dr_forbush
Joined Jun 2004
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Reviews2
dr_forbush's rating
I went to the library yesterday and ran across the John Waters movie "Hairspray." I had heard about this movie and I have heard John Waters interviewed a few times, so I thought it would be interesting to see the movie. Based on what I had heard I was prepared for some outrageous bizarre movie, or maybe a bit of schlock. I wasn't quite sure, because I never seen a John Waters movie. But he was strange in his interviews, so I thought that his work should reflect that.
I put the movie into the DVD player and I heard the "Hairspray" theme song, which didn't sound too very odd. So, I started out being surprised that the movie wasn't as bizarre as I had expected. In knew that the movie featured a strange array of actors, so I waited to see how these people came across on my TV screen. Divine, Sonny Bono, and Debbie Harry were a strange collection to start with. I had seen Divine in some other strange movie that I don't remember now. Sonny Bono is a strange character beginning with his career with Cher then moving into his conservative legislature experience. And, Debbie Harry has a small place in my heart, because she is a fellow Ohio native that I respect.
The plot of the movie is actually a typical hero triumph over evil plot. But, the rest of the movie is far from typical.
The hero of the movie is an overweight, female teen. The setting of the movie is early 1960s Baltimore. The villains in the movie are several, society in general.
But, the movie is a strange concoction of fantasy and reality. The fantasy part is that an overweight female teen is so wise to know how good should be able to put and end to racism by enabling black kids to come dance to black music on TV. She is wise enough to know that overweight couch potatoes want to watch her dance on TV so they can live their fantasy through her. She is wise enough to know that the owner of hefty women's wear store would want advertising on a teen dance show. All of these things could only be realized in a fantasy world. But the world is also exaggerated in a way that racism can be understood as fear of the unknown where the cure is clearly enlightenment. The movie frames racism as a black and white issue with an obvious solution. This is clearly a nice alternative to modern movies that embrace the reality of the gray world. I am not saying that all movies need to frame problems as black and white issues, but this is a refreshing change of pace movie.
But, the final breakthrough in this movie is the realism. Realism in a fantasy movie seems to be a contradiction, but the realism is the realism of the characters. Hairspray gives us very real characters that live in a very non-real world. Of course we have the overweight heroin. We also have the nasty habit of the heroin's sidekick who continuously takes a piece of candy out of her mouth and replaces it over and over again. The red dye of the candy has stained her fingers. We have the realism of the heroin's rival puking from riding an amusement park ride.
Hairspray may not have been the best film I ever saw, but it is a very good social commentary set in the exaggerated fantasy world of the early 1960s.
I put the movie into the DVD player and I heard the "Hairspray" theme song, which didn't sound too very odd. So, I started out being surprised that the movie wasn't as bizarre as I had expected. In knew that the movie featured a strange array of actors, so I waited to see how these people came across on my TV screen. Divine, Sonny Bono, and Debbie Harry were a strange collection to start with. I had seen Divine in some other strange movie that I don't remember now. Sonny Bono is a strange character beginning with his career with Cher then moving into his conservative legislature experience. And, Debbie Harry has a small place in my heart, because she is a fellow Ohio native that I respect.
The plot of the movie is actually a typical hero triumph over evil plot. But, the rest of the movie is far from typical.
The hero of the movie is an overweight, female teen. The setting of the movie is early 1960s Baltimore. The villains in the movie are several, society in general.
But, the movie is a strange concoction of fantasy and reality. The fantasy part is that an overweight female teen is so wise to know how good should be able to put and end to racism by enabling black kids to come dance to black music on TV. She is wise enough to know that overweight couch potatoes want to watch her dance on TV so they can live their fantasy through her. She is wise enough to know that the owner of hefty women's wear store would want advertising on a teen dance show. All of these things could only be realized in a fantasy world. But the world is also exaggerated in a way that racism can be understood as fear of the unknown where the cure is clearly enlightenment. The movie frames racism as a black and white issue with an obvious solution. This is clearly a nice alternative to modern movies that embrace the reality of the gray world. I am not saying that all movies need to frame problems as black and white issues, but this is a refreshing change of pace movie.
But, the final breakthrough in this movie is the realism. Realism in a fantasy movie seems to be a contradiction, but the realism is the realism of the characters. Hairspray gives us very real characters that live in a very non-real world. Of course we have the overweight heroin. We also have the nasty habit of the heroin's sidekick who continuously takes a piece of candy out of her mouth and replaces it over and over again. The red dye of the candy has stained her fingers. We have the realism of the heroin's rival puking from riding an amusement park ride.
Hairspray may not have been the best film I ever saw, but it is a very good social commentary set in the exaggerated fantasy world of the early 1960s.
My kids, who are great Monty Python fans found this movie at the library. Thinking that I knew about all the successful Monty Python related movies I figured that this movie must have been a sleeper. I was greatly surprised by the movie.
In my opinion this movie was much better than Time Bandits. Time Bandits was weak mainly because of the weak (or non-existent) ending. This movie had a much better conclusion. Plus, this movie also had a very strong thread running through the movie, without hitting you over the head with it.
I also enjoyed the literary references and Robin Williams as the king of the Moon. My favorite reference was when Venus came out of the giant clam. It reminded me of Kilgore Trout's "Venus on the Half Shell." (Kurt Vonegut). That was a very nice touch.
In my opinion this movie was much better than Time Bandits. Time Bandits was weak mainly because of the weak (or non-existent) ending. This movie had a much better conclusion. Plus, this movie also had a very strong thread running through the movie, without hitting you over the head with it.
I also enjoyed the literary references and Robin Williams as the king of the Moon. My favorite reference was when Venus came out of the giant clam. It reminded me of Kilgore Trout's "Venus on the Half Shell." (Kurt Vonegut). That was a very nice touch.