Filmmakers will
sometime make great movies, sometimes they will make awful movies, but it is
not often a director will make a great movie about another director who became
known for awful movies. Tim Burton’s Ed
Wood (1994) tells the story of a director for whom there was no such thing
as a bad take and consequently every bad take ended up on film. But god help
him, Ed Wood passionately loved movies and led a life that did indeed warrant a
great movie.
This was the last
movie I saw as part of a film club back when I was at the University of
Sherbrooke in 2010. It was supposed to be The
Last Waltz, which would have been appropriate given it was the club’s last
waltz, but Ed Wood is actually a
great fit for a group of people who love to watch movies and are sometimes
curious about the filmmaking process. This can sometimes be twice as
entertaining as the movie itself, especially in the case of Wood who was not
only a bizarre character in his own right, but surrounded himself with cult
movie characters of his era. For film lovers, Burton’s film is a real treat.
The movie was
shot in black and white, which is a good fit given it is set in early 1950s
Hollywood and that all of Wood’s movies were in black and white as well. It is
as though we are seeing the world of Ed Wood (frequent Burton collaborator
Johnny Depp) through his own eyes as he tries to launch his aspiring career as
a director. As with most of his roles Depp immerses himself in the character,
giving him a boundless optimism especially when he indulges in his habit of
putting on women’s clothing.
Being a
transvestite Wood thought he would be perfect to direct a movie called Glen or Glenda about a woman going
through a sex change. Wood convinces Z-movie producer George Weiss (Mike Starr)
to give him a chance to direct the film when he strikes a friendship with
fading actor Bella Lugosi (Martin Landau) who was best known for his portrayal
of Dracula in the original 1931 film. The old saying is a movie star will sell
tickets, but Wood’s directing style of only using one take, filling holes in
the story with stock footage, and not giving much direction to his actors,
results of course in a pretty awful piece of filmmaking.
Despite every
hurdle he encounters Wood keeps trudging on, seeking independence as a
filmmaker and surrounding himself with other people living on the fringe of the
entertainment business. These included psychic The Amazing Criswell (Jeffery
Jones), TV horror host Vampira (Lisa Marie), actor/drag queen Bunny
Breckenridge (Bill Murray), and professional wrestler Tor Johnson (real-life
wrestler George “The Animal” Steele). Put all of these oddballs in a blender
with Wood’s direction and you get movies like Bride of the Monster and Wood’s “masterpiece” Plan 9 from Outer Space.
In addition to Depp’s
winning performance as the ever persistent and optimistic Wood, the movie’s
highlight is Martin Landau as Lugosi. When Wood meets him he is star-struck,
believing he is meeting a legend at the top of his game. However at that time
Lugosi had been forgotten by audience and was struggling to find a role while
succumbing to a serious drug addiction. On one of his darkest days he suggests
he and Wood commit a double suicide, which is when Wood realizes his friend
desperately needs professional help.
Although most of
the characters in Ed Wood are larger
than life, they still have to deal with realistic problems one has to go
through to get a film made: a shrinking budget, malfunctioning props, actors
having temper tantrums, and producers meddling with the story, something Burton
must have definitely experienced a few times in his career. It is easy to see
why Ed Wood appealed to him and if Wood were alive today he would be touched by
this great homage to the world’s worst director.
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