Showing posts with label ed wood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ed wood. Show all posts

26 October 2009

Glen or Glenda (1953)

This movie was way wacky. Maybe I am kind of getting into watching Ed Wood movies, but I probably won't consume them at a rate quicker than 1 per month. Anyway, this movie is pretty odd. It's hosted by Bela Lugosi ala Masterpiece Theater. He tells the story of Glen/da, who is a man transitioning to be a woman. I guess this is loosely based on Christine Jorgensen's story, also.

Going into this, I thought the narrative would inevitably be transphobic, at least with posters advertising it as a "strange" case of a "man." Most of the film does treat Glenda as a freak, but there are a couple of glimpses into Ed Wood's maybe interesting opinions about trans issues. As far as I know, he was into wearing ladies' clothes, but he still identified as a man. Once or twice in the film, the narrator makes it clear that changing your gender does not make you weird, strange, or unnatural. He even states that humans do a lot of unnatural things, like drive cars or wear make up, so why is changing one's gender so wrong?

P.S. This movie is #366 this year, so I guess I've surpassed my goal of watching 365 movies.

3/5 pizzas