BEFORE: There are THREE different documentaries that could go here - one is about Frank Sinatra, and since the original SNL cast had archive footage cameos in "Zappa", the doc about John Belushi is also eligible. Oddly all three films will link to the Bee Gees documentary tomorrow, only they don't link with each other, which is why I have to make a choice. "I Am Divine" won out because I have the Belushi doc on DVD, and the one on Sinatra isn't available any more, it scrolled off Netflix before I could get to it. Today's documentary, by contrast, is on Netflix right now, so I had better watch it before it also disappears.
Both Larry King and Regis Philbin carry over from "Zappa", via archive footage.
THE PLOT: A look at how Divine, aka Harris Glenn Milstead, became John Waters' cinematic muse and an international drag icon.
AFTER: Sometimes it seems like the only thing that our country is more divided on than mask mandates and vaccines is transgender rights - there's a whole segment of the populace that just gets freaked out by the whole issue. You mention there's a transgender person in the town next door, and the conservatives will race over there, just to make sure that people are using the "correct" bathroom and not competing on any sports teams as anything other than what they were at birth. It's a silly over-reaction, and maybe it represents the way that people used to over-react to gay people, which used to happens before they realized that they knew gay people, or had gay people in their family. I have a co-worker who used to be a woman, now he's a man, it's as simple as that, if you can get beyond the pronouns thing. (She wrote a chapter in a book that I ghost-edited, and the book's going into a second edition now, and I made sure to tell the publisher to change all his former pronouns to male or gender-neutral ones.)
I noticed that about half of the people interviewed for "I Am Divine" used male pronouns when refererring to the film's subject, but many also used female ones. I guess some people just thought of Divine as female, or he was that good of a drag queen, or else they just did that out of respect for what they thought his wishes were. But in the interviews shown here, Divine didn't want to become a woman, nor did he consider himself a transvestite - it seems he was quite content being a gay man, and dressing in drag was a job, one that made him very famous. So I wonder how Divine is regarded by the transvestite and/or trans-sexual community, do they feel he was a poser of sorts, or a respected icon, or just a guy who got paid to wear a dress in movies? Because I happen to know that some of the very same people who want to break down barriers with regards to sexual orientation and gender also maintain some rather rigid rules on what it means to be gay, or trans, or queer or whatever. At times this can be very ironic. Why can't we all just live and let live, and not put labels on everything?
That being said, it's fascinating to take a peek into the life of Harris Glenn Milstead, who dated a woman for five years, starting in high school, I guess before he figured a few things out? Was he trying to conform to society's rules, or had he just not known how to become part of the gay community? John Waters mentions that once he found other people like himself, there was no stopping him. But this also may have led to relationship problems later on, because some gay men apparently won't date a drag queen - there are those rigid rules again, just on the other side of the issue. Still, Waters also said that Divine didn't have too much trouble getting dates - he was the most famous drag queen, after all, at least until Rupaul came along. So I suppose there's some kind of distinction to be made between those who practice cross-dressing because it's a true reflection of how they feel about themselves, like, say, Eddie Izzard, and those men who put on a dress because they're getting compensated for it in some way.
(There's a LOT I don't understand about trans issues, like many questions about the mindset and the process that I wouldn't feel comfortable asking a friend about. Plus I wonder how much of this whole issue is just being trendy, and I worry about the effect on young people who are perhaps being encouraged to radically change their bodies while chasing some level of perceived newfound comfort that others seem to enjoy when they change gender. I suspect that another solution might be to learn to be more comfortable in their own bodies as is, that's a skill that could serve anyone better in the long run. But this seems to be a somewhat unpopular opinion in certain circles - we no longer ask gay people to try to act straight, right?)
Later in life, Divine was actually trying to break out of the drag queen mold, he'd already established himself as an actor playing female roles (mostly in cheapo John Waters films, but still...) and the new challenge for him would be to then transition into male roles. He was signed to have a recurring role as a male character on the show "Married...with Children", but he died shortly before filming began, it seems. He had a few male roles, like in a film called "Trouble in Mind", but the vast majority of his on-screen time was spent in drag. (I'll admit I haven't seen anything close to every John Waters movie, but come on, I've been busy, plus other movies always seem to take priority.
Of course, most people just wanted to talk about "Pink Flamingos", and that infamous scene where John Waters asked Divine to pretend to eat dog poop. The party line is that this really happened, but as a filmmaker I've always felt that there were about 18 workable ways to fake it, such as cutting to a close-up of the actor putting something that looked exactly like dog poop in his mouth. But what do I know, if I haven't seen the film? There are quite a few John Waters films I haven't seen, in fact, but I don't know if I could take all the horrible acting and those TERRIBLE pseudonyms that everyone used. "Mink Stole"? Ugh, it's horrible - that's worse than Wavy Gravy or all the bad fake names used by Zappa's musician put together.
This film also serves as sort of a documentary about John Waters' entire filmography. Sure, I could program a chain of John Waters movies, like I need to catch up on some Spike Lee movies, too, but I'm not sure I could take it, they all look like student films, with poor production values and little character development. I watched "Serial Mom" last year and "Cecil B. Demented" some time before that, I'm honestly afraid to dive any further back into his oeuvre, partially because Divine was a much better actor in his own mind than he was on camera. There, I said it.
Divine and John Waters needed each other, it was some kind of symbiotic relationship where they fed off of each other's energy, or Divine was Waters' muse, or perhaps neither one could get as far individually as they did by working together. And then when John Waters wasn't filming, Divine toured the world doing concert appearances, and then even had a few hits on the disco chart, which was a thing back in the 1970's, and thankfully qualifies this film to be part of my Big Summer Music series. (Take that, John Belushi...)
There's probably a whole psychological study that could be made of Divine, what happens when a child is spoiled by his parents, never given proper instruction on what to eat and how much to eat, and made to feel self-conscious about his appearance and activities by the bullies in high-school. As a teen he worked for a florist, and then as an adult he was a hair-stylist in the Baltimore area, then he lived in both Provincetown, MA and San Francisco for a while - I'm not sure if he just followed the gay stereotype careers or was forced into them out of necessity, but anyway, you put together all that repression and body issues and overeating and bullying, and somehow Divine comes out of all of that. I guess you can only repress some things for so long in a human before they all come exploding out, with a vengeance. Divine was disconnected from his family for many years, but eventually reconciled after they figured out his other identity, and accepted him anyway. I'm sure it's no fun to lead a double-life, but that also makes the Divine persona a bit of a superhero, in a way.
Also starring John Waters (last heard in "Serial Mom"), Tab Hunter, Ricki Lake (last seen in "Serial Mom"), Mink Stole (ditto), Lisa Jane Persky (last seen in "Great Balls of Fire!"), Mark Bauman, Lady Bear, Jackie Beat, Jay Bennett, Brenda Bergman, Beverly Bonner, Greg Day, David DeCoteau, Dennis Dermody, Alonso Duralde, John Epperson, Diana Evans, George Figgs, Guy Furrow, Allan Glaser, Greg Gorman, Helen Hanft (last seen in "I.Q."), Susan Lowe (also last seen in "Serial Mom"), Mary Vivian Pearce (ditto), Frances Milstead, Pat Moran, Michael Musto, Mark Payne, Vincent Peranio, Joan Agajanian Quinn, Robert W. Richards, Rob Saduski, Bruce Vilanch (last seen in "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"), Holly Woodlawn, Belle Zwerdling,
with archive footage of Divine, Warren Beatty (last seen in "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"), David Bowie (also carrying over from "Zappa"), Mick Jagger (ditto), Quentin Crisp, Mary Hart (last seen in "Stuck On You"), David Hockney, Bernard Jay, Elton John (last seen in "Bad Reputation"), Andy Warhol (ditto), Grace Jones, Lainie Kazan (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2"), Diane Keaton (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Jack Nicholson (ditto), Eartha Kitt, Kris Kristofferson (last seen in "Janis: Little Girl Blue"), David Lochary, Sophia Loren (last seen in "Grumpier Old Men"), Jayne Mansfield (last seen in "Kiss Them for Me"), Edith Massey, Rudolf Nureyev, Rik Ocasek, Vincent Price (last seen in "The Raven" (1963)), Van Smith, Jerry Stiller (last seen in "Zoolander 2"), Alan Thicke (last seen in "The Clapper"), Shawn Thompson, Lily Tomlin (last seen in "Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic"), Liv Ullmann (last seen in "Autumn Sonata"), Max von Sydow (last seen in "Hour of the Wolf").
RATING: 5 out of 10 perverts, maniacs and sh*tkickers
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