John Waters has always enjoyed ruffling feathers.
It’s hard to believe that John Waters’ 1972 movie would have anyone still upset, but here we are. The film stars drag queen Divine as a notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure that goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as “The Filthiest Person Alive.”
In a recent interview, Waters told Entertainment Weekly that despite Pink Flamingos achieving cult status now, it lost a bunch of legal cases then, and was deemed “obscene.”
Waters went on to tell the story, saying, “I never won [obscenity cases]. Because at midnight, Pink Flamingos is joyous, it’s exciting, the audience loves it. But if you’re sworn in on jury duty in a courthouse, sitting there next to a stranger, watching a singing asshole at 7:30 in the morning, I promise you, it is obscene. It’s all about geography. I would just plead guilty, which was a $1,000 fine, and the lawyers usually cost more than that.”
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
