PINK FLAMINGOS, dir. john waters, 1972

QUICK SUMMARY:

divine and her family live in a trailerpark and consider themselves to be "the filthiest people alive." however, connie and raymond marble, a deranged couple who impregnate girls and sell their babies, want to claim this title for themselves.

THE CONTROVERSY:

a very lengthy list of vile things happens in this film, and it was notorious when released and banned in several places. incest, illegal adoption rings, rape, chicken-killing, urination, unsimulated eating of dog feces... the list goes on. the dialogue in itself i think was completely shocking for the time of its release (and still wouldn't really make your mother very happy now). the original trailer for this film, for example, doesn't actually have a single shot of footage from the movie.

JORDAAN'S RANT:

controversy rating: 6.5/10
overall rating: 9/10

summary: JOHN WATERS PUKE IN MY MOUTH I LOVE YOU.

this is the first film that we watched for controversial movie club, back at the end of '09. i had already seen it, but jason hadn't, and it seemed like an appropriate (and fun) way of starting off our adventure into disgusting films. there's not really much new for me to say about this film. you've all heard it: there's shit-eating, chicken-killing-and-raping, and a woman in a crib who loves eggs more than anything. i can certainly understand why this was controversial when it came out, and even still today, but also it's so fun that i can't really understand why anyone would really take much offense to it. unless they really love chickens.

here, this about sums it up:

INTERVIEWER #1: divine, are you a lesbian?
DIVINE: yes, i have done everything!
INTERVIEWER #2: does blood turn you on?
DIVINE: it does more than turn me on, mr. vader, it makes me COME. and more than the sight of it, i love the taste of it, the taste of hot, freshly killed blood!
INTERVIEWER #3: could you give us some of your political beliefs?
DIVINE: KILL EVERYONE NOW! condone first degree murder! advocate cannibalism! eat shit! filth are my politics, filth is my life!

'nuff said. if you like filthy movies and haven't seen this, WHAT UP.

JASON'S RANT:

controversy rating: 7/10
overall rating: 8/10

i’m pretty sure that my mental review when we finished watching pink flamingos was just the words “holy shit, what the fuck?” repeated over and over while giggling hysterically. this was the best possible way to kick off CMC. it was certainly controversial (sex, fetish sex, excrement, eating excrement, murder, selling babies harvested from kidnapped women), it was definitely fun , and it was completely awesome. kill everyone now!