Pink Flamingos
- This article is about the 1972 cult movie. For other uses, see Flamingo (disambiguation).
| Pink Flamingos | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster. | |
| Directed by | John Waters |
| Starring | Divine David Lochary Mary Vivian Pearce Mink Stole |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema/Fine Line Features |
Release dates | March 12, 1972 |
Running time | 93 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12,000 |
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 film directed by John Waters. It made an underground star of the flamboyant and obese female impersonator, Divine. The independent film also stars David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Channing Wilroy, Cookie Mueller, Paul Swift, and Edith Massey. Produced on a budget of only $12,000, it was shot on weekends in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. Since its release it has had a rather large cult following, and is one of John Waters' most famous films.
The film came in at number 29, on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die, on a show in the United Kingdom.
Plot Summary
Divine lives under the pseudonym "Babs Johnson" with her egg-loving mother, Mama Edie, delinquent son Crackers, and Cotton, a like-minded companion whose simple pleasure is voyeurism. They reside in a mobile home (in front of which can be found a pair of pink, plastic flamingos, accounting for the film's title) on Philpot Road in Phoenix, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore (John Waters' hometown). After finding that Divine had been named "the filthiest person in the world" by a paper, a rival family, the Marbles, set out to destroy the tight-knit family but come unstuck in the process. The Marbles own an "adoption clinic," which is actually a black market baby ring. They kidnap young women, have them impregnated by their manservant, and sell their babies to lesbian couples. The proceeds are used to finance a network of dealers selling heroin in inner-city elementary schools. After vying for the status of filthiest person through sabotage, ransacking and contension, Babs abducts, tries and convicts the Marbles of heresy and false self-assertions and sentences them to death. Divine assassinates the Marbles in front of a select few from the local media.
Notes
- Some of the film's more shocking scenes include a sex scene involving a live chicken (which was killed in the process and subsequently eaten), Divine stealing meat by hiding it in her "private oven" (i.e. between her legs, under her dress), Divine performing oral sex on her son, Divine urinating in public, a musical scene with a fully exposed gesticulating anus, and an infamous finale in which Divine procures actual dog feces straight from the source and masticates it rather thoroughly.
- The film's narrative does not bear up under close scrutiny (a package is mailed and delivered in the same afternoon) and there are scenes which are hard to watch but, according to interviews, this was exactly what Waters intended. Waters himself called the film an "exercise in poor taste." Many viewers, in fact, watch Pink Flamingos in order to be shocked.
- In 1997 the film was re-released, with an improved stereo soundtrack (which, unlike the original, was made available to the general public, on compact disc), and after the end of the original movie the new version contained a brief video commentary by Waters, plus a few scenes cut from the original release. The re-release was rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America.
- The Funday Pawpet Show holds what is called the "Pink Flamingo Challenge," in which the ending to the movie is played to the audience while they eat a (preferably chocolate) confection. Videos of the show are forbidden from showing the movie clip, only the reaction of the audience.
- People watching it in the theater received free "Pink Phlegmingo" barf bags.
- The film was banned in Australia, Canada, Serbia and Norway. However, it was released on VHS in Australia in the late 1980s, however distribuation of the VHS today has been discontinued, and copies are very scarse.
- John Waters wrote a sequel (Flamingos Forever) which was never filmed due to the deaths of Divine and Edith Massey. The script is available as part of the book "Trash Trio."