Pink Flamingos

UPC: 794043751622

Studio: New Line Home Video

MPAA Rating: NC17   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children, Scatological Humor]

Summary: Renegade filmmaker and noted aficionado of expressive bad taste John Waters exploded into international infamy with this darkly comic, no-budget parade of the perverse (his third feature film, and first in color), in which plus-size cross-dresser Divine stars as Babs Johnson, a flashy criminal on the lam from the FBI who is hiding out in a trailer outside of Baltimore, MD. Accompanying Babs are her mother (Edith Massey), an obese and dim-witted woman who is malignly obsessed with eggs; her degenerate son, Crackers (Danny Mills); and Cotton (Mary Vivian Pierce), Babs' duplicitous "traveling companion" and Crackers' co-conspirator in unwholesome erotic play. While Babs would prefer to be left in peace, she takes great pride in her status as "the Filthiest Person Alive" (an honor confirmed by one of America's sleazier tabloid newspapers), and when Connie and Raymond Marble (Mink Stole and David Lochary) announce their plans to take the title away from her, Babs is not about to stand idly by. The Marbles are a hateful couple who kidnap women, force their homosexual manservant, Channing (Channing Wilroy), to impregnate them, and sell the babies to lesbian couples found unfit for legal adoption; the Marbles then turn the profits back into pornography and narcotics trafficking. Impressive stuff, to be sure, but Babs is not about to take a back seat to anyone in a battle of filth, and when the Marbles throw down the gauntlet, Babs and her family retaliate in a no-holds-barred battle to determine who truly are "the Filthiest People Alive." Featuring murder, bestiality, rape, dismemberment, coprophagia, a dizzying variety of sexual perversions, and a performance of "Papa Oom Mow Mow" you will not soon forget, Pink Flamingos is nonetheless a comedy, and a surprisingly successful one; shot on a budget of only 12,000 dollars, the film has grossed close to ten million dollars around the world, and its success launched John Waters into a career as America's leading authority on poor taste. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Features: ccDeleted scenes with introduction by John Waters
Audio commentary by John Waters
Theatrical trailer

Pink Flamingos

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 06/14/2005

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DS Dolby Surround (4.0), 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 108 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Main Titles [3:28]
2. Home Sweet Trailer [1:48]
3. Connie Marble [2:56]
4. Crackers Takes Babs Downtown [5:15]
5. The Pit [2:41]
6. Shoplifting [4:05]
7. Raymond Marble [2:20]
8. Cookie's Appointment [2:50]
9. The Chicken Fuck [4:51]
10. The Egg Man [2:04]
11. Artificial Insemination [3:21]
12. Shrimping [4:21]
13. The Turd Is in the Mail [6:55]
14. The Servant at Play [5:28]
15. O Happy Day! [6:28]
16. The Birthday Party [3:02]
17. The Flasher [1:14]
18. The Curse [2:53]
19. The Blow Job [2:59]
20. The Castration [4:23]
21. The Trailer Burning [3:03]
22. The Couch That Rejects [4:27]
23. The Press Conference [5:31]
24. Convicted of Assholism [2:45]
25. Boise, Idaho, Get Ready! [1:36]
26. Dog Shit [1:19]
27. John Waters' Introduction [:26]
28. Bab's Diary [:18]
29. Get Her Pregnant! [:50]
30. Mirror Mirror [:12]
31. The Cover of Midnight [1:46]
32. Freddie and Joanne [:48]
33. The Marbles' Early Raid [1:14]
34. Patty Hitler [1:02]
35. Strange Nudity [:23]
36. Cunt Eyes [2:02]
37. Rub, Touch and Feel [:49]
38. Connie's Rant and Haircut [:47]
39. Inkpay Amingosflay [:20]
40. Original Theatrical Trailer [2:16]
41. End Credits [1:34]

Mark Deming

Punk rock was, among many other things, a call for democratization of popular culture, a declaration that music was something nearly anyone could do if they found the calling, and in many respects, John Waters' Pink Flamingos was a bid to do the same thing for cinema. Pink Flamingos looks like a slightly overgrown home movie, the acting runs from pretty good to one step above junior high drama club, the score is not only comprised of a variety of obscure oldies but obviously dubbed from aged 45's (complete with scratches), and the screenplay has more than its share of holes. But despite it all, Pink Flamingos works, generally because Waters' smart and subversive comic ideas refuse to be held down by the primitive technical means at his disposal. Waters subscribed to the notion that if you had ideas and a camera, then you could be a filmmaker, and never let it be said that John Waters was ever short on great ideas. Waters is not afraid to go for the gross-out (indeed, it's his raison d'?tre), and Pink Flamingos is his most spectacularly rude film, but his bad taste is at once strange and positively ornate compared to the juvenile teen flick ickyness that would come to dominate film comedy in the 1990s; nearly three decades after it was released, Pink Flamingos' most spectacular moments still inspire a puzzled "What was that?" from first-time viewers. And just as Waters believed anyone with the ideas and the wherewithal could be a filmmaker, the best members of his cast -- Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole, and Edith Massey -- were "movie stars" waiting to happen, and if they're a bit short on technique, they've got enthusiasm and personality to spare. Most reviews of Pink Flamingos focus on the film's ultra-black humor and dizzying bad taste, but what truly makes the film special is John Waters' unexpectedly intelligent and idiosyncratic humor, and his liberating willingness to try anything in the name of filmmaking; he may have made better movies, but he never stated this position on bad taste and stubborn independence with more gleeful vehemence than here. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Cookie Mueller  Actor 
Bob Adams  Actor 
Pat Moran  Actor 
George Figgs  Actor 
Susan Walsh  Actor 
Paul Swift  Actor 
Ed Peranio  Actor 
Jack Walsh  Actor 
Channing Wilroy  Actor 
Linda Olgeirson  Actor 
Steve Yeager  Actor 
John Waters  Director 
John Waters  Producer 
John Waters  Screenwriter 
Divine  Actor 
David Lochary  Actor 
Mink Stole  Actor 
Mary Vivian Pearce  Actor 
Edith Massey  Actor 
Danny Mills  Actor 

Country: USA