look at the turbulent life of 70s-80s porn star John Holmes. The film-makers obviously figured that this subject matter alone was going to earn their movie an R rating so they allow their interview subjects free rein on opinions and reminiscences - this doco has the highest frequency for 'penis' synonyms in the first ten minutes than any other film you will have seen. It's only to be expected: Holmes' claim to fame was 13 inches of talent (32.5 cm if you prefer metric), a fact that director Cass Paley recognizes as this movie's selling point. The audience gets what it pays for (although the famous member itself is only glimpsed) with much made of the fact that Holmes was born for porn, but this is merely a starting point - there's a lot more than sex going on in this story.

Holmes' odyssey leads him from a hard upbringing in Ohio, a stint in the signal corps, and marriage in California. After an introduction to the LA pornography market and the invention of private dick 'Johnny Wadd' (the script was written on the back of an envelope!), his career path is assured, and the rest should be simple. Holmes has a fatal flaw, however: he is a pathological liar, whose endless evasions and fabrications become so habitual that he begins to experience some sort of slippage. After being busted on pimping charges (along with others stuck with "conspiracy to commit oral copulation"), Holmes turns informant for the LAPD vice squad - effectively he is living out his own porn-detective alter ego. He graduates from smoking joints to freebasing cocaine, blurring lines of reality even further. By the time he's stealing cars while on the run from the FBI, the cops, AND the mob, Holmes' separation from everything and everyone in his life has become complete. WADD is terribly confusing: no other documentary has been so replete with contradiction. The most common adjectives used by interviewees to describe Holmes are 'gentle' and 'sweet' - yet this is the same man who caused the horrific murders of four people and wantonly continued having sex with women without informing them that he was HIV positive. Nearly everyone gushes about what a great guy he was, but who's kidding who? By the end of the film you won't trust what anyone has to say except for his second wife who has at least suffered enough physically to make her testimony believable. Just to bring everything full circle, Holmes' third wife (and porn star) Misty Dawn sued the film-makers a year after WADD's release for slander and "reckless disregard for the truth".

Much more than just a documentary on a titillating subject, WADD is equal doses of humor, poignancy, horror and fascination. Many lines are quotable, but not subject for repetition in most review columns and as the star player is Holmes himself, several innocent sentences take on amusing innuendoes - my favorite is when his first wife talks of his carpentry skills, claiming he 'could make anything with wood'. Among those interviewed: Ron Jeremy, Gloria Leonard, Kitten Natividad and Misty Dawn a.k.a. Laurie Holmes, who now maintains the official John Holmes website. Film also includes non-explicit clips from various Holmes movies, including the Johnny Wadd series. Musical score of documentary is suitably cheesy and could be recycled in spots as background for any real porno movie.

    sburridge@hotmail.com

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