Full Title: Pink Flamingos
Director: John Waters
Year: 1972
Comments: Now, I’ve seen my fair share of sick movies, but this “exercise in poor taste” brings disgusting comedies to a whole new level. Waters places his viewers amongst a sea of vile characters, and adimittedly this is style over substance. Drag Queen, Divine fights with her criminally insane counterparts, Connie and Raymond Marble for the title of “the filthiest person alive” and will stop at anything and I mean anything to wear the crown; in the ninety or so minutes of this film, wild, campy, cinematic fringe entertainment (depraved humor and chaos) ensues! Particularly I love the look of the film: trashy, video, stock footage vibes, as if you are viewing The Mansons Family’s home movies. This look has clearly influenced Justin Kelly’s work in the Hunx videos. All in all just a terrific peek into a bizarre, warped world, most of us would never dare to enter. Hilarious, stupid, vomit inducing, but best of all original. I recommend this to anyone that wants to see an offensive, off the wall, no holds barred comedy.
Grade: A-
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 
The Manson Family’s home movies? Pink Flamingos was Waters’ first in colour and second with sound. His first “talkie” is inspired by the Manson family. In fact, Multiple Maniacs was made before the identities of the Tate and LaBianca killers were known, and this movie suggested that Divine and her “Cavalcade of Perversions” was behind the killings. Waters is known for his Manson fixation. In “Desperate Living” there’s graffiti reading “Free Squeaky Fromme” in Mortville where most of this movie takes place. He also was interested in the Symbionese Liberation Army, another symbol of the late ’60s and ’70s and got Patty Hearst to be in one of his later movies. Both an SLA-linked woman and Fromme were both accused of trying to kill President Ford within two weeks of each other in the autumn 1975…
Waters these days has showed regrets for not so much his Manson obsession, having attended the trials personally, but his exploiting of this, as he tried to have one of the killers released on parole. He believes that Leslie Van Houten has earned another chance.
Squeaky Fromme by the way was released last year. Sara Jane Moore, the other convicted of trying to kill Ford two weeks later, was released a couple of years sooner.
Yeah, I’m well aware of all this, that was just a joke. He was a Charles “Tex” Watson fan, so to speak and I believe he visited him in prison.