Hairspray (1988)
July 20th, 2007
Yes, this is the original, directed by John Carpenter. I hadn’t seen it until now. I watched it as a warmup for the current John Travolta remake.
Starring female impersonator Divine in the Travolta role and Ricki Lake as the fat girl, it’s a frothy fairy tale about Baltimore in 1962. It’s pre-Kennedy assassination, pre-Beatles, pre-Summer of love. In this fable the fat girl gets to be a regular on a teenage dance party tv show, and then she gets the guy that looks like Elvis to be her boyfriend. After that she integrates Baltimore.
This movie is a lot of fun. I hope the remake is half as good.
