John Waters loves to highlight the perversities of taste through 60’s hairstyles. His language in cinema doesn’t require a great deal of technical skill because of the choices made in subject are so visually appealing, and often meant to provoke that it almost compliments the explicitness to have it so poorly shot with such little reveal. With a budget of $12000, Waters relied on the concept of Pink Flamingos to be the body for his film, and that it was. Definitely an exercise in taste. I found myself wondering about how little shock I felt to see those scenes because of my own exposure to the internet, where as my own mom would probably not make it ten minutes into the film because of our differences in taste. Trash to others is not worth viewing, and definitely not worth reviewing, which is why it found its place among the midnight movies in 1972 upon its release. The underground nature of this movie is what borned its cult following. Having every type of taboo in one movie doesn’t exactly bring in families to the box office, but certainly piques interest in those who wished to see something different in its time. Midnight movies began as low-budget B-movies in the 50s that were aired for late-night programming and eventually became a phenomenon into the 70s for offbeat screenings that didn’t have a place among big-name films. My dad told me about seeing Night of the Living Dead as a midnight movie when he was in college, and how the shocking gore of it scared him shitless as a sophomore in college. Coolidge’s “After Midnight” online guide describes the nature of midnight movies in the 70s as “horrifying, weird, camp, avant garde, tripped-out, and cult films.”  in which Pink Flamingos would check almost every box. Into the 80s, the midnight movie began to take on a purely camp take, in which its aesthetic value was determined by its bad taste and irony. Pink Flamingos is an excellent example of camp, and how its is counter-modernist in all its glory. Being kitschy, kinky, incestuous, and just disgusting, the shock value of many of the scenes were iconic for the time it was released. Susan Sontag describes the appeal in camp being very personal, in that we all relate to the disgustingness of camp culture even if its not directly obvious. Being felt to be the “bad taste” of society would also draw one to enjoy these types of movies, which is why Pink Flamingos is also considered a queer classic. Being unacknowledged by the film industry led queer movie watchers to find indentity in less celebrated movies, and reappropriate their meanings to be personal. Pink Flamingos needs no reappropraition as the kinks and such were anything but heterosexual. Waters used a small group of uninhibited actors and actresses in their particular roles as misfit characters, including Waters childhood friend Glenn Milstead who would embody Divine the Queen of Filth. Filth is a repeated word in the film, one that is celebrated and coveted, which is only highlighted by the gaudy trailers, dresses, and (of course) hairstyles that Waters stylistically uses to portray his stories.

Mary Vivian Pearce can step on me with that choker

I loved the movie and I loved watching it again in class; it let me appreciate more of the visual value in Waters choices. It’s no hairspray, but being able to stomach the majority of the Filth in the movie makes one feel a bit accomplished for finishing it. I love the value of kitsch, and I want a pink trailer (and every outfit Cotton wears).