When did cheap, disgusting images become admired works of art for certain people? Did it happen with the Mondo movies of the 60’s? Or more specifically did it thrive during the midnight movie craze of the 70s? In either case, the champion of admired junk must be John Waters’ semi-celebrated film, “Pink Flamingoes”.
This is a movie that boasts in very graphic fashion, among other things, a mother giving oral sex to her son, People axe killing and then cannibalizing policemen (todays police defund crazies would love this scene), women getting raped, impregnated, and imprisoned, and a person eating dog excrement. Most of these scenes are filmed in long unedited takes (due to a lack of budget, I believe), which gives them an almost documentary feel. I know that many people consider this something to admire, but I found the documentary feel of the movie only made the shocking scenes just more disgusting.
The plot involves a rivalry between a family consisting of the transvestite Divine (actually Harris Glenn Milstead), his crib-living mother, son and lover and a despicable couple who imprison women to impregnate, kill and sell their new-born babies to lesbian couples (I kid you not). For some reason, Divine is infamous for being known as the filthiest person alive. A moniker that the sadist couple (Mr. and Mrs. Marble) are jealous of. The Marbles are determined to usurp Devine as the filthiest people on earth.
Filmed on a budget of about $10,000, which was minuscule even in 1972, this is a movie without any aesthetic feel or vision. The sound is garbled at times and the cinematography unfocused. I guess that its existence proved that anyone could make a movie (even though Waters had two previous films of a similar nature to his credit). The acting matches the level of everything else in the movie and if you like seeing exaggerated stilted acting, then this film is for you.
As for its shock value, “Pink Flamingos” does not disappoint. In many instances, I had to strain not to turn my head away from the screen.
In the 1970s, many B-grade movie houses held what were called midnight movies where people could attend, usually stoned out of their minds, extreme movies. These were either drug movies, low-budget horror films or films meant to shock. “Pink Flamingos” was a huge hit with these barely conscious crowds. I guess if a person is watching the movie in a hazy daze, they could theoretically find some humor in the shock and stupidity of it all. I for one, found the movie to be pure trash and an utter waste of my time.
1001 Movies before you die 