Product Details

• Actors: John Waters, Sonny Bono, Friends of Dean Martinez
• Directors: Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
• DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007
• Run Time: 73 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000S0GYP2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #28,631 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Christian Science Monitor - June 1st, 2007

"One-of-a-kind documentary... A startlingly funny portrait of Gothic Americana."

Product Description

Fabulously offbeat and refreshingly upbeat, this lovable film gets friendly with the natives of the Salton Sea an inland ocean of massive fish kills, rotting resorts, and 120 degree nights located just minutes from urban Southern California. This award-winning film from directors Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer details the rise and fall of the Salton Sea, from its heyday as the "California Riviera" where boaters and Beach Boys mingled in paradise to its present state of decaying, forgotten ecological disaster. From wonderland to wasteland, PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA captures a place far more interesting than the shopping malls and parking lots of suburban America, a wacky world where a beer-swilling Hungarian Revolutionary, a geriatric nudist, and a religious zealot building a monument to God all find solace and community.

Crisply and hilariously narrated by oddball auteur John Waters, and featuring music by desert lounge rockers Friends of Deans Martinez, PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA melds high camp with stark realism, offering both a sobering message about the consequences of tampering with nature and a heart-warming tale of individualism.

DVD Features: Audio Commentaries with Filmmakers and Salton Sea Locals; Lost Interviews; Deleted Scenes; LEONARD & THE MOUNTAIN Short Film; MIRACLE IN THE DESERT Real Estate Promotional Film; FRUIT OF THE VINE Vignette on the Salton Sea Skateboarding Scene; LSD A GO GO Short Film; CONSUMING FIRE Music Shot at the Salton Sea; Filmmaker Biographies; Short Film on Friends of Dean Martinez

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre and educational!! A strange place in the California desert, April 15, 2008

By	Nathan Andersen "film lover, philosophy profe... (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a rarity -- a film about an (apparent) ecological disaster and the strange and remarkable and funny stories and lifestyles that built themselves around it. The Salton Sea was created in about 1905 when the Colorado River was diverted to irrigate farms nearby and the runoff formed a lake in the Salton Sink, just 20 miles off the coast of Palm Springs. In the '50s it was promoted aggressively as a tourist spot and real estate boomed -- but then due to a number of factors (including the fact that excessive heat in the summer kills off hundreds of thousands of fish every year, leaving a bad smell) the Sea was mostly abandoned -- leaving only the hardy and stubborn, and many of them are cool and odd ducks: a former Hungarian revolutionary named Hunky Dory; an old man who likes to let it all hang out; the game warden; the real estate mogul who expects the boom to come soon; families who have come to escape inner city L.A.

The film does an excellent job providing a portrait of the wildlife (both human and otherwise) that surrounds the sea, and catalogues the contradictory reasons why they stay -- it is funny, poignant, bizarre and engaging, and the narration by John Waters hits just the right tone. It dispells some of the many myths that surround the Salton Sea (the fish are NOT poisonous, the lake is NOT toxic -- birds die from the bacteria that come to eat the fish that die because of a lack of oxygen in the salty water when it gets very hot) -- but perhaps more importantly exposes the existence of this strange and remarkable place, a testament simultaneously to our lack of foresight and to our ingenuity in making the best of unforeseen circumstances. The style of the film is spot-on -- with music and titling and other effects that give the film a retro-California-in-the-'50s feel.

If you've caught this doc on cable and enjoyed it, you ought to check out the dvd -- which is expanded a bit over the tv version: it includes more on the local life, is a bit more "salty," and definitely more memorable.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, July 8, 2007

By	Beachhead (Oceanside, CA) - See all my reviews

I just saw this documentary on Independent Film Channel and it blew me away! I never knew about the Salton Sea until now. A place I'll have to see for myself. A failed utopia in the typical progress happy colors of the 50's and 60's turned into a stinking body of water with the hollow walls of those hotels and stores from those better days as hurting reminders how perfect it once was. This film expplains how it came into existence and why it went downhill. The focus is also on the people who live there today and how they deal with the masses of rotting fish and dying birds which die in the sea every summer...and about the hope the people still have for the old times to return one day...
Great music by Friends Of Dean Martinez and narrated by John Waters.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie!, December 25, 2007

By	Kris Murphey (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great overview of the Salton Sea history and culture. The people there will stay in your mind and you may find yourself drawn down for a visit! Excellent music and use of photographs, and narration from John Waters. I've seen it a dozen times and still love it.