I first heard about Renee - and transsexuals in general - back in the '70s when she hit the tennis courts and fought to be allowed to play on the women's circuit. I didn't pay much attention to the tennis part of her story only the transgender part. I read her book 'Second Serve' some years later to learn more about her.I found this documentary so interesting, but yet so sad too. Her son still has a lot of issues with her and what she did by abandoning him to go off and play women's tennis. Her sister says she still feels what Renee did by changing her gender was a mistake and she should have never done it. That's interesting I thought because I once read an article about Renee and the interviewer said that he felt it was the male, Richard, was the one raging to come out not the female, Renee. I assume this meant that she still talks and acts stereotypically like a male. So obviously it's not only her sister that feels that way. Pretty much the same thing that people are now saying about Caitlyn Jenner.I must admit some of the things Renee said was rather bizarre or maybe you would call it delusional. At one point she mentioned how when she would return home to New York to visit her son when he was young she would wear a cheap wig and try to look male. Saying how ridiculous she thought she looked and people would notice this too and apparently stare because of her appearance. It's weird because she never says that about attempting to 'pass' as Renee even when it was stated by the reporter, Dick Carlson, who outed her that he, and a neighbor of his, saw Renee playing in a tennis match on T.V. and thought immediately she was a man wearing a tennis dress. He did a little investigative work and discovered what they already suspected being true. Renee seems to ignore all of this and continues to speak as if people would never guess that she's biologically a male despite what happened to her.As someone else stated the ending was so very said. After visiting her son, Nicky, it's mentioned he got evicted from his apartment and he appears to be homeless but nothing else was ever said about that. I was curious enough that I looked him up on Facebook and he supposedly is now living in south Florida selling real estate (I believe he was doing that in New York too, so I'm not sure why he lost that job and was homeless other than the drug problems he has). I would highly recommend this doc for everyone despite how they feel about the subject. Renee's life was fascinating for sure.

Renee (2011) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Even though ESPN's "30 for 30" series ended it hasn't stopped the company from delivering some hard hitting stories. This one here takes a look at Dr. Richard Raskin who in the 70s was a highly respected surgeon but after getting married and having a child he had a sex change and became Renee Richards. At first as Renee she wanted to stay out of the limelight but this all changed after she attempted to play professional tennis. I watch quite a bit of tennis and have done so for well over a decade but I had never heard this story so all of the events here were new to me. I guess everyone is going to have an opinion on whether or not it was fair for a former man to be playing in the women's league but in my own personal opinion, just from seeing the clips here, there's no question that Renee had an advantage. However, as the film also points out, she never became a superstar, never won a major title and in the end it really cost her a whole lot more than it ever got her. I think it's fair to say that the only thing she did win was being able to do what she wanted without having to bow down to anyone else. The documentary covers her life as a man, the eventual sex change, the controversy with playing tennis and it also shows where she is now. I will admit that at times I was shocked by the subject matter, at times disgusted but at the end of the film I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for Renee and everything she went through. Of course, there's no way to deny the fact that she hurt a lot of the people around here and this includes her son who was abused by kids at school over his "dad" being a woman and it's had a lasting impact on him to this day. Seeing the two brought together at the end was just downright depressing. Director Eric Drath does a very good job at showing all sides of this story. I thought he did a very good job at not only telling the story but being able to be down the middle and look at it from all directions. The likes of Billie Jean King, Mary Carillo, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova are all interviewed and share their thoughts about the ordeal and how those in tennis reacted to it. RENEE contains a subject matter that I'm sure is going to turn off many viewers even today but I think fans of the sport should really give this documentary a shot.

This turned out to be a lot more interesting that I might have thought. I remembered the "Renee Richards" controversy back in the '70s but hadn't heard anything in years and have a neutral opinion about the whole episode, frankly. What I'm referring to is a man, an excellent amateur tennis player, who had a sex-change operation and then, one day, decided to play professional tennis as a woman."He" was Richard Raskind, a ranking national junior tennis player from New York City who also served in the Navy and became a noted eye surgeon/opthomologist. To make a long-story-short, Richards led an back-and-forth existence as a man who really wanted to be a woman. When he did finally change to a "she," newly-named "Renee Richards" was content to be live a whole new life anonymously out in California. That changed once she entered, and won, a tennis tourney.The whole story is fascinating. Seeing Dr. Richards' appearance today, and then back in the '70s and then as a younger man is just astonishing. You can't believe it's the same person.Like a lot of 30-for-30 specials, it's just an interesting human story.