Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film)

Hansel Schmidt is an East German genderqueer teenager who loves rock music, and is stuck in East Berlin until they meet Sergeant Luther Robinson, an American soldier. Luther proposes marriage to Hansel, planning to allow Hansel to leave Socialist East Germany for the West. Hansel's mother, Hedwig, gives her child her name and passport and finds a doctor to perform a genitalic reassignment surgery. The operation is botched, however, leaving Hansel – now Hedwig – with a dysfunctional one-inch mound of flesh between her legs, the titular "Angry Inch".

Hedwig goes to live in Junction City, Kansas as Luther's wife. On their first wedding anniversary, Luther leaves Hedwig for a man. That same day, it is announced that the Berlin Wall has fallen and East Germans are flooding freely into the West, meaning as material gains go, Hedwig's sacrifices have been for nothing. Hedwig recovers from the separation by confidently accepting her identity as a woman, picking up some "odd jobs," and returning to her "first love" of music by forming a rock band composed of Korean-born Army wives. Babysitting for "the commander of the nearby fort," she befriends Tommy Speck, a shy and misunderstood teenager questioning his Christian upbringing. For six months, she teaches him "rock history, lyrics, grooming, and vocal training" taking him from playing the occasional guitar masses to the two of them "out-grossing monster trucks in Wichita." Hedwig gives him the stage name "Tommy Gnosis" (stating that Gnosis is the Greek word for "knowledge") for his graduation. Upon discovering her "inch," Tommy leaves Hedwig and goes on to become a wildly successful rock star by stealing Hedwig's songs.

Hedwig and her band, the Angry Inch (now composed of Eastern Europeans including her husband, Yitzhak), are forced to support themselves by playing in a chain of failing seafood restaurants called Bilgewater's and other small venues. Hedwig is following Tommy's tour while pursuing a copyright lawsuit. In between songs, she reflects on her life's story through flashbacks and stories told directly to either uninterested restaurant patrons or her small, but loyal group of fans.

Throughout the film, Hedwig refers to Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium. This myth, retold by Hedwig in the song "The Origin of Love", explains that human beings were once round, two-faced, four-armed, and four-legged beings. Angry gods split these early humans in two, leaving the separated people with a lifelong yearning for their other half.

Near the end of the film, Hedwig is down and out, her band and manager having abandoned her in disgust after she tears up Yitzhak's passport. While working as a streetwalker, she finally reunites with Tommy and they reconcile. After the two of them accidentally drive Tommy's limo into a news truck, paparazzi burst onto the scene, Hedwig becomes famous and Gnosis' popularity tanks. Reunited with her band, Hedwig performs at Times Square, culminating in a violent removal of her drag.

Entering the final chapter of the film, it seems to take place in a non-real space, perhaps Hedwig's mind. Now in male form, Hedwig discovers herself alone in front of Tommy on a huge stage. Tommy sings to Hedwig, pleading forgiveness and saying goodbye; she realizes that she created her "other half" from within herself. Hedwig then finds herself back at Times Square, but the space seems transformed, with ambient white lighting. The band members, dressed all in white, are already in their places on stage. Hedwig gives Yitzhak her blonde wig, allowing Yitzhak to take her place, and sings in solidarity with "all the misfits and losers" of the world. A brief animated sequence symbolizing the union of the separated Platonic halves leads to the final shot: Hedwig walking naked down a dark alley and into the street.

• John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig Robinson/Hansel Schmidt
  • Ben Mayer-Goodman as young Hansel
• Miriam Shor as Yitzhak
• Stephen Trask as Skszp
• Andrea Martin as Phyllis Stein, Hedwig's manager
• Michael Pitt as Tommy Speck/Tommy Gnosis
• Theodore Liscinski as Jacek
• Rob Campbell as Krzysztof
• Michael Aronov as Schlatko
• Alberta Watson as Hedwig Schmidt, Hansel's mother
• Maurits Niggebrugge as Hansel's father
• Sook-Yin Lee as Kwahng-Yi
• Maurice Dean Wint as Sergeant Luther Robinson
• Rosie O'Donnell as herself
• Dar Williams as singer on main stage
• Karen Hines as Tommy's publicist

1. "Tear Me Down"
2. "Random Number Generation" (excerpt only)
3. "Tear Me Down" (Tommy Gnosis version) (excerpt only)
4. "The Origin of Love"
5. "Sugar Daddy"
6. "Angry Inch"
7. "Wig in a Box"
8. "The Origin of Love" (Tommy Gnosis version) (excerpt only)
9. "Wicked Little Town"
10. "I Will Always Love You" (excerpt only)
11. "The Long Grift" (excerpt only, full version on soundtrack)
12. "Freaks" (excerpt only, full version on soundtrack, with Girls Against Boys)
13. "In Your Arms Tonight"
14. "Hedwig's Lament"
15. "Exquisite Corpse"
16. "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)"
17. "Midnight Radio"

Songs only on the soundtrack

1. "Nailed" (on soundtrack only)

For the soundtrack, Hedwig's songs were recorded by John Cameron Mitchell (lead vocals), Stephen Trask, Miriam Shor, Bob Mould (of Hüsker Dü), Ted Liscinski, Perry L. James, Alexis Fleisig, and Eli Janney.

Tommy Gnosis' songs were recorded by Trask (lead vocals), Shor, Mould, Liscinski, James, Scott McCloud, Janney, Fleisig, and Johnny Temple.

In 2003, a CD of the film's song covers by such artists as Yoko Ono and Cyndi Lauper was released. It benefited the Hetrick-Martin Institute and was named after one of the musical's most popular songs "Wig in a Box". Goth-metal band Type O Negative recorded a cover of "Angry Inch" on their 2003 album Life Is Killing Me.

Mitchell had been approached during the Off-Broadway run of the musical with the offer to adapt Hedwig into a film. He developed parts of the script at the Sundance film labs, notably the trailer scene with Tommy Speck. Later, the film was entered into the Sundance Film Festival.

According to the DVD commentary, most of the lead vocals were recorded "live" as the scenes were shot, to capture the intensity of a live performance.[7] The live recording of "Hedwig's Lament" is the version on the film soundtrack despite most of the songs being studio recorded for the album.[8]

Mitchell had to shave constantly during the course of the film shoot, often using an electric razor between shots while still in full makeup. Also in the DVD commentary, Mitchell mentions that Pitt was somewhat uncomfortable with their prolonged kissing scene, complaining about being scratched by Mitchell's stubble. Mitchell mentioned Pitt consuming onion and garlic directly before shooting the scene.

The movie is referenced in the Netflix series Sex Education. In season one, episode five, Otis is supposed to attend a showing of Hedwig with his friend Eric, who is gay. Each year they dress up in costume as Hedwig and go together.

The music is performed in the Riverdale season four musical episode "Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town."

• Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
• Transgender in film and television

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film)

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at IMDb
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at AllMovie
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Box Office Mojo
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Metacritic
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch: She Sings the Body Electric an essay by Stephanie Zacharek at the Criterion Collection