From Trash to Hollywood: The Cinematic Journey of John Waters
There is nothing conventional about John Waters. He’s a writer, columnist, stand-up comedian, social commentator, artist, advocate for gay rights, obsessed with crime, and lover of the perverse. Most importantly, he is an independent, transgressive filmmaker who successfully transitioned from cult, underground trash films to commercially successful Hollywood films while keeping the many unique, fun, and humorous elements pioneered in his earlier work.
Transgressive artists want to outrage our basic sensibilities, forcing us to confront what we would never wish to engage in. In cinema, these artists include Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, and Russ Meyer, all of whom were significant influences on John Waters.
John Waters made his first film, “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket”, in 1964; a seventeen-minute black and white film about the wedding ceremony of a black man in a garbage can to a white ballerina; someone from the Ku Klux Klan conducted the ceremony. His first film indicates what was to follow for Waters and is a prime example of how he liked to subvert what we knew. The inclusion of the poor black man stereotype, perpetuated by him living in a garbage can, isn’t saying that’s where black men belong; it’s showing the idiocy of it. In contrast, the fears of white women across the U.S.A. at the time of black men were perpetuated by the white ballerina, wanting in on that trash can life. It’s then topped off by the marriage of the two, conducted by a Klansman, symbolising the hatred towards the black man and the whites who integrate with them. It’s no surprise that racism was a theme in his first film; it's something he has consistently fought against and became the central theme to his first truly commercial film, “Hairspray”. “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket” cast consisted of Waters's friends, including Mary Vivian Pearce, who would appear in most of Waters's other films. It was the start of the “Dreamlanders”.
The “Dreamlanders” are the regular cast and crew Waters uses in his films. The original Dreamlanders were all close friends of his from Baltimore, some growing up with him, others being local personalities with virtually no experience in acting. The most recognisable Dreamlander was Waters’ boyhood friend and muse, Glenn Milstead, better known as the grotesque, incredibly talented female impersonator Divine. Excluding his early shorts and “Desperate Living” (written for Divine, but he was performing in a play at the time), Milstead appeared in all of John Waters’ films until his death. Other original Dreamlanders include David Lochery, Mink Stole, Patricia Hearst, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller.
What Waters achieved with his Dreamlanders was a sense of tribal belonging and communal storytelling. By using the same people, all from Baltimore, where all the films were set and made, Waters could create stories cheaply and in a unique style heavily influenced by the genres and filmmakers he loved. At the heart of the films, the characters were all birthed from the Dreamlanders and their beloved Baltimore. They took pride in being filthy; they loved to offend the powers that be and went to the most extraordinary lengths to do so, as illustrated by the final scene of “Pink Flamingoes”. The scene is tacked onto the end, like an afterthought, and has nothing to do with the film's story except, as they so proudly state, confirming that Divine is the filthiest person in the world. A small dog shits on the pavement, Divine picks it up and eats it. No cuts, no pans, one shot from the moment the dog shits to the moment Divine eats it, then proudly displays the contents in his mouth.
From that scene, Waters gained notoriety, and “Pink Flamingoes” is widely regarded as John Waters' breakthrough film. Its scenes of a chicken being fucked, a mother (played by Divine) giving her son a blowjob, a man fluctuating the size of his anus and characters whose goals (to be the filthiest people at any cost) were deemed morally reprehensible by society. “Pink Flamingoes” pushed more boundaries than any other film at the time, and perhaps there’s a plausible argument that none have done so since. Often verging on pornography, filmed simply with wide shots, two and single shots with little if any camera movement, the film was in the viewer's face, forcing them to either be revolted by what they witnessed or fall over laughing at the tenacity at which Waters presented the grotesque and the love that he did it with.
Waters made two more films to complement “Pink Flamingoes”, “Female Trouble”, and “Desperate Living”, which he called his Trash Trilogy. They were made cheaply with the Dreamlanders in the now-expected John Waters style of contrived dialogue, simple camera work, over-the-top acting, and in-your-face, grotesque, absurd and confronting humour. Waters didn’t want his audience lost in the character’s journey; there was no realism, so everything had to feel very manufactured. In 1981, his work became so popular he got the largest film budget he’d ever received, enabling him to shoot on 35mm for the first time and make his first studio film, “Polyester”.
Although “Polyester” starred Divine and most of the Dreamland crew, it was a considerable leap for Waters, as it vastly differed from any other film he had made. “Polyester” was not as obviously confronting as his previous films, and the increased production values, use of cinematographers, production designers and other behind-the-camera roles made the film feel more polished, angering the die-hard Waters fans. But it was a journey into suburbia, a place of infinite interest for Waters and perhaps even more confronting for those who were actually from there. Although the film was more polished, with moments like a love scene between Divine and former heartthrob Tad Hamilton and Edith Massey in a starring role with her false delivery of dialogue, Waters retained his irreverence and over-the-top style.
John Waters hit true commercial success with his next film, completing his journey into mainstream cinema. 1988 saw the release of “Hairspray”, a PG-rated movie starring Ricki Lake in her first of many roles for Waters, about an overweight teenage girl obsessed with looking good and being popular but unaccepted by white society while being accepted by segregated people of colour. Acceptance, being its social, physical, and racial theme, and catchy sixties tunes and dances, helped the film find a new audience: teenage girls. This audience equals acceptance by Hollywood and money in the bank. John Waters’ and his muse Divine’s star rose, and mainstream fame beckoned. Three weeks after the release of “Hairspray”, Divine, aka Glenn Milstead, passed away.
Water’s next film, the musical “Cry Baby”, was again aimed at this audience. Released in 1990 and starring the television heart heartthrob wanting to break that stereotype, Johnny Depp in the all-singing, all-dancing bad boy lead role. Although aimed at teenage girls, true to the Waters style, the story rebelled against social norms and included class wars, teen pregnancy, drugs and alcohol. He also cast teen porn star Tracey Lords in a lead role while hiding her from the FBI for being under-aged in adult movies against her will years prior and punk icon Iggy Pop.
In 1994, John Waters achieved peak mainstream filmmaking intertwined with his outsider mentalities with the release of “Serial Mom”, an R-rated comedy about a suburban mother who’s secretly a serial killer. Initially written for Divine, Kathleen Turner landed the lead role over Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close and Julie Andrews. With that sort of star power and studio backing, how could it fail? Despite the critical response leaning more towards it being enjoyed, with a thirteen million dollar budget, the film only returned eight million dollars, making it a huge flop. Waters would continue making studio films but never to the success or notoriety of what had come before.
The early 2000s saw a resurgence in the interest in Waters’ work but not from the film community. His movie “Hairspray” was adapted into a stage musical that took the world by storm. It wasn’t long before the musical adaptation was adapted into another film with Hollywood heavy hitters in all roles, including a cross-dressing John Travolta in a fat suit. A few years later, “Cry Baby” was adapted into a stage musical. John Waters’ “filth” was hitting an all-new generation and subculture; he didn’t need to do anything except sit back and receive royalty cheques.
The mid-2000s saw Waters’ films return to his transgressional roots. The film “A Dirty Shame”, released in 2004, has Johnny Knoxville in the lead. Knoxville starred in the TV series and movies “Jackass”. The Jackass series, and many other productions like it, in my opinion, owe their existence to John Waters. Jackass is about shocking the audience; it’s grotesque, dangerous, stupid and about doing things most people wouldn’t ever do to extract some form of reaction from its audience, just like Divine eating dog shit from the pavement.
As he aged, John Waters continued to push the envelope of what is acceptable to society with the video “Kiddie Flamingoes” in 2015, about children reading the script for Water’s groundbreaking “Pink Flamingoes” at a table-read. As of the publication of this article, John Waters is in preproduction with a film called “Liarmouth: A Feel Bad Romance” starring the popularly weird Aubrey Plaza. Its short synopsis states: “Marsha Sprinkle is a suitcase thief, scammer and master of disguise. Everybody hates her, and even her own family wants her dead.” It's not the kind of story one would expect to see in a film unless it's written and directed by John Waters.
