In many ways,
Pink Flamingos is like a polished version of
Mondo Trasho, an earlier
John Waters movie. In both, the soundtrack is very important, and there are lots of scenes of a
trampy blonde walking around
Baltimore while some
60s R&B song you've never heard of plays in the background.
The characters in
Pink Flamingos are Divine's
extended family and her rivals,
the Marbles, as well as
the Egg Man, the Marbles' butler Channing, and a spy named Cookie. Divine lives in a trailer with her mother,
Mama Edie, her son
Crackers, and her 'travelling companion,'
Miss Cotton. Mama Edie lives in a playpen and is obsessed with eggs (and, consequently, with the Egg Man). Crackers spends his mental energies thinking of strange
sex shows he can put on for Cotton (that's where the chickens come in..) who is herself a
voyeur, but it's not really clear what else. The Marbles are a couple trying to steal Divine's title - '
The Filthiest Person Alive.' They run a
baby ring, sell heroin to school kids, dye their hair unnatural colors, and suck each others' toes.
Everyone who's heard of this movie is likely already aware of
the ending (mentioned above). But there are many less shocking but equally credible scenes in the movie. There's
incest,
hermaphrodites, Divine 'warming up' the night's dinner by sticking it between her legs,
cannibalism,
murder, Divine peeing on someone's lawn, Divine giving her son (for purposes of the film) a
blowjob, Channing jerking off into his hand, putting the results in an eyedropper, and squeezing it into some poor woman in order to impregnate her,
sex with chickens (which the cast later ate).. You get the point.
But personally, as shocking as this film was, I have to say what I found most shocking about it was that I was able to rent it - uncut - from Mormon-owned
Hollywood Video. Wow.