The Cockettes

Perhaps I was expecting more from the documentary. Don't get me wrong, it captures the era and the craziness of the time, but sometimes it goes flat. A little more gay wit should have helped here. The directors have captured the idea behind the Cockettes in their heyday in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, behind the happy facade of the parties, the theatre performances, we never get to really know most of the people who created the scene.

The main character, and the "mother" of the Cockettes, Hibiscus, is an enigma. He's obviously so high on LSD and other drugs of the period to make any sense at all. Hisbiscus did have a vision, but carrying it to the stage was another story. Most of the skits kind of fall flat. I guess that in order to have appreciated the group at the Palace Theatre in San Francisco in its prime would have required tons of acid to view what went onstage as probably Hibiscus conceived it.

The people that survived the Cockettes talk to the camara and tells us what it was like. It's great seeing the survivors as they look now and they looked then. Director John Waters is very effective in telling us his part of the story. The fabulous Devine, who only appears briefly in the film is a welcome distraction since she was the queen of all queens!

The Cockettes were way ahead of their time. When you see today's drag queens, they pale in comparison to that group which were probably the idea for most of the ones around today.

Go see it and enjoy a bygone time that will never be able to capture again.

The Times fashion insert on Aug. 17 contained a story on Hibiscus, from his first blush of fame as the young guy sticking the flower in the rifle of the National Guardsman in the famous pic taken at the anti-war rally in Washington up to his death 20 years ago. Interviews with his sister and brother as well. Fascinating read.

Although I lived in San Francisco from 1961 to 1966 and saw a few great "Drag Shows" there was nothing to compare to the Cockettes. I'm not sure I would have gone to see this show at the Palace, although some friends might have talked me into it.. and saying that I would never have gone back to see them again. I rated this movie for the nostalgia. Living just off of the Height-Ashbury-Filmore district we often went down to Height St. To watch the beginning of the Flower-children movement and we were always entertained. Great small food places opened up and you could go Cajun , East Indies, Jamaican, Russian, Jewish, etc and the armosphere was great. The best Drag shows in town were at Finocchio's, the Black Cat, and the Gilded Cage. If I remember right Charles Pierce 'Torch Song Trilogy' ( who passed away in 1999, in a town named Toluca Lake Calif). He was the reighning 'Queen Of Drag', and he did a smash-up job of Betty Davis, Tahlulah Bankhead and many more , we all loved him, Bit** that she was. So, I know I have drifted, but had to inject the lagit shows in S.F.

As the New York critics said of the Cockettres, "anyone can drop acid and get up on stage and wiggle there as*, show their private parts, sing off tune and wear women's clothes, but a good Revue this does not make.

So 4 stars for reminding me of all the great times I had in good old San -Francisco-by-the-bay- don't call it Frisco, and you do not wear white after labor day. Herb Cain, Count DeMarco , the fog, trolley's , what a great time............ ciao yaaah69

Documentary about a late 1960s-early 1970s San Francisco theatre group called the Cockettes. They all lived together in a commune and were quite a mix...gay, straight, bi, men, women. They all wore incredible, colorful costumes (most of the guys were in drag) and put on musicals that were very mean, vicious, explicitally sexual...and hilarious!

This is a truly incredible movie about an unjustly forgotten group. The movie includes some footage of the actual stage shows they put on along with interviews of the surviving cast members. It gives a view of the 1960s in San Francisco that I've never seen. Just absorbing from the word go. A must see!

Highlight--their parody of Tricia Nixon's wedding is hysterical.

See it!!!!!

This film aptly tries to place the cockettes at the burgeoning of the gay sexual revolution. Apt, since other "revolutions" were in full swing at the time. But, as the film suggests itself, most of what they did was old hat to the rest of the world, that is, New York.

Most of these guys, and few gals, were just a bunch of talentless gays that wanted to take drugs, screw and make jerks of themselves on stage (Mick Jagger are you listening?). The few "talented" ones did make a mediocre impact on the arts, but for the most part the phenomenon was forgettable.

Amazingly, the cockette phenomenon lives on as the "Midnight Rocky Horror Show" crowd.

If you want to see the (mostly) gay side of the sex, drug era as pertains to the theatrical "arts", this is an amusing excursion.