s is one of the most iconic members of the cult film industry, an image he has, as Greg Varner suggests in "John Waters: The Finger on the Pulse" suggest, intentionally cultivated. "Hairspray" is one of his most memorable films, and with a PG rating, one of his most family and general audience friendly. It is the story of a heavy young girl by the name of Tracy Turnblatt, who wishes to be a dancer on The Corny Collins Show. This dream, as it turns out, is shared by the African American kids in town as well, and as Turnblatt gains popularity on the show, she also becomes a primary spokesperson for integration. Fighting again racist studio heads and pampered beauty queens, she wins the hearts of Baltimore and helps bring equality to the show.
The Corny Collins Show, according to Polar Levine in "Hairspray's Revolting History: the Invisible Star of the Show Behind The New Movie", was structured around the real life Buddy Dean Show. The host of the real show, Buddy Dean "was very conscious of his ro
le in the community and apparently was not opposed to integrating the show" (Levine). This is clearly reflected in the film with Corny constantly fighting with the studio executive
about segregation and repeating very similar lines to those rumored to have been spoken by Dean, including "the kids don't care if the black kids dance on the show". Dean realized the power of the show and sought to use it for what he saw as social good.
Past this point in the film, as Pauline Kael wrote in "The Current Cinema: God's Pickpockets", "[the film] makes no claim to realism -- or to absurdism either". "Hairspray" is a John Waters film with all its flamboyant charm, that just happens to be based on real events witnessed by Waters. It is ultimately, a comedy about the social issues of the early 1960s. As Richard Corliss writes in "Buxom Belles in Baltimore: HAIRSPRAY", the film has "no teen realism, just a romp through the pastel homes and matching mother-daughter outfits of a more naive era". Segration seems to be, in Water's eyes, something equivalent to an embracing story someone might try to use against him one day. His best deterrent for this, which was revealed in "John Waters" an interview by Dennis Cooper, "you make fun of it, and you learn to live with it and accept it. That's maturity. If you can make fun of your worst night, you will survive everybody". Hairspray is essentially his way of offering the United States a way of making fun of our embarrassing history so it cannot be held against us.
The film itself, while wildly comedic, uses visual symbols to get many of its points across. According to Renee R. Curry in "Hairspray: the Revolutionary Way to Restructure and Hold Your History" the best visual embodiments come when "Waters deploys dance and hair as revolutionary communication vehicles". The freedom Tracy has in dancing gives her popularity, which ultimately provides the basis for her pardon from the governor, which literally frees her from the reform school. Dance also gives her the opportunity to be herself and speak freely about desegregation. As Curry also points out, Turnblatt's "half-blonde, half brunette do, which on the television screen appears black and white, displays a vivid transitional symbol". Waters' film is very colorful, but it was no mistake that his heroine's hair appeared in the starkly contr
asting colors on black and white television screens. To Baltimore, she became the face of desegregation, because she was white and therefore allowed to be on television. Despite the fact that there were crowds of African Americans protesting at Corny Collins Show Events, they were kept off-screen and therefore not provided as visual symbols of the movement to the viewers.
Since the 1988 film, "Hairspray" has been turned into a Broadway Musical and the into another film, this time a musical rendition. Waters' other film, "Cry Baby" has enjoyed similar flattery by being turned into a Broadway Musical as well. Waters
reflected his success in "John Waters" an interview by Gary Indiana, by saying "I learned a long time ago that people like my work because I praise things that others don't like." With his films often times being overly sexual in weird or obscure fashions, and many being overly theatrical, this assessment must have some shred of truth.
Vocabulary: "Coprophagous"
In "Buxom Belles in Baltimore: HAIRSPRAY" Richard Corliss wrote "Waters has made eleven of his pictures, from the coprophagous comedy "Pink Flamingos" to the all-stinking "Polyester" (filmed in Odorama), in his home town.
"Coprophagous" is defined by dictionary.com as "feeding on dung".
After reading about "Pink Flamingos", I understand this as a literal reference to the actions of one of the characters, who eats dog poop.
I thought it was so interesting that he truly enjoys his films being made into Broadway shows and advocates for them to be turned into operas. I know a lot of the time, filmmakers or scriptwriters or novelists or whoever absolutely hate when Broadway gets hold of their work (or when filmmakers get hold of their work, in a lot of cases, but that's not the point here). The general consensus among people who are not fans of Broadway seems to be that if it's a Broadway show, it can't be taken seriously, especially if it's a musical. What's less serious than people randomly bursting into songs about their feelings? But I think Waters understands that Broadway is a popular medium, and it also goes back to his theory that people like his stuff because he talks about things people don't like. That statement is kind of a conundrum, if you think about it. I personally think that Broadway can have a big impact on society; there are a lot of issues that are discussed in Broadway shows that I think people would otherwise not be comfortable talking about in public. I also think it's fascinating how involved Waters is in the shows based on his films. It's really cool, actually, that he's actually enthusiastic about it rather than critical, and he can play such an important role in the decision-making process but still be so unbiased.
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