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<blockquote data-quote="Professor Irony" data-source="post: 612790" data-attributes="member: 159">Pink Flamingos (1972)Must confess, I did not make it to the end of this one.John Waters's most infamous midnight movie, the story of two rival groups feuding over the right to call themselves 'the filthiest people alive', is probably best known for its notorious finale, but there is a definite appeal to it beyond sheer shock value.&nbsp; It's a film that wants to do its very best to offend you, but does so with a wink and a smile, most usually from Divine, whose camp charisma does a lot of the heavy lifting.&nbsp; I think it also catches something of its era, particularly in how the counter-culture explored freedom of expression, back before punk had a name and a clear identity.&nbsp; The then recent decriminalisation of, and briefly flourishing mainstream interest in hardcore pornography definitely colours the film, for example.Nevertheless, even nearly fifty years after its release, the film has a pretty potent idea of what would get a rise out of audiences and contains more than enough gross-out material to stop you in your tracks before you get to that scene. As one of my friends said when I mentioned it, 'it's a film that needed to be made, but not necessarily one that needs to be watched'.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Professor Irony, post: 612790, member: 159"] [B]Pink Flamingos[/B] (1972) Must confess, I did not make it to the end of this one. John Waters's most infamous midnight movie, the story of two rival groups feuding over the right to call themselves 'the filthiest people alive', is probably best known for its notorious finale, but there is a definite appeal to it beyond sheer shock value. It's a film that wants to do its very best to offend you, but does so with a wink and a smile, most usually from Divine, whose camp charisma does a lot of the heavy lifting. I think it also catches something of its era, particularly in how the counter-culture explored freedom of expression, back before punk had a name and a clear identity. The then recent decriminalisation of, and briefly flourishing mainstream interest in hardcore pornography definitely colours the film, for example. Nevertheless, even nearly fifty years after its release, the film has a pretty potent idea of what would get a rise out of audiences and contains more than enough gross-out material to stop you in your tracks before you get to [I]that[/I] scene. As one of my friends said when I mentioned it, 'it's a film that needed to be made, but not necessarily one that needs to be watched'. [/QUOTE]

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