We find the infamous criminal Divine living under the moniker of Babs Johnson. With all that to consider, there is a storyline – albeit an obscure one, which the movie revolves around. These include scenes of masturbation, voyeurism, cannibalism, sodomy, rape, incest, murder, scatophilia, castration, lots of profanity and crush fetish – in this case of a live chicken. In some part, that is down to the content and themes contained within the 92 minute framework. This movie rejected society as much as society rejected it. Sadly however he passed away of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 42, but his legacy is everywhere, and everlasting.ĭeconstructing Pink Flamingos is the artistic equivalent of trying to put a pin back into a grenade – a filthy one at that. Both Waters and Milstead grew up in Baltimore, and at 16 he met John Waters who christened his persona Divine, and turned an overweight, bullied young man into a ‘300-pound beauty’. I’m a character actor” he stated on numerous occasions. The fact he did it so well, became an LGBTQ icon and made drag queens cool 50 years ago, is just one part of his aesthetic – “I’m not a drag queen. Of course Milstead was a drag queen, a gay man who viewed the alter-ego of Divine as merely a job. Milstead was a performer, and a character actor who became the foil and focus to drive Waters’ cinematic vehicles. The actress Divine was the creation of the sadly-missed Harris Glenn Milstead. And from then on Waters had a secret weapon: he had Divine inspiration. Over time he put together a regular gang/troupe of actors named the a gang called the Dreamlanders, first seen in 66’s Roman Candles. With that movie he set a course that would run straight into Pink Flamingos. These early art-house styled films, usually soaked with sleaze and dark humor, came to fruition in 1970 with Multiple Maniacs – currently holding a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With Pink Flamingos, Waters stuck his head above the parapet and shifted slightly from the underground art scene.Īfter six low-budget and sometimes short features beginning in 1964, John Waters began to gain momentum. Over the past five decades, he has become an institution in his own right, along with being an actor, author and presenter. Openly gay, and highly influenced by Andy Warhol, the Baltimore-born Waters triggers either a love or hate response to all he creates, never a middle ground. At the helm of this disgusting juggernaut is the maverick filmmaker John Waters.
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