Pink Flamingos. . .

[Allhallowsday]

What does it have to do with Pink flamingos?

You'll see.   All kidding aside this film is a disgusting shocker, not for the easily offended, and, eh, hilarious if, say, you can appreciate punk rock. 

[Coffin Joe]

The bird...is the word.

[MoronBoy]

Did you see her smile to the camera? Is this the origin of the phrase "$#*@ eating grin"?

[Allhallowsday]

I saw Harris Glen Milstead (Divine) on the Tom Snyder show in the late 1970s.  He confirmed to having eaten dog excrement for that shot in the film, and claimed that shortly thereafter to have contracted hepatitis.  Since the shot is apparently in one take, there is little doubt as to who earned the title of "filthiest person alive," which is what that film was all about.  A truly Punk statement, and inevitable stomach churner.

[Andrew]

Did you see her smile to the camera? Is this the origin of the phrase "$#*@ eating grin"?

I saw Harris Glen Milstead (Divine) on the Tom Snyder show in the late 1970s.  He confirmed to having eaten dog excrement for that shot in the film, and claimed that shortly thereafter to have contracted hepatitis.  Since the shot is apparently in one take, there is little doubt as to who earned the title of "filthiest person alive," which is what that film was all about.  A truly Punk statement, and inevitable stomach churner.

The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that this film is not healthy for anyone.  Not the people who made it, not the people who paid for it, and certainly not those of us who have watched it.  There is probably a rare form of cancer associated with exposure to this film.

Welcome aboard MoronBoy.  (Why do people insist on picking names that cause my friendly greetings to come across as insulting?)

[Allhallowsday]

The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that this film is not healthy for anyone.  Not the people who made it, not the people who paid for it, and certainly not those of us who have watched it.  There is probably a rare form of cancer associated with exposure to this film.

BAD movie!  BAD! 

Welcome aboard MoronBoy.  (Why do people insist on picking names that cause my friendly greetings to come across as insulting?)

Thanks for the good laugh.   

[DodgingGrunge]

It is definitely art by my definition.  Art inspires strong feelings in people and this one causes revulsion, pain, and a general feeling of WITHAIWT (Why in the heck am I watching this?) in me.

Andrew hit it perfectly.  In fact, in 1976 Pink Flamingos was featured in the Bicentennial Salute to American Film Comedy at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

John Waters is from the Andy Warhol school of exploitation cinema, espousing the virtues of maximalist satire and leftist values.  His tactics are disturbing, to be sure, but behind the absurdity is brilliance.  As with any good piece of literature, merely examining the surface is not enough.  John Waters' allegories may be a bit harder to find than F. Scott Fitzgerald's, but that's because most viewers are preconditioned by Fox Specials to look at shocking footage as nothing more than a Coney Island attraction.  Waters, Warhol, Peckinpah, Meyer, Bunnel and other renegade directors decided to exploit our curiosity for the disturbing to provide a message we'd otherwise be too bored to deal with.

And if you saw it and hated it and have drafted multiple death threats to the care of John Waters for having made it, think about this:  Thanks to the pioneers of trash there are no boundaries or limits in modern cinema.  This means that everybody from Full Moon Video to Disney are free to tackle adult concepts in an adult way (i.e. boobies, violence, language, etc).  Movies like Taxi Driver, Godfather, Demonic Toys (haha) could never have been made otherwise.

[zombiedudeman]

I love this movie  I found it hilarious, one of the best comedies ever. The term for this kinda stuff is "transgressive art".

[Raffine]

However, John Waters' masterpiece is FEMALE TROUBLE.

[Torgo]

I will say this about Pink Flamingos.  It's definitely a movie that you'll never, ever forget for better or for worse.

There's a John Waters DVD box set that's out now that I want to get that has the SE of Pink Flamingos in it.   

[KYGOTC]

However, John Waters' masterpiece is FEMALE TROUBLE.

Man, i missed my chance to buy this when I used to work at this grocery store. It was the VHS verion, but it was really cheap. DAMN! O well. Perhaps Ill hunt down the dvd after I get "The Ghastly Ones".

[peter johnson]

A dissenting viewpoint:
You never actually see the poo come out of the dog.  Yes, you see the dog squatting, and John Waters has always insisted that Divine is really eating really doggy doo -- but I simply don't believe it.  Watch:  Divine actually scoops up something already on the sidewalk above the dog and to the right.  It's a classic magicians' trick of deception and sleight of hand --
peter johnson/denny crane

[ghouck]

Not from where I sit. . .What I saw was a dog crapping onto what appears to be an already formed pile of crap. Then, Divine indescriminately grabs pretty much the entire pile and shoves it into his mouth. Even if the already formed pile was not crap, it stil got crapped on and there was no seperation of the newly crapped portion and the already formed fake crap. They were also a bit adamant about it being "The Real Deal". I'm convinced it was legit. . .

[zombiedudeman]

that crap was definitley for reals, I never got shocked by it too much though cause I saw hardcore crap eating in the GG Allin "Hated" documentary before I saw Pink Flamingos, that documentary desensitized me to a lot of things in life

[peter johnson]

     Okay, so I guess I have to see it again on the big screen, but if you watch the YouTube segment, Divine first grabs a bit of something on the sidewalk ABOVE the dog's butt in the shot, up and to the right of where the dog is sitting.  This is what she already has in her hand when she starts waving around the dog's butt.
     If you are already holding something in your hand, you can keep it there and smack into other piles of whatever & make it LOOK as if you're scooping something up, but really aren't, and the only thing actually in your hand at the end that you actually stick in your mouth is what you picked up in the first place:  A tootsie-roll, a bit of chocolate biscuit, etc.
     It would have been far more convincing if she had actually stuck her hand beneath the dog.  That isn't what she does.  She's waving her hands all around the area where the dog is sitting in a distracting fashion.
     Divine doesn't actually pick up a "Pile" of ANYTHING -- There's only that one little bit of "something" that she chews at and spits out & makes a big deal about getting nauseous over -- Fake nausea being a recurring theme in ALL of Waters' movies from Crybaby to you-name-it.
     I watched it again and it still looks like sleight of hand to me --
     Any actual stage magicians out there care to comment?
     And, yes, OF COURSE Waters & Co. all still insist it was for real -- It's a great story!!  It's a story that first helped seal Waters' reputation.
     I've been reading about the doggy-doo eating since 1969, and somehow the story changes slightly & gets a bit better each time.  In his earlier interviews, Waters never says the poo-eating was real.  What he says instead is that "we were young!" and out to shock.  I know he succeeded, but the whole story about Divine claiming to have gotten hepatitis from it, etc., cannot be found in any older interview, only newer ones.
peter sceptic/denny skeptic