During the golden age of exploitation cinema, the grindhouse market took on any and every subject guaranteed to bring in money. The sex change flick was no exception. Shortly after Christine Jorgensen's highly publicized transformation from man to woman in the early 50s, Edward D. Wood Jr. turned out his subversive masterpiece
Glen or Glenda?, chronicling his own personal struggle for the world to understand transvestism. In 1970, Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon with the glorious disaster
Myra Breckinridge! Based on Gore Vidal's novel, this Raquel Welch vehicle about a female transexual that plans to take over her uncle's acting academy became notorious even before its release, and regardless of critical panning, it opened the floodgates for a new wave of sex change films. The hilariously bad
The Christine Jorgensen Story and the highly bizarre
Dinah East were released the same year as
Myra Breckinridge. Two years later, British actress Anne Heywood
(The Fox) starred in the film
I Want What I Want, which, like the films mentioned above, dealt with the topic of transsexualism, but was much more successful in presenting the subject matter seriously and with a character the audience could sympathize with.
Roy just isn't like the other boys. He spends his time watching women in the street, admiring their clothes. He can't live up to the expectations of his Army major father, who wants Roy to act more like a man. One night, Roy's father comes home and discovers his son in full drag. Unable to control his rage, the major slaps Roy around before forcing his son to look in the mirror. "Don't you want to be a man?" Roy's father asks. To this, Roy replies "God made man in his own image...and he blew it." Next time we see Roy, he's ran away from home and barricaded himself in a small apartment where he lets his hair grow and practices at how to be a real woman. After a few weeks of training, Roy is dead and Wendy is born! After leaving the city and renting a room in a boarding house, things are going great for Wendy! Her fellow tenants don't suspect her of being "different" in the slightest and she's got an overflow of extravagant gowns and blue eyeshadow to keep her past a secret forever! Of course, Wendy can't escape from love as she's got her eye on one of the male tenants in the house. Before she can make any sort of move, however, she knows she much consult a doctor about a sex change.
There's something about this film that everytime I watch it, I can't help but love it. Thirty years before Felicity Huffman tackled the role of a transexual in Transamerica, Anne Heywood dove into the part of Roy/Wendy and does a great job. Heywood isn't the most passible looking man when she's Roy and looks a bit like a drag queen when she's Wendy but her overall performance makes you really sympathize with Roy on his journey to becoming Wendy. You see her ups and her downs throughout this new and confusing period in her life that by the time you reach the shock ending, you're pretty much speechless. What I particuarly like about I Want What I Want is its treatment of the subject matter. Yes, it's an exploitation film but it never crosses the line of depicting transexuals as sideshow freaks. The movie is not a riot like The Christine Jorgensen Story or Myra Breckinridge, but it isn't overly serious either. While not perfect, it makes for a memorable viewing experience.
Only ever available on VHS in the past, Scorpion Releasing presents I Want What I Want in a beautifully restored, anamorphic widescreen transfer. The print used for the transfer isn't in the most pristine condition as colors sometimes look faded and scratches appear on the film from time to time, but when compared to the original Prism VHS, the image is fantastic! The only extra on the disc is a Spanish trailer for the film (the trailer's narration is in Spanish while the scenes from the film contain the original English track). Also include in the packaging are liner notes by Dennis Dermody, film critic for Paper. Dermody's essay is quite informative on how the film was made and briefly discusses Heywood's career (Heywood apparently bought the rights to the novel by Geoff Brown and was a driving force behind getting the movie made). Thank you to the good people at Scorpion Releasing for putting out a gem like I Want What I Want and allow your DVD collection to get more in touch with its feminine side!
During the golden age of exploitation cinema, the grindhouse market took on any and every subject guaranteed to bring in money. The sex change flick was no exception. Shortly after Christine Jorgensen's highly publicized transformation from man to woman in the early 50s, Edward D. Wood Jr. turned out his subversive masterpiece Glen or Glenda?, chronicling his own personal struggle for the world to understand transvestism. In 1970, Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon with the glorious disaster Myra Breckinridge! Based on Gore Vidal's novel, this Raquel Welch vehicle about a female transexual that plans to take over her uncle's acting academy became notorious even before its release, and regardless of critical panning, it opened the floodgates for a new wave of sex change films. The hilariously bad The Christine Jorgensen Story and the highly bizarre Dinah East were released the same year as Myra Breckinridge. Two years later, British actress Anne Heywood (The Fox) starred in the film I Want What I Want, which, like the films mentioned above, dealt with the topic of transsexualism, but was much more successful in presenting the subject matter seriously and with a character the audience could sympathize with. 
Roy just isn't like the other boys. He spends his time watching women in the street, admiring their clothes. He can't live up to the expectations of his Army major father, who wants Roy to act more like a man. One night, Roy's father comes home and discovers his son in full drag. Unable to control his rage, the major slaps Roy around before forcing his son to look in the mirror. "Don't you want to be a man?" Roy's father asks. To this, Roy replies "God made man in his own image...and he blew it." Next time we see Roy, he's ran away from home and barricaded himself in a small apartment where he lets his hair grow and practices at how to be a real woman. After a few weeks of training, Roy is dead and Wendy is born! After leaving the city and renting a room in a boarding house, things are going great for Wendy! Her fellow tenants don't suspect her of being "different" in the slightest and she's got an overflow of extravagant gowns and blue eyeshadow to keep her past a secret forever! Of course, Wendy can't escape from love as she's got her eye on one of the male tenants in the house. Before she can make any sort of move, however, she knows she much consult a doctor about a sex change.
There's something about this film that everytime I watch it, I can't help but love it. Thirty years before Felicity Huffman tackled the role of a transexual in Transamerica, Anne Heywood dove into the part of Roy/Wendy and does a great job. Heywood isn't the most passible looking man when she's Roy and looks a bit like a drag queen when she's Wendy but her overall performance makes you really sympathize with Roy on his journey to becoming Wendy. You see her ups and her downs throughout this new and confusing period in her life that by the time you reach the shock ending, you're pretty much speechless. What I particuarly like about I Want What I Want is its treatment of the subject matter. Yes, it's an exploitation film but it never crosses the line of depicting transexuals as sideshow freaks. The movie is not a riot like The Christine Jorgensen Story or Myra Breckinridge, but it isn't overly serious either. While not perfect, it makes for a memorable viewing experience. 
Only ever available on VHS in the past, Scorpion Releasing presents I Want What I Want in a beautifully restored, anamorphic widescreen transfer. The print used for the transfer isn't in the most pristine condition as colors sometimes look faded and scratches appear on the film from time to time, but when compared to the original Prism VHS, the image is fantastic! The only extra on the disc is a Spanish trailer for the film (the trailer's narration is in Spanish while the scenes from the film contain the original English track). Also include in the packaging are liner notes by Dennis Dermody, film critic for Paper. Dermody's essay is quite informative on how the film was made and briefly discusses Heywood's career (Heywood apparently bought the rights to the novel by Geoff Brown and was a driving force behind getting the movie made). Thank you to the good people at Scorpion Releasing for putting out a gem like I Want What I Want and allow your DVD collection to get more in touch with its feminine side! 
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