Real Impact: A trenchant exploration of sexual politics
It solidified Jack Nicholson’s position as the most interesting actor of the 1970s, alongside De Niro and Pacino.
It proved that Candice Bergen was a good actress, and much more than just a pretty face
It renewed the sagging acting career of Ann Margret, who received her first Oscar nomination, in the Best Supporting Actress category.
The changes in the morals of American society of the 1960s and 1970s and the general receptiveness by the public to frank discussion of sexual issues was sometimes at odds with local community standards.
A theatre in Albany, Georgia, showed the film; on January 13, 1972, the local police served a search warrant on the theatre, and seized the film.
In March 1972, the theatre manager, Mr. Jenkins, was convicted of the crime of “distributing obscene material”. His conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Georgia.
On June 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the State of Georgia had gone too far in classifying material as obscene in view of its prior decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), and overturned the conviction in Jenkins v. Georgia, 418 U.S. 153 (1974).
Avco Embassy re-released the film after the Supreme Court ruling, using the tagline “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that ‘Carnal Knowledge’ is not obscene. See it now!”
