Ed Wood (1994)

I am told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps that goes for genius too. That would most certainly be the case for Edward D. Wood Jr., the man who saw perfection in his works Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and the incomparable Plan 9 from Outer Space, hailed as the worst film of all time. Leading an equally bizarre life filled with all sorts of amusingly strange characters, Ed Wood's story is captured in Tim Burton's loving biopic starring a never better Johnny Depp.

Before watching this film I would absolutely recommend watching at least one of his films to get a flavor of what you're dealing. I saw this movie several years ago, but it was before I had had the distinct pleasure of acquainting myself with his actual pictures. Now that I am in the know, this movie is so much more hilarious, and far more rewarding. Seeing the crazy in development is possibly better than seeing the crazy in its end results.

Wood was a young upstart with a dream of becoming the new Orson Wells of the monster movie genre. An incredibly cheerful character with more ambition than wits, he saw the strange and fantastic as romantic and beautiful, and he tried for years to let others see what he envisioned. Always tight for cash he sold out leading roles to whomever would pay--even the mentally challenged, he stole props, and even had the entire cast for a film become baptized so he could get a church to produce Plan 9. That is the mark of man who made sacrificed for his art and I tip my hat to him.

Along his journeys he roped in the buxom Vampira, the bogus fortune telling Criswell, a pre-op transexual named Bunny (a hilarious Bill Murray), the elephantine wrestler, Tor, and most importantly he befriended the drinking, smoking, swearing, morphine-addicted, 74 year old Bela Lugosi (yes he was still alive), to whom Wood developed a very close friendship with. His motley crew went to work with him getting money from anywhere and everywhere to make his horrible flicks, but funny enough nobody ever really seemed to acknowledge that his films didn't make sense. When they did he would counter with "It's realistic!"

Burton obviously loves Ed Wood. It is so apparent that everyone involved in this film had the best time with their ridiculous characters headed by a director who, like Ed Wood himself, had a vision to create something really excellent. The lighting and cinematography is superb, paying the slightest tribute to those B-horror films of the 50's, with just the right amount of melodrama and camp, without pushing it over the limits to melodramatic or campy. It is shot in glorious black and white which, rather than trying to recreate the time and feel of his movies, gives it an obvious send up of the style which is so fun.

There was terrific casting in this film. Terrific. Everyone was so spot on, and the scenes that they recreated where so perfect it was absolutely side-splitting to watch. There are so many scenes in this film which had me convulsing with laughter because even though all of the actors knew how ludicrous their characters were they played them with such conviction that the product was perfection.

Depp and Martin Landau, who gives an Oscar winning performance as Lugosi, give the best work. This is definitely my favorite Johnny Depp film because he takes chances, and is quirky without being annoyingly so. Lugosi is at once comical (especially when calling Boris Karloff a cock-sucker), and incredibly sad as a lonely old drug-addict, living off of unemployment, depressed, and forgotten. We meet him and leave him in a coffin, both times wearing a cape. He's flawless.

This is the type of film that Burton should be doing more often. I think that I speak for so many when I say that I am a little weary of the cartoonish, gothic trademark that he can't seem to shake. It would be nice to every once in a while see a product from him like this, in which Hot Topic cannot market it to 14 year old girls wearing too much eye makeup. Yes, it is still weird, yes it still has the Burton touch, but it is grounded in reality, and that makes it so much better. He is a good director with good vision, but it is time for him to grow up. I think that he needs to re-watch this film, and realize that it is in work like this that he can leave a lasting mark in the film world--though I suppose that is only if he wants to be taken seriously.

4/4