Hedwig and the Angry Inch (New Line Platinum Series) (2001)

Hedwig is the most outrageous transsexual character that has ever graced the stage or screen. The audience gets to know Hedwig as a REAL person and not a cartoon character. We see his childhood in East Germany, his romance with an army sergeant, the pressure he feels to have a gender change operation in order to marry his love and leave the oppression of the communist world. This story and the subsequent plot complications are told in flashback against a background of original rock music, whose lyrics throb with the meaning of love and the nature of gender. The sets are original and there's even a sequence where the audience is invited to sing along by following a bouncing ball. The story races along and there are animation sequences as Hedwig searches after lost love and a quest for gender identification. The costumes and wigs are magnificent and the camerawork makes the most of the space and balance of energy. It's an elaborate production. And it also has something important to say.

I loved the lights, the action, the camera, the costumes, the music, the story. But most of all I the loved the characters. Hedwig is simply wonderful! It's not for children though, or religious fundamentalists, or people easily disturbed by transsexualism. But for anyone who wants to see a fantastic rock musical that will make you think as well as entertain, don't miss it. Recommended for those hearty few.

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is, ostensibly, the story of a gay man, growing up in East Berlin in the days before the Wall fell, who reluctantly agrees to have a sex change operation, so that he can marry an American G.I., and leave for America. Unfortunately, the operation is done incorrectly, leaving Hansel, now Hedwig, with a one-inch mound of flesh where his male member once was. As if that was not enough bad luck for her, her new husband, soon after bringing her to America, leaves her for another man. Hedwig is left high and dry, the very week that the Berlin Wall is torn down. "Good things come to those who wait," says the television announcer. This inspires Hedwig to go on a journey of self-discovery; to discover her other half, her soulmate--but is it a man or a woman? And where does she fit in, in the grand scheme of things? Is she meant to be a male, as she was born, or a female, as she became?

That is when we, the audience, realize that this is not merely a simple story of a down-on-her-luck drag queen trying to make it in the Big World. This is a film about the search for the Platonic ideal, blending the mythic and mundane into a fascinating exploration of what it means to be complete. Is Hedwig's mother right in saying, "To be free, one must give up a little part of oneself"? Or is Hedwig's lover, Tommy Gnosis, when he tells her that "there's no mystical design/no cosmic lover preassigned"? The film uses the Berlin Wall as a symbol of the division between two soulmates. Hedwig believes that no one is complete until he or she has found his soulmate. Once they are reunited, one has finally found oneself. Like Berlin finally reunited, Hedwig longs for that herself.

"Hedwig" plays like a cross between a documentary-style film a la "This is Spinal Tap," an MGM movie musical, an episode of "Behind the Music" (including tabloid covers and a clip of Hedwig on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show"), and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." But it is so much more than that, based mostly on (1) its use of complex symbolism and mythical allusions and (2) the brilliant, heartfelt, funny, and sad performance of John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote, directed, and starred in both the original off-Broadway production of "Hedwig" and this film. The man is a creative genius and should receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

And what of the music? Simply brilliant, as well. "Hedwig" boasts, bar none, one of the best rock opera score of all time, except for, perhaps, "Rent." The music is raw energy incarnate. The melodies are amazingly tuneful, and range from hardcore punk to rock n' roll, to folksy, to soft, but never overly sappy, ballads. The lyrics are a revelation: more mature, nuanced, and finely tuned than any songs you are likely to hear in any other Broadway or rock venue. And, yes, contain a great deal of mythical, literary, and even biblical allusions.

The musical numbers are staged brilliantly, particularly "Wig in a Box," my favorite song in the film. A grungy trailer opens up and transforms itself into a beautiful, shiny, brightly colored stage for a great rock number. It's flights of fancy like this that make "Hedwig" so much fun.

The film also contains amazing work from its supporting cast, including Miriam Shor, playing Hedwig's husband, and Andrea Martin, playing Hedwig's publicist.

If you are looking for a rock musical that really rocks, but also has a very complex, multilayered, thought-provoking story under its shiny, glitzy veneer, look no further than "Hedwig." And you might want to consider buying the soundtrack, as well. The songs are impossible to get out of your head, but in a good way.

And I didn't even get to mention how hilariously funny the film is, as well. You will laugh long and hard; you will find yourself singing along to the music; and yes, you'll also find yourself extremely touched.

Hedwig Robinson is a divorced Army wife following her former lover turned Rock Icon, Tommy Gnosis, with her band "The Angry Inch".

How Hansel becomes Hedwig, and how Hedwig becomes whole, is the story told in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch".

A lot of people have drawn comparisons between "Hedwig" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show", and while both are glam rock musicals with a bit of "gender-bending" that started out as stage shows, that's about where the similarities end.

Where "Rocky Horror" is a sexual farce loosely based on Frankenstein, "Hedwig" takes it's direction from Aristotle's speech (from Plato's Symposium) on the origin of love, essentially that once upon a time, humans had twice the arms, legs, and faces we have now, but were cut in two by the gods for being too proud - love comes from a desire to find the half we were seperated from.

Hansel's search leads him to an American GI who asks to marry him, but with the stipulation that "in order to leave, you have to leave a little somtehing behind". Hansel adopts his mother's name and hesitantly undergoes a botched sex change (in the same fashion as a back alley abortion), which leaves him with an "angry inch" of flesh.

A year later, a newly divorced woman scraping by on odd jobs and babysitting gigs, Hedwig meets and falls in love with Tommy Speck, whom she soon decides is her "other half". When Tommy decides he can't handle who (what?) she is, and runs away to become a rock star with the songs they wrote together, Hedwig takes to stalking him, shadowing his tour with a tour of her own through a chain of seafood restaurants.

As an unconventional love story whose ultimate message is "love thyself", "Hedwig" is a movie with a lot of laughs and a lot of heart. in creating an over the top, in your face star who's alternately cruel and heartbroken, John Cameron Mitchell manages to give us a completely (and surprisingly) believable character that despite having little in common with, almost everyone can identify with.

As if the movie weren't fabulous enough, the dvd comes with extended footage, a commentary by JCM and director of photography, some of the best menu design I've yet to see on a dvd, and best of all, a wonderful feature length documentary on the history of "Hedwig" from the first performance at Squeezebox to the present, including interviews with "Hed-Heads" (fans) discussing how much it's meant to them and how much a part of their lives it's become.