Released in 1984, Lust in the Dust is a deliriously camp reimagining of the Hollywood Western — part parody, part drag revue, and entirely unhinged. Set in a lawless desert town, the film pits rival factions against each other in a battle for power, gold, and spectacle, with gender-bending chaos at its core.
Starring Divine in a scene-stealing role and directed by cult filmmaker Paul Bartel, Lust in the Dust brought underground queer camp into a genre that had long symbolized hyper-masculinity and frontier myth. Divine’s performance — towering, ferocious, glamorous, and profane — turned the Western inside out and claimed it for outsiders, weirdos, and queens.
Over time, the film has become a midnight-movie staple and a cornerstone of queer cult cinema. It’s camp not as joke, but as strategy: exaggeration as power, performance as rebellion, and excess as truth.
