REDEMPTION AND DELIVERANCE

There's also a few -- a very few -- vids in the "Redemption and Deliverance" theme, none terribly recent. Redemption can be difficult to work into a pornvid; the characters have to do something or feel something they need to be redeemed from, but at the same time, the filmmakers can't say that sex or being gay is bad in and of itself (and surely don't want to). Thus, they wind up resorting to the odd rhetorical trick.

Jumper, by the ever-talented Chi Chi LaRue, features Ryan Yeager as an angel brought back to earth to help some of his benighted gay brethren to feel good about themselves. Of course, he does this by having sex with them (a lot) or convincing them to have sex with each other (a lot). Eventually, he fulfills his mission and regretfully (because he's fallen in love with one of his charges) heads back to heaven to resume his angelic duties.

Black Forest's Coming From Above takes a most unusual approach. Randy Cochran is listening to a hell-and-damnation minister condemning homosexuality, while he looks at a photograph of a man for whom he lusts. He prays to God to show him the right way. God then ever so thoughtfully drops men into his bed, thus showing him very bluntly that Sex With Men Is A Good Thing.

In their own way, Redemption videos may be the most subversive of the lot. Sex itself becomes the redeeming instrument. Both Jumper and Coming from Above are explicit about using sex as the method to purge mistaken doubts planted by society and religion. Sexual redemption is utterly contrary to what most religions say; in most, at best, sex is neutral, expressed only by people in a consecrated relationship as depicted in the Bible. (Which features a striking plethora of whores, concubines, multiple wife families and the odd spot of sanctioned rapine. With the exception of the Song of Solomon, sex in the Bible is mostly either a functional or fairly unpleasant business.)

Most religion considers sex for pleasure or emotional reasons -- absent that consecrated relationship -- to be misguided at best, and a sin at worst. Sex is a necessary evil -- you kind of run out of people otherwise -- and thus Religion and Sex have an uneasy relationship. Redemption videos turn this theology on its head when they say that sex can be redemption; they come perilously close to saying that sex -- in and of itself -- is actually holy.

AND ONE OTHER

And then there's Our Trespasses, an older All Worlds video directed by Mike Donner. Our Trespasses features a plot that, in some ways, parallels the Catholic Church's current debacle. It's one of the few videos that's explicitly meant to be realistic. Drew Andrews plays a man who, in his younger days, is drawn equally to his lover, played by Scott Baldwin, and to the priesthood for which he feels a genuine calling. He eventually chooses the priesthood. Then, 20 years later -- having been an obedient priest throughout -- his lover's son (also played by Scott Baldwin) stumbles into his life, and all those old feelings come out, no matter how hard he tries to repress them.

To be sure, he doesn't really do anything at that stage -- almost, but not quite. Our Trespasses is somewhat facile; it is a pornvid, after all. It does get one thing wrong -- if Drew confessed to having had a homosexual relationship before he entered seminary, he would probably not have been allowed into the seminary in the first place. (You're not allowed to have homosexual affairs before you become a priest, but priests themselves can be absolved and remain in the Church if they have affairs after ordination, confess and repent. Very strange.) Errors aside, Our Trespasses makes an attempt at presenting how a priest can be conflicted about what he wants without being a horrible person.

AND THE MORAL IS. . .

These videos tell us that -- depending on the lure (and the timing) -- ambiguous individuals can be tempted to stray. And how, once tempted, corruption might go too far. Conversely, on a more upbeat note, the misled or possessed can, in the end, find solace -- and redemption. Simplistic? Yes, but these are archetypal conundrums that each of us can relate to.

In some ways videos may parallel real life -- the way in which we use sex to escape or to find ourselves. As entertainment, videos are a safe way to make a more direct connection with our ids; to live vicariously through the characters and the narratives. I'd never considered having sex with the Devil, well, not until he was played by Blake Harper! This class of video is all about fantasy, albeit a powerful and taboo-ringed sort. And as such, they're a hell of a lot of fun.

Iain Jackson is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, and resides in Chicago and can be contacted at iainpj@myrealbox.com

Photography featured in Falling From Grace:

Opening graphic/photo of Drew Andrews from the video Our Trespasses. © All Worlds Video • Blake Harper photo from the video The Devil is a Bottom © All Worlds Video. • Steve Cannon as dark angel in Titan's Fallen Angel series © Titan Media • Addisson Scott group photo from the video Bad Behavior © Falcon Studios. • Shower scene photo from Jumper © VCA/HIS Video. Drew Andrews and Scott Baldwin photo from Our Trespasses © All Worlds Video. All Rights reserved by respective studios listed above.

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