DVD Review: Prisoner Of Paradise

By Brad Henderson

When I received Vinegar Syndrome’s recent release of Prisoner Of Paradise I asked myself, “Do I bring The Boozer Reviewer back?” Then I saw it was a big budget X-rated war epic, falling under the Nazisploitation subgenre. . . and it starred John Holmes. I knew then I needed to watch this without any alcohol.

Man, I wish I was intoxicated when I watched this.

The film isn’t bad by any means, but boy, is it weird. I guess that is a normal reaction to old porno films. Still, there is a lot of ambition here. They easily could’ve just had a bunch of people boning in Nazi outfits but instead Bob Chinn goes to the lengths (no pun intended) of making this look like a real war epic. At this point in time we can spot stock footage from a mile away. At the time Prisoner In Paradise was made I’m sure many people were not aware of this so they probably thought it was real.

John Holmes plays an American soldier who winds up on a deserted island when his ship is attacked and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. After staggering around for a bit, he stumbles upon a small camp occupied by crazed sex Nazis. So John Holmes uses his “abilities” to “infiltrate” the compound and rescue. . . kill. . . screw. . . I’m not exactly sure why he would want this fantasy to end. I’m just being real. This camp is occupied by three women and one dude who wants to watch people do it. I’m not sure how much I would want to leave even if they were Nazis, and hot Nazis at that. Anyway, sex happens, flashbacks happen (with sex), and more sex happens, but all in all, it is well put together and quite the spectacle if you look at it from a filmmaking standpoint. It probably got Bob Chinn more job offers because this is what people wanted.

To be clear: porn is porn, but porn was way different back in the day. These films actually tried to have a story and a conclusion even if they were sex romps. They dabbled in comedy, horror, action, and some did a fine damn job. Hell, sex is minimal in these films, anyway. The actors only have sex for a couple of minutes, then a money shot happens, and we are back to the story. In a weird reversal, we now have minimal story (more like scenarios) and loads of sex in porn.

So when you complain that Vinegar Syndrome is releasing “porn” I might have to argue with you to an extent. Yes, they are, but these are legitimate films and a certain amount of respect should be given. Sure, it’s nothing you want to watch with the kids, but these movies are fun. They are not violent, women are not getting abused, and it’s a more of a respectable approach to porn than what we see these days.

I don’t want to get too “political,” but when people discuss Vinegar Syndrome this often comes up (no pun intended). It seems that people think all porn is the same, but it isn’t when we are discussing films like this. At any rate, I don’t want this review to go on too long (pun intended) or you will start calling me John Holmes. . . OK, that was a bad joke but my other ones were funny.

Prisoner Of Paradise was released on DVD by Vinegar Syndrome on September 9.