Pink Flamingos is John Waters most famous film and is advertised as “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made.” After hearing details a few years ago about a scene where the protagonist eats dog feces, I promised myself I would never watch this movie. Unfortunately, I was assigned a presentation on John Waters and felt I had a responsibility to sit through Pink Flamingos. The rest of the class watched his later film, Cry Baby because they felt that they wouldn’t be able to sit through all of Pink Flamingos based on what they’ve read of it. Cult films and midnight movies such as Pink Flamingos are meant to be gross on some level to glorify the outcasts as opposed to looking down on them. However, Pink Flamingos took this to a traumatizing level. Anything and everything that someone wouldn’t want to watch is in this movie- from eating poop to vomiting to rape to do-it-yourself artificial insemination. But all of this would be a bit more tolerable to watch if there was less amateur filming techniques and if it wasn’t known for actually doing most of the things that happen in the movie. Surprisingly, the incest and rape scenes were almost easier to watch than some other scenes because the viewer can simply tell him/herself that it’s only a movie and that the people aren’t actually related or being raped. However, the protagonist (Divine) is known for having actually eaten the poop and there is a sex scene where a chicken is actually killed before the viewers eyes after being smothered between the couple having sex. Knowing that these events are real and having the film relentlessly show us this from dog to mouth or struggling chicken to bloody mess, makes this film not only difficult to watch, but traumatic. Even knowing of the most notoriously repulsive scenes won’t make the film any easier to watch because just when you think you’ve passed the worst of it, it maintains its level of repulsion consistently throughout the movie. John Waters succeeded in making the most repulsive movie of all time, but the viewer should know his/her limits (and gag reflex) before deciding to watch it.
No comments:
Post a Comment