The controversial film John Waters said “ended underground movies”
You never know what you’re going to be in for when you press play on a John Waters movie. For the faint of heart, most of the filmmaker’s work should probably be avoided, especially if you don’t want to see a drag queen place real dog shit in his mouth or a man eating his own vomit. Waters has always taken on the challenge of making films that truly shock audiences, resulting in his reputation as one of cinema’s most controversial directors.
Waters’ oeuvre is an interesting one. He made his first feature film (featuring sound) in 1970, Multiple Maniacs, which was a bold and stomach-turning exercise in provocation and experimentation. The film became popular on the underground circuit, which was then followed by Pink Flamingos, his most well-known movie. Waters left no holds barred, depicting the pure depravity of humanity through his bizarre and larger-than-life characters. It was full of humour as much as it was jam-packed with pure insanity and violence, helping Waters to be known as one of cinema’s great enfant terribles.
After making several more low-budget, experimental works like Female Trouble and Desperate Living, Waters made Polyester, which featured Hollywood star Tab Hunter. While the movie was still shocking and even came with a scratch-and-sniff card containing scents like vomit and skunk, it contained the first rumblings of Waters heading into the mainstream.
It took seven years for him to make his next film, Hairspray, which is considerably more accessible. It is still a strange and hilarious film, but it is devoid of the grotesqueness that defined Waters’ earlier work. Since then, he has made movies with more mainstream casts, like Cry-Baby and Serial Mom, predominantly working with New Line Cinema. Although Waters slightly went back to his roots with A Dirty Shame, he has not made anything purely depraved and stomach-turning since the 1970s.
Of course, this was to be expected as Waters got older and began receiving offers to work with bigger budgets, allowing him to bring more of his ideas to life. Yet, the cinematic landscape also changed, with explicit and shocking content no longer being relegated to the underground. Waters’ early films weren’t given age ratings because they weren’t widely distributed in mainstream theatres, and with a lack of censorial codes to go by, he was able to make his films as provocative as he liked.
Yet, there came a time when hardcore sex and violence were allowed to be shown more widely. Waters cites the end of underground movies occurring in 1972, when a certain pornographic film changed everything. Talking to Flashback Files, the filmmaker said, “I was deliberately trying to surprise. And I was trying to make people laugh at the fact that they could be shocked by anything. In 1972, when Pink Flamingos came out – it was made in the fall of 1971 – Deep Throat had become legal. That was a huge thing. It sort of ended underground movies, because you could show anything.”
Deep Throat was one of the first mainstream pornographic films, where a plot allowed it to be seen by some critics as a proper film worthy of merit. It was viewed by many, grossing over $1million upon its release. Due to the fact that Deep Throat was popular, Waters was left wondering how to maintain his status as a provocateur. “So, I was asking myself: What can’t I do? What is illegal still? What would shock hippies?”
Waters maintained his status as a shocking filmmaker for years after, but he soon moved from the underground circuit and embraced the mainstream – or his odd version of it.
