by John Cameron Mitchell, 2001.
Starring: Andrea Martin, John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor, and Alberta Watson.
Rating: 9/10, 8/10.
The greatest moment in this entire film was, to me, when Hedwig (Mitchell) was narrating, explaining his/her (more on that later) obsession with the early music of Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop. Another great one was when Hedwig was teaching the future Tommy Gnosis (Pitt) in the ways of good music, and whipped out a fabulous picture of the three of them, pointing to each in turn. The sheer pleasure of hearing someone talk about the pure delights, the inexpressible godliness of these three artists on the giant movie screen in the front of the theatre made me want to weep, or faint, or both.
But of course I didn’t. After all, either way I would have missed parts of the fabulous creation that is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This is one of those films that has it all—brilliant sountrack, gorgeous visuals. Humor that will be making you laugh months later, and poignancy that will be making you cry that long after, too. And more than that—it’s not just a funny, moving, fun to listen to and look at romp. It has an interesting, thoughtful storyline that raises so many issues.
One thing I’m having trouble with is the issue of Hedwig’s sex, or gender, or whichever you prefer to call it. Now, I know this is the point. But the thing is, I have no problem with calling a male-to-female transgendered person "she", or a female-to-male transgendered person "he". I think this is exactly what we should all do, no question. Whatever gender an individual thinks of themselves as is what gender they are. But with Hedwig it is more complicated. We never really know how the man, Hansel, felt about being turned into the woman, Hedwig. He did it out of convenience—the only way he could leave his native East Germany with his American lover was if they could get married...and the only way they could get married was if Hansel faked his identification and became a woman. And yet (s)he, post-operation, most definitely behaves womanly. But all the anger Hedwig feels basically leads us to conclude that she just wants to be something, rather than the six inches forward and five inches back halfway one halfway the other thing that she is.
But blah blah blah. Damn, this movie’s good. See it for the music. See it for the gender issues. See it for the makeup and the wigs. Hell, see it for John Cameron Mitchell naked. But see it.
