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Ed Wood has become a personal comedy to me. There are probably other comedies I find more enjoyable, but this is the one that really sticks with me.
I have been a fan of 1950's and 1960's B and Z movies since I was a kid. The whole retro space-age stuff really clicks with me; down to diners made in the shape of foods, "atomic cars", and bowling shirts. It was a time of camp, and the B and Z movies of the era reflected this better than any other films I thought. Sure, Alfred Hitchcock was in his "Golden Age" in the 1950's, and I watched his films with much admiration, but they were timeless classics. His films, and many of the great films existing within that epoch, transcended the times all together and left them behind. This isn't a bad thing, in fact its a very good thing, but to truly capture the times of that era, I felt I had to go deeper into the recessions of B and Z cinema. As a kid, I had seen movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space, knowing it was considered one of the worst films ever made by the world's worst director. But I was so enamored with its humor and camp value that I didn't consider it a movie as terrible as people made it out to be. I hadn't seen any other Ed Wood picture until years later when they finally released a DVD box set, (which I own), that included a majority of his films and the VHS format, along with Blockbuster Video, became a thing of the past. By that time I had seen Tim Burton's Ed Wood and had grown an even further appreciation for the man who created films which I adored as a kid. The film soon shared a view which I shared as a kid, there needed to be a righteous ode to these classics that were severely overlooked as celluloid trash. Even though these films didn't share the polish of a Hitchcock or Kazan picture, they were still just as important as the major productions.
Ed Wood is also about one man's "Persistence of Vision" in quite literal terms. His films are terrible, but he has a vision he is unwilling to compromise. Ed Wood desires nothing more than to make a picture, and he will go to any length to get his movies made. He doesn't exploit others to get the picture made, (though Bela Lugosi's own son thinks differently), rather he just doesn't give up, he sees things though to the very end even in the roughest times. When financing is all washed up, he tries finding another backer, again and again. I honestly think that story should be told to any film maker trying to produce a movie. Ed Wood is perhaps the most honest about producing and its troubles in all its regards.
The movie is also a portrait of two artists; Ed Wood, and just as important, Bela Lugosi. The two become inseparable in this film. They are tied together as one. The film could have taken the route of painter, (Wood), and painter alone, by going into the director's other films like Jail Bait and Night of the Ghouls; but for this movie, the painter (Wood), is nothing without his paints (Lugosi), and vise versa. The two soon become a director/actor duo that is seen time and time again throughout cinema history. The films may not be as applauded as say Kurosawa/Mifune, Hitchcock/Stewart, or Scorsese/De Niro, and in this case, Burton/Depp; but something should be said about relationships like these, a there is a true friendship, a bond, which the film poignantly illustrates. Though Lugosi's son thinks Wood exploited his father, he never once asked Lugosi, (going through financial trouble himself), to sport the money for his films. Ed Wood was rather an admirer of the man and his work, and Lugosi could have died without making Ed Wood's films, but then he would have died without doing what he loved to do. An actor needs to act; just as much as a bird needs to fly. Its not the sky in which the bird flies, or the stage in which the actor acts, it is the very nature of doing what you were put on Earth to do which is important. That's all that truly matters, and that to me is what this film illustrates. It is not the ends, rather the means of artistic vision.
Ed Wood(1994)
Ed Wood has become a personal comedy to me. There are probably other comedies I find more enjoyable, but this is the one that really sticks with me.
I have been a fan of 1950's and 1960's B and Z movies since I was a kid. The whole retro space-age stuff really clicks with me; down to diners made in the shape of foods, "atomic cars", and bowling shirts. It was a time of camp, and the B and Z movies of the era reflected this better than any other films I thought. Sure, Alfred Hitchcock was in his "Golden Age" in the 1950's, and I watched his films with much admiration, but they were timeless classics. His films, and many of the great films existing within that epoch, transcended the times all together and left them behind. This isn't a bad thing, in fact its a very good thing, but to truly capture the times of that era, I felt I had to go deeper into the recessions of B and Z cinema. As a kid, I had seen movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space, knowing it was considered one of the worst films ever made by the world's worst director. But I was so enamored with its humor and camp value that I didn't consider it a movie as terrible as people made it out to be. I hadn't seen any other Ed Wood picture until years later when they finally released a DVD box set, (which I own), that included a majority of his films and the VHS format, along with Blockbuster Video, became a thing of the past. By that time I had seen Tim Burton's Ed Wood and had grown an even further appreciation for the man who created films which I adored as a kid. The film soon shared a view which I shared as a kid, there needed to be a righteous ode to these classics that were severely overlooked as celluloid trash. Even though these films didn't share the polish of a Hitchcock or Kazan picture, they were still just as important as the major productions.
Ed Wood is also about one man's "Persistence of Vision" in quite literal terms. His films are terrible, but he has a vision he is unwilling to compromise. Ed Wood desires nothing more than to make a picture, and he will go to any length to get his movies made. He doesn't exploit others to get the picture made, (though Bela Lugosi's own son thinks differently), rather he just doesn't give up, he sees things though to the very end even in the roughest times. When financing is all washed up, he tries finding another backer, again and again. I honestly think that story should be told to any film maker trying to produce a movie. Ed Wood is perhaps the most honest about producing and its troubles in all its regards.
The movie is also a portrait of two artists; Ed Wood, and just as important, Bela Lugosi. The two become inseparable in this film. They are tied together as one. The film could have taken the route of painter, (Wood), and painter alone, by going into the director's other films like Jail Bait and Night of the Ghouls; but for this movie, the painter (Wood), is nothing without his paints (Lugosi), and vise versa. The two soon become a director/actor duo that is seen time and time again throughout cinema history. The films may not be as applauded as say Kurosawa/Mifune, Hitchcock/Stewart, or Scorsese/De Niro, and in this case, Burton/Depp; but something should be said about relationships like these, a there is a true friendship, a bond, which the film poignantly illustrates. Though Lugosi's son thinks Wood exploited his father, he never once asked Lugosi, (going through financial trouble himself), to sport the money for his films. Ed Wood was rather an admirer of the man and his work, and Lugosi could have died without making Ed Wood's films, but then he would have died without doing what he loved to do. An actor needs to act; just as much as a bird needs to fly. Its not the sky in which the bird flies, or the stage in which the actor acts, it is the very nature of doing what you were put on Earth to do which is important. That's all that truly matters, and that to me is what this film illustrates. It is not the ends, rather the means of artistic vision.
My Rating:
5 Stars of 5
5 Stars of 5