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Video: 1.78:1 |
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Anamorphic: Yes |
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Audio:
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono) |
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Subtitles: None |
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Runtime: 78
minutes |
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Rating: NR |
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Released:
January 31, 2006 |
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Production
Year: 1978 |
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Director: Doris Wishman |
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Released
by:
Synapse Films |
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Region: 1
NTSC |
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Audio Commentary with Michael Bowen and Leslie |
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Alternate Opening Credits Sequence |
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Original Theatrical Trailer and Promotional Spots
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Radio Spot |
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 Let Me Die A Woman is exploitation
guru Doris
Wishman's pseudo-documentary on Transgenderism, yet despite
its "serious" subject matter, Woman still finds itself
laden with the trappings of the traditional nudie pictures
of the day: the cold explanations that give the film its "educational"
value (something that was required so the film wouldn't be
deemed pornographic), the inconsistent dubbing, the badly-framed
shots, and the fairly useless sex scenes. However, there was
one important detail changed in the equation for this film.
The buxom ladies and buff men were actually pre-op and post-op
transsexuals.
This leads to a few million questions about the intention
of the film. Why did Doris Wishman decide to make this? Why
did she try to combine the traditional dry-as-a-bone documentary
style with the equally dry sex angle? Did she really expect
that people were so anxious to see breasts that they wouldn't
care if there was a penis attached to the bearer of those
breasts? Was this simply a freak show dressed up as a medical
study? I can't answer these questions because I'm quite dumbstruck
after watching the film.
For those of you not familiar with the subject, be it because
it's not something you go looking for information about or
simply because you don't watch daytime television, a transsexual
is (and let's quote from dictionary.com)
"a person with the external genitalia and secondary sexual
characteristics of one sex, but whose personal identification
and psychosocial configuration is that of the opposite sex."
Let Me Die A Woman is a fairly inconsistent documentary
chronicling a collection of transsexuals both male-to-female
and female-to-male, their personal concerns for themselves
and who they associate with, their own views on Transgenderism,
and medical information and advice when it comes to the issue
of sex change operations.
 Sounds
a bit dry? Definitely so. While Doris Wishman does insert
a collection of rather exploitive and almost completely unrelated
staged sex scenes (featuring Harry Reems of Deep Throat no less!), Wishman seems to reel herself in for the most part,
and surprisingly enough the dry delivery just might be the
film's best asset. By taking a more clinical approach, the
film manages to present a lot of information and opinion for
those interested in the material. This can be attributed mostly
to the film's "star," a post-operative transsexual named Leslie,
who comes off as a completely level-headed person willing
to discuss her past as a biological male and her perspective
on the process of becoming a real woman.
However, there are some glaring problems with the film. Since
it's obvious that Wishman filmed many staged scenes specifically
to titillate the audience, it's hard to take a lot of the
movie at face value. Once reality is broken on the subject,
you start to question if anything you're being presented is
real. While a lot of footage features very true and very graphic depictions of actual surgical procedure and aftercare,
Wishman does a disservice to the film as a documentary by
inserting scenes of fake sex and  gore.
Also not helping is the extensive re-dubbing of a few characters,
and even worse, Doctor Leo Wollman, who can't get through
a scene without reading a cue card.
If you can get past the exploitive angle that Wishman apparently
needed to put into the film, there's a lot of really excellent
footage here that could be treated as information both accurate
and fairly inaccurate. It can also be viewed as a time capsule
showing you how the world viewed Transgenderism when sex changes
were starting to emerge as an option for people.
Disc Presentation: Doris Wishman wasn't known for having particularly
well-shot films and Let Me Die A Woman is no exception.
Synapse Films does a fine job with the rough material. When
the film goes into the staged footage, the image looks clean
and fairly professional, but when the film is in "true" documentary
form, it's somewhat fuzzy, out-of-focus and slightly grainy
- a Doris Wishman touch. However, I must admit this is one
of the best looking films Wishman has produced, with a few
artistic touches. As for the audio, the mono soundtrack is
fine, despite the original material. Some characters are dubbed
and come through loud and clear, while some people sound like
the microphone was placed across the room from them. Crank
up the volume and you shouldn't have much of a problem.
 Extras
While the film itself might be more of a curiosity than anything
else, the audio commentary featuring Doris Wishman
archivist, Michael Bowen, and star, Leslie, is fantastic.
Bowen's obsessive information covers the film's long production
(which apparently lasted for almost 10 years), while Leslie
recounts her work on the film (she hadn't seen the film until
Bowen contacted her), digs even further into her own past,
and talks about what she's been doing since the movie. Most
importantly, Bowen and Leslie break down what's real and what's
staged in the film. A fascinating listen.
The rest of the extras aren't as enlightening, but still hold
some interest. We have trailers and promotional reels,
which make sure to lean more on the exploitation angle (geez,
even the trailers have penis in them), while the radio
spot is just that - an audio trailer. Finally we have
an alternate opening sequence, featuring the alternate
title Stranger In My Body: Adam Or Eve and the copyright
date of 1971. The audio is missing, but Michael Bowen fills
in the gap with audio commentary.
 Overall
Impressions
Not quite documentary, not quite exploitation, and
nowhere near sexy, Let Me Die A Woman will probably
appeal only to historians interested in how the world viewed
Transgenderism in the '70s, rather than Transgenderism itself.
Better yet is the inclusion of the essential commentary track,
which helps set the record straight on what's real and what's
fake in the film. It's only going to interest a limited amount
of people, but they should be satisfied with Synapse's solid
disc.
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