Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.0

Pink Flamingos Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 8, 2022

John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include new program with John Waters and Jim Jarmusch; two archival audio commentaries; new featurette about the shooting locations in the Baltimore area; outtakes; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The kindest summation I can provide for John Waters’ Pink Flamingos would be this: a strikingly repulsive cinematic experiment meant to test the viewer’s tolerance for human depravity. But was this the intent behind Pink Flamingos? To test rather than provoke and scandalize, and definitely not to glorify human depravity? I am unsure. I have seen some very strange claims over the years suggesting that Pink Flamingos was conceived as an exceptionally dark piece of satire, but I have never been able to detect its sense of humor. What about the wit that a good piece of satire needs? I am sorry, but there isn’t even a whiff of wit in it. So, what was Waters really trying to accomplish with Pink Flamingos, then?

There isn’t a shortage of material where Waters and knowledgeable cinephiles whose opinion should matter have discussed Pink Flamingos and supposedly identified its objective. Some of this material is in archival documentaries, some in printed publications, and some is just floating in various corners of the internet. There are bits of truth in it, but the bulk of it, including the one where Waters addresses Pink Flamingos in great detail, can be pretty surreal because it describes a film that does not exist. So, the value of this material is primarily in its description of what Pink Flamingos could have been had Waters given it some sort of a structure and a few decent targets to hit. After all, a good piece of satire always needs targets and plenty of wit, an awareness of the time and socio-cultural environment it plans to connect with, too.

Sadly, I don't believe that any of these crucial qualities that are needed for an extreme creation like Pink Flamingos to appear at least somewhat legit were part of Waters' original blueprint. Could I be wrong? Of course, but this is the main reason Pink Flamingos does not look even remotely coherent. It is a collection of completely random sequences where a group of people engage in gross acts that accomplish absolutely nothing meaningful. Waters isn’t the first filmmaker to shoot gross acts that cannot be accurately described with simple words, but those before him usually justified their existence with something meaningful. Pink Flamingos does not have a message, or a basic purpose, or even an end destination to reach. It is defined by randomness and depravity that very quickly expose its amateurish nature.

The only accomplishment of Pink Flamingos remains its ability to stay uncensored and keep Waters out of trouble with various moralistic watchdogs that have been quite active over the years. There is a notorious sequence in it where two of its protagonists engage in a sex act with a chicken that slowly gets crushed between their bodies while Waters’ camera observes with a disturbing curiosity. Waters claims that the sex act isn't real and the chicken wasn't hurt, but the sequence most definitely does not feature any groundbreaking special effects. Waters’ muse, Divine, can also be seen in another utterly repulsive act involving the consumption of real dog feces.

Ultimately, Pink Flamingos fails on every possible level that you may think of while trying to assess it as a conventional, or any type of, film. Oddly enough, in 2021 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

*The current Blu-ray edition of Pink Flamingos arrives with a barf bag made of very cheap paper. Fifty years after the theatrical premiere of Pink Flamingos in Baltimore, this tiny barf bag is still a necessary addition to the viewing experience.

Pink Flamingos Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Pink Flamingos arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Pink Flamingos is presented in director John Waters' preferred aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Unlike original elements for some of Waters' other early films -- which were stored in a state-of-the-art, climate controlled vault at Warner Bros. -- the 16mm Ektachrome positive scanned for this release was kept in his attic for the past five decades, and it is the same film Waters originally hot-spliced and edited to make the movie. It was scanned at 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner at Metropolis Post in New York.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 16mm magnetic track and the twenty-fifth-anniversary-edition soundtrack.

Transfer supervisor: John Waters.
Colorist: Lee Kline/Criterion Post, New York."

I don't have any previous home video releases of Pink Flamingos in my library, so I don't have another source of reference that I could have used in our review. Also, I have never viewed the film theatrically.

My impression is that Pink Flamingos looks very healthy, so despite its apparently very difficult preservation history the visuals do not reveal any significant deterioration. However, you need to keep in mind that because of the manner in which it was shot there are still plenty of native fluctuations that affect delineation, clarity, and depth. Color balance is stable, but I think that the current grade emphasizes cyan quite a bit and gives the entire film a pretty consistent cold neon-esque modern appearance. Only towards the end some of the outdoor footage temporarily creates the impression that select primaries become better balanced. Unfortunately, in this particular area I also observed a few very unusual posterization-like effects that quickly popped up and disappeared on my screen. The most obvious ones can be seen on Divine's red dress in screencaptures # 21 and 23, but trained eyes will spot them elsewhere as well. The dynamic range of the visuals does fluctuate a bit, but the unevenness appears to be inherited. Image stability is very good. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Pink Flamingos Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The quality of the audio is quite difficult to judge because there are so many fluctuations that it is pretty much impossible to tell what was intended, what was captured by the recording equipment, and how eventually everything was transferred to the final audio mix. So, I should underscore that the dialog is very easy to follow, but balance and dynamic contrasts, if you can call them that, are all over the place. No, these are not the type of distracting dynamic spikes and drops that you would encounter on some old, badly damaged by time, and unrestored films. What I am trying to make clear is that the audio was cheaply recorded and in this particular film it is pretty uneven. There are no audio dropouts or other encoding anomalies to report.

Pink Flamingos Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - remastered original trailer for Pink Flamingos. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Divine Trash - this archival documentary was produced by Steve Yaeger in 1998. It features interviews with John Waters, Divine, producer John Pierson, Steve Buschemi, Jim Jarmusch, Paul Morrissey, and film board censor Mary Avara, amongst others. The documentary explores the purpose of 'underground cinema' and John Waters' relationship with it. In English, not subtitled. (98 min).

• John Waters and Jim Jarmusch - in this new program, John Waters and Jim Jarmusch discuss Pink Flamingos and its critical reception as well as some of the reasons it continues to polarize viewers. Also, there are some really interesting comments about the remergence of censorship. In English, not subtitled. (31 min).

• Location: Baltimore - in this new program, John Waters revisits some of the locations in the Baltimore area where Pink Flamingos was shot. In English, not subtitled. (23 min).

• Twenty-Fifth-Anniversary Footage - presented here is an archival interview with John Waters that was shot in 1997. It features scenes that were cut from the final version of Pink Flamingos. In English, not subtitled. (14 min).

• Outtakes - a collection of remastered outtakes. In English, not subtitled. (26 min).

• Commentary One - this archival audio commentary was recorded by John Waters in 1997. It initially appeared on Criterion's LD release of Pink Flamingos.

• Commentary Two - this archival audio commentary was recorded by John Waters in 2001.

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic Howard Hampton and a piece by actor and author Cookie Mueller about the making of the film from her 1990 book Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, as well as technical credits.

• Barf Bag - a cheap paper barf bag.

Pink Flamingos Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bad films are needed because they make it easier to recognize and cherish the truly great films. But there is a sea of difference between bad films and horrendous amateurish projects like John Waters' Pink Flamingos. I am sorry, but this is the naked truth. Pink Flamingos is the cinematic equivalent of that giant white canvas with a single black dot on it that someone has declared a masterpiece. If you give it a chance, it will make a fool of you, and in the most repulsive way possible, too. However, Pink Flamingos is Waters' masterpiece because as odd as it may sound it perfectly sums up the nature of his 'craft'. Criterion's Blu-ray release is sourced from a new and very healthy 4K master, which was supervised by Waters, but I think that it could have been graded better.