Ed Wood Review

 

        He was called the worst movie director ever in the 20th Century. Edward D. Wood Jr. made movies in an efficient and fast way that bordered on embarrassing and inept. He had a voice that he wanted to tell, but no one was willing to give him more money to make a film. In 1994, Tim Burton directed Ed Wood. It’s considered by many to be his best work. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Worst Director Ever

        As I mentioned earlier, Ed Wood is a bad director, in every measure of the word. Johnny Depp portrays him and he should’ve been nominated. He has a very uplifting personality that borders on delusional since he actually thinks that the projects he made is the best. Before we see him as a film director, the film has him direct a stage play. Albeit, not a good one. We see the play with his girlfriend Dolores being let down on a pulley. Making the scene, is the shot of the audience: a couple, a homeless man, a person drinking, and a bucket collecting the rain from the ceiling. 

        You really have to admire him since he has a determined personality. When he and the stage cast go and get drinks, he only reads the positive parts of the review to justify that his play was great. He is one to be completely blinded by his ambition to make a good movie that he thinks that any take for a scene, either rushed or improperly acted is adequate. It’s justified since when making the films, he is given a short time to shoot the film. Adding on to the time crunch, having a short length of film to shoot. 

        One thing that makes him unique as a person was that he dressed in women’s clothing in the 1950s. Now, with the film coming out in the ‘90s and that kind of lifestyle being tolerable in some circles, it would make Ed ambitious enough to be open about his secret back in the day. He even shanghaies a film that was supposed to be about the first gender change ever, to him making a film that embraces his secret. 

        Now, the one thing that mostly set him up for failure is the money. Reading more about the man after watching the film, he never had a stable finance. He really did reach for people to finance his movie, including a Baptist church who allowed to finance his movie Plan 9 for Outer Space on the condition that the cast and crew get baptized. Ed is willing to go to any route to make his movie and that what makes him endearing for the most part. Well, his movies suck, but it’s that level of ambition that makes him the one to root for in the film. 

2. Bela Lugosi

        This is the perfect example of an actor literally becoming an actual person. Martin Landau portrays former famous actor Bela Lugosi, who is most famous for his portrayal in the film Dracula. We see him as a washed up actor who meets Ed Wood by a coffin shop. Wood is shocked to find out that no one will hire Lugosi. One of the best things is that Landau plays the former actor so perfectly. Right down to his voice and looking like an adequate vampire. The parts when we see Ed filming Bela’s scenes, is the cherry on top. 

        If you were to put both of his scenes in comparison to Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda or Bride of the Monster, you can see the level of commitment that Landau does with his performance for a few moments in the film to be Lugosi. He is also one of the film’s funniest part. My favorite is when he arrives to shoot his first film with Wood, a stagehand asks for his autograph. He invokes the name Boris Karloff, for the uninitiated he was Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein. Lugosi loudly cusses out the stagehand and I was just laughing since, I was not expecting that. And you can see that Lugosi is jealous of Karloff. Since in real life, Karloff went on to have a successful career than Lugosi. 

        He is the tragic part of the film. We learn that he becomes addicted to morphine and he is broke. What I found interesting is that Ed wanted him in his films due to his name from Dracula. When he gets Bela into rehab, the actor is hounded by the paparazzi. Ed thinks that they’re exploiting him, but Lugosi tells him that he wants that attention. You have to feel for that man because he is only remembered for one film. Then just left in the gutter so to speak by Hollywood. 

        The best scene involving him is when he performs his monologue during the shooting of Bride of the Monster. He gives it his all, that monologue means more to him since it speaks to him in the context that he finally has his moment to shine. I think it shows just a dark side of Hollywood some films tackle rarely. That the big studios do away with the stars that made them money and just kick them to the curve. 

3. “Visions Are Worth Fighting For”

        One of the recurring motifs that Tim Burton has in his movies is the main characters being the rejects in his films. With Pee Wee Herman, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands, the director has the outcasts be the main focal point in his films to show them that they aren’t welcome in society. With Ed Wood, the director is constantly being hounded by the direction of his movies. With producer Ed Weiss, telling him that he butchered the movie he had before Wood came in. 

        His first girlfriend Dolores even tells him and the cast that the movie they made is terrible. She has a point, but the film paints her as the bad guy since she’s the normal person in the movie littered with misfits that society has shunned. There’s a level of empathy that’s going on since you want these people to at least see that the movies they are working on is bad, but they trust Wood that the film maybe at least be good. 

        My favorite scene involves Ed Wood and famous director Orson Welles who directed Citizen Kane. It's the meeting of the best movie director and the worst. Just to put it out there, this event never happened in real life, but regardless I like this moment. It’s vindicating to hear Orson played by Vincent D’Onofrio, tell Ed that “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dream?”. He tells him that since he tells Wood who is wearing an angora sweater, that Universal made him direct a film with Charlton Hesten to play a Mexican. The point is that no one can ever degrade your art for anything. Ed finally stands up and finishes his film the way he intends to. 

        It’s great, but at the same time and I hate to sound like a broken record. The film he made is just that inept. I get that finally he has a privilege to shoot his films, but at the price that it’ll be remembered with being “So bad, it’s good”. That’s one concept that actually works in the film and going along with Burton’s motif in the film. 

4. Overall

        I could’ve had this film be in the Underrated Gems series. Yes, it made less money than its budget, but it did garner two awards in the Academy Awards. This is the best film you’ll see that lacks any technicolor that came out in the 90s. This is another view of the sub-genre of movies about making movies. 

        Ed Wood gets a five out of five.