Adapted from the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock theatre hit, Hedwig and The Angry Inch tells the story of an "internationally ignored" rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and love.

Born a boy named Hansel whose life's dream is to find his other half, Hedwig reluctantly submits to a sex change operation in order to marry an American G.I. and get over the Berlin Wall to freedom.

The operation is botched, leaving her with the aforementioned "angry inch". Finding herself high, dry and divorced in a Kansas trailer park, she pushes on to form a rock band and encounters a lover/protégé in young Tommy Gnosis, who eventually leaves her, steals her songs and becomes a huge rock star.

A bitter yet witty Hedwig with her pan-Slavic band, The Angry Inch, shadows Tommy's stadium tour, performing in near-empty restaurants for bewildered diners and a few die-hard fans.

Through a collage of songs, flashbacks and animation, Hedwig tells her life story while on a tour of chain strip-mall seafood restaurants, trying to capitalize on her tabloid celebrity as the supposed ex-lover of famed rock star, Tommy Gnosis.

Somewhere between the crab cakes and the cramped motel rooms, between the anguish and the acid-wash, she pursues her dreams and discovers the origin of love.

Drag Queens, John Cameron Mitchell, two guys kiss, etc.

I think this is a fantastic film. While the story, and the video itself may seem choppy at times, it comes together in a way that makes plenty of sense. The songs are out of this world, with a personal twist, all written by Mitchell himself.

Better than rocky horror, better than any gay movie made.

Written by: Michael Stratton

Written by: Melissa

Hedwig: My sex change operation got botched; my guardian angel fell asleep on the watch; now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch; I've got an angry inch!

Hedwig: I had tried singing once and they threw tomatoes so after the show I had a nice salad.

Hedwig: After my divorce from Luther I scraped by with baby-sitting gigs and odd jobs - mostly the jobs we call blow. Hedwig: That song was by a young mister Kurt Cobain - now that kid's got a future!

Tommy: Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour?
Hedwig: No, but I love his work.

Hedwig: Ladies and gentlemen, do you like the pelt? Be honest, because some *bitch* stopped me on the way in. "What poor and unfortunate creature had to die for you to wear that?" [pause]
Hedwig: My Aunt Trudy, I replied. Walked away ladies and gentlemen, walked away!

Hansel: Luther is silent for a moment, as he stares at my little bishop in a turtleneck.

Yitzhak: Fuck you, I'm going to Guam!

Phyllis: I don't think it's going to help our lawsuit if you continue to st... if you present the appearance of stalking him.
Hedwig: Yeah, you know I don't like that word.

Phyllis: I could have your job! Where's my fucking broach?

Hedwig: How many times do I have to tell you? You don't put a bra in a dryer! It warps!

Hansel's Mom: Absolute power corrupts.
Hansel (6 Years Old): Absolutely.
Hansel's Mom: Better to be powerless, my son.

Hedwig: How did some slip of a girly boy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?

Hedwig: Don't you know me Kansas City? I'm the new Berlin Wall. Try and tear me down!

Hedwig: When it comes to huge openings, a lot of people think of me.

Hedwig: When I think of all the people I've come upon in my travels, I have to think of the people who have come upon me.

Tommy: What is that?
Hedwig: It's what I have to work with.

Hedwig: I got kicked out of university after delivering a brilliant lecture on the aggressive influence of German philosophy on rock and roll entitled "You, Kant, Always Get What You Want".

Hedwig: To be free, one must give up a part of oneself.

Hedwig: Our apartment was so small, that mother made me play in the oven. Late at night I would listen to the voices of the American masters, Tony Tennille, Debby Boone, Anne Murry who was actually a Canadian working in the American idiom. And then there were the crypto-homo rockers, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, David Bowie who was actually an idiom working in America and Canada. These artists, they left as deep an impression on me as that oven rack did on my face. To be an American in muskrat love, soft as an easy chair not even the chair, I am I said, have I never been mellow? And the colored girls sing... doo do doo do doo do doo... but never with the melody. How could I do it better than Tony or-or Lou... HEY BOY, TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE!

Video

DVD