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The Spectator
Pink Flamingos Takes Filth and Disturbia to New Level and Will Change How You See Eggs
by Laura Wright '10Arts and Entertainment Writer
November 06, 2009
We have had a number of fantastic film screenings on campus thus far this semester. We started the semester off with a bonanza, screening Song Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray's trio of beautiful films for the F.I.L.M. Series. We then saw the KJ auditorium packed to the rafters as the Alloy Orchestra accompanied The Man with a Movie Camera. HEAG brought us Food, Inc. Darius Goes West kept the campus mindful of Disability Awareness Month. The F.I.L.M. Series most recently gave us new insight into the foundations of early cinema with an engaging lecture by Dan Streible on fight films.
However, no film event on campus received more explosive acclaim or disdain than did the recent screening of Pink Flamingos……… That pause is to register your reaction, because this truly is a love it or hate it movie.
Directed by John Waters and released in 1972, the film could be expected it to be explosive in terms of the status quo of the 1970s. But, oh no, don't be misled, this film's ability to make one excruciatingly uncomfortable has transcended the passage of time. Pink Flamingos might be best described as an assault–visually, conceptually and emotionally.
The film follows Babs Johnson, better known as Divine, a drag queen like no other. Her flame red bouffant, shocking enough in and of itself, is easily missed, for the dramatic arch of her penciled eyebrows transfixes the audience every time she appears on screen.
Divine was named the "Filthiest Person Alive" for various crimes and behaviors. However, Connie and Raymond Marble won't let her keep this title without a fight. Running an illegal baby farm out of their basement and indulging in all manners of––how shall we say––alternative sexual fetishes, the Marbles believe they deserve the title. The majority of the film follows their attempts to find Divine and to discredit her filthiness.
Yet it is not the plot of the film which is so assaulting, per se; it is the innumerable instances where characters act in utterly grotesque manners that sets this film apart. The example that stands out to me is that of Edie, Divine's senile mother. Edie lives in a playpen in the corner of the family yard and spends all day in her underwear, consuming vast quantities of eggs. The way in which she consumes the eggs and speak of the eggs created intense responses; by the end of the film, almost every person with whom I spoke swore they'd never get Diner Breakfast again. Most of the audience had similar feelings about steak after Divine tucked one into her panties while walking in town, to "tenderize" it for dinner.
Divine's family is incredibly troubling, indulging in incest, bestiality and voyeurism. These deeds may not sound so outrageous or unheard of on paper, yet there is something about the way Waters exaggerates these taboos and takes them in directions one would never expect that really makes an impact upon the audience.
Why does it exist? Why on earth would someone want to make a film like this, let alone pay good money to watch it? It took me a little while to find an answer to this question. Even now, I'm not sure it is a satisfactory response since it's so simple, but it's all I could come up with. I believe that people want to see such trashy films because they validate their own goodness. That is to say, no matter how terribly people conduct themselves, they can take comfort in knowing that they are never as depraved as the characters portrayed in such films as Pink Flamingos.
So, after having seen this film, I would honestly have to say that I am glad I saw it. While I'd never want to see it again, I feel somehow transformed for having seen this film and I think a lot of other people feel this way too. And if you didn't get the chance to see the movie? Try dropping Pink Flamingos in conversation at lunchtime and wait to see some pretty hilarious reactions.