Review: PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA / Chris Meltzer & Jeff Springer (2004)
November 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks
Leonard Knight, Mountain Artist or Madman?
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004)
Written, Photographed and Directed by Chris Meltzer and Jeff Springer
Narrated by John Waters
Running Time: 73 min.
Rating: 
The Salton Sea, once billed as California’s version of the French Riviera, is a patch of land 35 miles long and 15 feet wide located fifty miles south of Palm Springs. In the 1950s, developers’ dreams of turning the Salton Sea into “Palm Springs with water” became a reality and California’s biggest lake became a booming resort town. Desi Arnaz put up a hotel and soon the rich and famous would make this sports fisherman’s paradise their choice destination. Frank Sinatra, The Marx Brothers, Linda Darnell and The Beach Boys all spent time quality time on the California Riviera.
After its brief vogue, the desert playground, “accidentally” created by an engineering error in 1905, quickly became deserted after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs. The streets now sport less businesses than the locals do teeth and the Salton Sea lives on as one of the greatest sewers the world has ever seen.
A sea flood twenty years ago put half the State Park underwater leaving 7.6 million dead fish. Nature wanted no part of the Salton Sea which has clearly become one of America’s worst ecological disasters. For miles, all one sees is trash, stagnant salty water, decay and thousands of dead fish that sound a dinner call for hundreds of fetid birds. The film couldn’t be more pungent were it shot in Odorama.
In addition to toxic Talapia, the Salton Sea’s main exports are drunks and seniors living out their remaining days in sunshine and stench. Much of the populous consists of former Hungarian freedom fighters and blacks, or “welfare types,” as one of the townsfolk affectionately calls them. She goes on to admit, “Some of the black kids are delightful, but there’s a group that are in trouble.”
The official sport of nearby Bombay Beach appears to be alcoholism. Hunky Daddy, Bombay Beach’s unofficial Mayor, is a lecherous (he “moons” kids), unintelligible (he needs subtitles) rummy. Leonard Knight, Mountain Artist/Sacerdotal Nutjob, hopes that his Salvation Mountain will attract other Religious types eager to find the word of God in a man-made mound of garishly painted garbage.
The Salton Sea found its champion in the late Mayor of Palm Springs and Cher’s former husband, Sonny Bono. Sonny remembered the great impact the sea had on his youth and wanted to return it to recreational glory. As one of the residents points out, “I think he was good for the sea. Unfortunately he went skiing.”
With its parade of trailer parks and anomalies and curiosities of humanity, it’s no wonder John Waters agreed to narrate the film. His wry recital of the “string of catastrophes” that befell the Imperial Valley also provides an expertly researched history lesson. Never has environmental tragedy been this funny.
The DVD offers several bonus films including Miracle in the Desert. Film-chained from a faded 16mm print, this hilarious 13-minute travelogue from the early-60s is a precursor to real estate infomercials.
San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts will show Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea at 7 pm tonight and co-creator Chris Meltzer will be there to conduct a Q&A after the movie.
Tags: chris meltzer, jeff springer, John Waters, MoPA, Movie Review, Museum of Photographic Arts, palm springs, Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea review, salton sea, San Diego, VideoShare: 
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
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2 Responses to “Review: PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA / Chris Meltzer & Jeff Springer (2004)”
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S.-
Enough nonsense…Let’s get back to the basics. Please give us an Ernest Borgnine update, complete with the “Tossing-off” factor and Fuji’s rebuttal.
-b.
Keep up the nice work! Look forward to reading more from you in the future. I think it will be also nice if you add “send to email” tool so people can forward the articles to their friends easily.