Overrated

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I watched a small portion of this film in Film Studies in college, and it features in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew the most disgusting moment at the end, I was prepared for whatever else was in store, from the aptly named "Prince of Puke", cult writer and director John Waters. Basically on the outskirts of Phoenix, Maryland, in a pink and green caravan, with a pair of eponymous plastic pink flamingos, lives underground criminal Divine (Divine, real name Harris Glenn Milstead), with her mentally ill, egg-loving mother Edie (Edith Massey), hippie delinquent son Crackers (Danny Mills), and travelling companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce). Divine has gained herself the reputation of "the filthiest person alive" by a tabloid paper, jealous rivals the Marbles, Connie (Mink Stole) and Raymond (David Lochary), set out to destroy her career and take this title for themselves. The Marbles run an "adoption clinic", a black market baby ring, where they kidnap young women, their manservant Channing (Channing Wilroy) impregnates them with artificial insemination, they sell the babies to local lesbian couples, and the money they make they invest in heroin to sell in schools. The Marbles send their spy Cookie (Cookie Mueller) to search for Divine, there is a scene where Connie and Raymond have sex, while crushing a live chicken between them, Cookie looks through the window, before coming in to tell them he has found Divine, living under the pseudonym "Babs Johnson". Divine is celebrating her birthday, she is shocked to find a box containing human feces sent to her as a present, with a card calling her "Fatso", and the writers proclaiming themselves "The Filthiest People Alive", worried her title has been seized, Divine vows revenge, and to kill whoever sent the package. The birthday party continues, with the Marbles spying, Divine receives an assortment of gifts she is happy with, including live shampoo, a pig's head, and an axe, they also have a topless woman dancing with a snake, and a contortionist who "sings" with his anus to the rhythm of "Surfin' Bird". One of the guests, the Egg Man (Paul Swift), who delivers eggs to Edie daily, confesses his love and proposes to her, she accepts and he carries her away in a wheelbarrow for a honeymoon around the egg industry. The Marbles attempt to get Divine and the other arrested, but this proves unsuccessful as they kill the officers, their bodies are hacked up with the axe, and the party- goers goers eat them. Divine finds out the Marbles' address from local gossip, Patty Hitler (Pat Moran), she and Crackers go to their house, they lick and rub everything to spread their "filthiness", excited they also engage in oral sex, they find Channing locked away, but do not free him, the free two captive women from the basement, off-screen they punish Channing. Connie and Raymond burn down Divine's beloved trailer to the ground, when they return home they find their furniture, having been "cursed" by the licking and rubbing, "rejects" them, they also find the two girls escaped and Channing has bled to death from castration. Divine is furious finding her home has been destroyed, so they return to the Mables' house, holding them hostage at gunpoint, and the local tabloid press are called to witness their trial and execution. Divine holds the "kangaroo court", asking Cotton and Crackers for their biased testimony, the Marbles are found guilty "first-degree stupidity" and "assholism", and sentenced to death, bound and gagged they are tied to a tree, covered with tar and feathers, Divine shoots them in the head, the media leave satisfied, having seen a live homicide. In the end, Divine, Crackers and Cotton relocate to Boise, Idaho, the end shot sees them stop excited to see a dog defecating on the sidewalk, Divine takes the feces in her hand and puts them in her mouth, proving she is not only the filthiest person in the world, but also the world's filthiest actress, she gags twice, before apparently swallowing and grinning at the camera. Also starring Susan Walsh as Suzie and Linda Olgeirson as Linda, with narration from John Waters. Drag queen Divine proves herself the ultimate sleaze superstar, the rest of the actors are obviously amateurs, the film is the lowest of low budgets, and does absolutely everything it can to cause disgust and outrage: obscenity, chicken sex (or animal cruelty), real sexual acts, a performing rectum, and of course the final coprophagia (the consumption of feces). But this unashamed, notorious, gross-out movie does kind of work, aside from the vulgar stuff it does make you laugh, because it is so stupid, it's good because it's bad, a surprisingly funny cult satirical melodrama. Very good!

Pink Flamingos is truly a sight to behold. Its gargantuan cult reputation is very well deserved, because, simply put, their is nothing else like it, not even in the rest of John Waters' oeuvre. Such a strangely entertaining and cartoonish film has never been made before or since. Waters seemed to somehow pull together the perfect cast for all of his persistently odd roles, a cadre of characters all willing to indulge in sexual perversities, tastelessness, bestiality, and the consumption of various human waste products. The low-grade film stock, the strange long takes punctuated only by zoom-ins, the weird overacting by everyone in the cast, and the disturbing montages set to classic oldies music all works together to become an entirely new film experience. I can't say that it's one that I fully understand, or even that I would like to see another film like it, but I can't deny that this film is truly delightful. Every scene pulsates with anarchical glee, the costume and makeup exudes cartoonish brilliance in every shot, and of course their is the unforgettably divine Divine, otherwise known as Glenn Milstead. His (her?) sheer energy and magnetism in every scene elevates the film immeasurably; no wonder he was Waters' muse. Replete with obvious line flubs, clear awkwardness during certain scenes, and shots which should probably have had a few seconds trimmed, this is certainly a trash masterpiece, the diametric opposite of high art, and Waters' crowning achievement as a filmmaker. Were this to be made by any filmmaker other than the supremely strange Waters, it most likely would have fallen flat on its face. No other auteur has ever been in the motion picture business who so well understands the value of utter garbage, and so revels in all that is dirty and depraved in the world. This film demands that the audience bask in the glory of trash as entertainment, and that we live, breath, and worship refuse. While I cannot say that I agree, or that I will partake in these activities anytime soon, it somehow manages to make it enticing. Pink Flamingos is the crowning achievement of waste throughout all of mankind's existence. The only reason that it gets a 9 and not a 10 from me is that there were several instances where the depravity did begin to sicken me rather than entice, though these were rectified shortly afterwards. Also, I think that if I gave it a 10 I might go to hell.

...enjoyable too in a freakish sort of way!! This is one of John Waters early works (and it shows). But he was starting out and learning his craft by trial and error. This was made back in the early 70's - it doesn't stand up to today's young movie makers starting out. But hey, times were so much different then!!! The facilities that were available to the likes of John Waters back then are comparatively prehistoric to what is available nowadays. John Waters bravely puts out his own personality and dark depths of his mind for anyone to see. There's plenty to be revolted by in this movie, but don' be too hasty to dismiss it as cheap, vile trash. It does have some merit...without it and future films, we wouldn't have the John Waters that we have today. Certainly not a movie for everyone.....but if you like some BAD taste, then you'll find something to amuse yourself in this. Most of his actors appear in his later productions too. Parts of the movie will gross you out!

An exercise in bad taste, indeed. This filthy trash movie is worthy of a glimpse, though it will not be a movie that is good for digestion, it's like an exotic dish of weirdness. The story is actually dumb but funny, a couple is trying to dethrone Divine in her status in being the "filthiest person alive," the story is enough to tell how filthy this movie is. It's funny not because it's a comedy, it doesn't try to be funny, the situation and the performance of the actors were already hilarious, naturally. The script is another plus for its absurdity. The characters, especially Divine and her mother Edie are unforgettable; you can't forget the Marbles too, with their unusual hair color. The oddest things are in placed here; the notorious last scene will make you sick. I want to watch more of this kind of movies, this is what I love about the journey of cinema, there are many things you'll discover, and there are a lot that I still haven't.