"The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert" - On DVD

I found this 1994 movie rather painful to watch. But first, Christopher Null at filmcritic.com summarizes the plot:

Bafflement over dragdom plays a big part of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Here we have three guys (well, two cross-dressing guys and one transsexual) from Sydney -- a cosmopolitan burg -- who trek into the Australian desert to perform their drag show at a remote resort which may not be quite so wise to the ways of the cross-dresser.

If you're unfamiliar with the cast, it might shock you: Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce have become some of cinema's most burly men, Terence Stamp -- as transsexual Bernadette Bassenger -- is perhaps the scariest, most masculine man alive. (Never mind his costume in Superman II.) And that's perhaps what gives Priscilla such lasting charm. Contrary to a lot of gay cinema, here we have three straight guys taking the lead roles, playing characters confused, conflicted, and desperate for acceptance. But all three men are exceptional in their roles. Stamp is the standout, his thick, deep voice a wild contrast to his difficult physical transformation into a woman; Weaving as the drag queen with a couple of deeply buried secrets; Pearce as the most obvious stereotype of the bunch, yet utterly convincing you that he's completely and utterly gay (what with the stage name Felicia Jollygoodfellow).

Structurally, the movie is a road trip. Their pink bus (painted to cover up epithets scrawled on it during an early stop) breaks down frequently, giving them time to hobnob with desert locals and find little but blank stares and sometimes violence in response to their cabaret act. The girls don't seem to mind. They're used to persecution, and they soldier on to their destination, wearing one outrageous "frock" after another (one composed solely from flip-flops helped earn the film a best costume design Oscar), and playing a heap of disco to faux-croon to.

The film is fun, and though it offers a few platitudes on tolerance, mostly it's a showcase for one outrageous set piece after another. The movie's easy to like, but difficult to truly appreciate, which is probably one reason why it's become a camp classic on a scale with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

My issues:

• I was taken aback by just how bitchy the drag queens were. Being trapped with these folks, in a bus, day after day, would be a claustrophobic nightmare;
• I was also taken aback how oblivious to danger the drag queens were, particularly facing the deserts of Australia's interior. Deserts move to their own, slower, rhythm of life, and they do not care how much lip gloss you have on. When Bernadette reacts to news of the bus' breakdown in the cruel heart of the Lake Eyre Basin with a tired, bitchy bleat to Tick about how he'd better get the bus running or he'll be in real trouble, I just shook my head. Hello? Earth to drag queens? Please pay attention to your surroundings! You are not in Sydney!
• The dancing was, unfortunately, quite dreadful. Can we get just a little more effort, please?

The fun parts:

• The part about the Asian mail-order bride trapped in the Outback, and her unfortunate addiction to popping ping pongs over the heads of raucous barroom crowds, was so bizarre, I will always treasure it;
• The Australian Frilled Lizard-inspired gowns were truly spectacular!

The pain for me generally involved the hard desert and the hard fringe life of the drag queens, and their adventure in plunging into the hard heart of Australia, and, despite the treacle, coming back, it seemed to me, even harder.