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Is this the ultimate love letter in the history of cinema? Tim Burton's ode to Edward Wood, aka the worst director of all time, is a beautiful and touching bit of hero worship. It's been a favourite of mine for a long time now. On my top 100 list I posted here I placed it at exactly #100 but at the time I hadn't seen it for a few years. Revisiting it now confirms that it should be a lot higher.
The film's greatest achievement is in turning Ed Wood from the laughing stock and worst director of all time that he was, into someone to root for and admire. Yes his ambitions may have far outweighed his talent. And yes his films perhaps weren't that good; awful even! But how can you not admire a man with such a love for film, and such a desire to create magic up on the screen. A man who poured all his heart into his films. How much more preferential is that to the numerous directors since then and who are still around today that produce one soulless film after another, seemingly designed purely to make as much profit at the box office as possible. Michael Bay – I'm looking at you!
This is a film that could very easily have been played up to its rather sad potential. After all it's a story about a series of ridiculous characters who despite their best intentions ultimately failed when it came to movie making. Burton however finds great hope and aspiration in their efforts. These people and the films they made have been ridiculed and pilloried for decades, but Burton shows these people, and Wood in particular, to be rather inspirational figures. Individuals who fight and scrap with everything they've got to fulfil their dreams and get their ideas up on the screen. These are people who just love cinema and want to be a part of the magic. Burton shows them great respect and gives them back a sense of dignity. No doubt Burton sees Wood as something of a kindred spirit. A director with bizarre ideas who could easily be described as 'kooky' it's easy to imagine Burton sympathising with Wood's efforts to get his creations on screen. After all, studios can't exactly have been falling over themselves to get their hands on some of Burton's outlandish and quirky concepts.
Johnny Depp is delightful in the title role, perfectly capturing the wide-eyed wonder of a child for film and the infectious energy he attacked each project with. He's just so easy to root for. So much so that you hope the film is leading up to Ed's triumphant Oscar win for Best Director, but sadly that's not the path his career took. And Depp looks excellent in monochrome, in fact after this I think he should have demanded that every film he made be filmed in black and white! However as good as he is even he can't grab the limelight from the wonderful Martin Landau who gives an absolutely fantastic showing as the legendary Bela Lugosi. He provides glimpses of the iconic character actor that Lugosi once was, but shows the pathetic and pitiful individual that he sadly descended to in his later years. A washed up drug addict unable to get any work, he tries to retain a sense of pride and dignity. His performance is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Landau's line delivery is just fantastic, especially when it comes to cursing! My personal favourite moments are when he furiously cracks up over Boris Karloff, and his reaction to the rubber octopus.
Ed Wood surrounded himself with an eccentric group of oddballs, and they are terrifically brought to life and realised by the quirky cast that Burton assembled. Jeffrey Jones is terrific as TV psychic Criswell, and former professional wrestler George “The Animal” Steele just has so much characters in his face alone. And then there's Bill Murray. While it's a fairly minor role that he has Murray makes every second of it count, delivering laughs with pretty much every single line he has. It may sound strange to say (it even sounds strange to me!
) when you consider some of his leading roles in films like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, but this is damn near close to my favourite Bill Murray performance/character.
In terms of its direction and cinematography the film is damn near perfect. It both looks and sounds exactly as it should. The black and white photography is gorgeous and it's hard to imagine how it could even have been contemplated to film it any other way. It's impossible to think that had it been done in colour it would have been anywhere near as effective as it us. I especially love the shot at the film's beginning as the camera pans over Hollywood and has it lit only by flashes of lightning. And while it's not a constant laugh right I do find the film to be terrifically funny at times, especially in the moments were Landau's Legosi loses his cool
The film is fairly minimal when it comes to plot, meandering through Wood's resume of films one after the other; culminating with Wood's opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space. What breaks this up and greatly adds to the film's heart are the three relationships that Wood found himself in at this time. There's his strained and ultimately failed romance with his actress muse Dolores Fuller, portrayed by Parker. It's Wood's revelation of his penchant for cross dressing that seems to put the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. And then there's his romance with Patricia Arquette's Kathy O'Hara, a relationship that seems to be his saving grace. However without a doubt the film's most satisfying and touching relationship is the friendship that develops between Wood and legendary horror star, Bela Lugosi. As a man he grew up idolising Wood is clearly heartbroken to see the predicament that Lugosi now finds himself in. As a result he does all he can to resurrect both his career and his life in general.
So all in all a wonderful piece of film making. Although I do have one note of caution. This is a touching tribute to the man considered the worst director of his, and perhaps, all time! So does that mean in about 30 years time some visionary director is going to create a film of appreciation to the new worst director ever, Uwe Boll? *shudder* Now there's a scary thought!!!
Conclusion – I love this film. While I probably wouldn't call it my favourite Tim Burton film (I believe Edward Scissorhands may still hold that accolade) I do believe it's his personal masterpiece, a lovingly crafted film. A film for anyone who has ever had a dream that they just can't quite attain. Indeed if I wasn't so reticent at handing out perfect ratings this would be a prime contender for a five star rating as it's just about perfect in what it sets out to accomplish. It's so good that not even the involvement of Sarah Jessica Parker can ruin it!
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Year of release
1994
1994
Directed by
Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Written by
Scott Alexander (script)
Larry Karaszewski (script)
Rudolph Grey (book - Nightmare of Ecstasy)
Scott Alexander (script)
Larry Karaszewski (script)
Rudolph Grey (book - Nightmare of Ecstasy)
Starring
Johnny Depp
Martin Landau
Sarah Jessica Parker
Patricia Arquette
Bill Murray
Johnny Depp
Martin Landau
Sarah Jessica Parker
Patricia Arquette
Bill Murray
Ed Wood
(repeat viewing)
(repeat viewing)
++
Is this the ultimate love letter in the history of cinema? Tim Burton's ode to Edward Wood, aka the worst director of all time, is a beautiful and touching bit of hero worship. It's been a favourite of mine for a long time now. On my top 100 list I posted here I placed it at exactly #100 but at the time I hadn't seen it for a few years. Revisiting it now confirms that it should be a lot higher.
The film's greatest achievement is in turning Ed Wood from the laughing stock and worst director of all time that he was, into someone to root for and admire. Yes his ambitions may have far outweighed his talent. And yes his films perhaps weren't that good; awful even! But how can you not admire a man with such a love for film, and such a desire to create magic up on the screen. A man who poured all his heart into his films. How much more preferential is that to the numerous directors since then and who are still around today that produce one soulless film after another, seemingly designed purely to make as much profit at the box office as possible. Michael Bay – I'm looking at you!
This is a film that could very easily have been played up to its rather sad potential. After all it's a story about a series of ridiculous characters who despite their best intentions ultimately failed when it came to movie making. Burton however finds great hope and aspiration in their efforts. These people and the films they made have been ridiculed and pilloried for decades, but Burton shows these people, and Wood in particular, to be rather inspirational figures. Individuals who fight and scrap with everything they've got to fulfil their dreams and get their ideas up on the screen. These are people who just love cinema and want to be a part of the magic. Burton shows them great respect and gives them back a sense of dignity. No doubt Burton sees Wood as something of a kindred spirit. A director with bizarre ideas who could easily be described as 'kooky' it's easy to imagine Burton sympathising with Wood's efforts to get his creations on screen. After all, studios can't exactly have been falling over themselves to get their hands on some of Burton's outlandish and quirky concepts.
Film trivia – While the film may be successful at capturing the spirit of Ed Wood and his films they are worlds apart in terms of their production values. Ed Wood cost more to produce than every single one of Ed Wood's films combined. And it's estimated that the opening titles and credit sequence for Ed Wood cost more than the entire budget of any one of Wood's real films.
Ed Wood surrounded himself with an eccentric group of oddballs, and they are terrifically brought to life and realised by the quirky cast that Burton assembled. Jeffrey Jones is terrific as TV psychic Criswell, and former professional wrestler George “The Animal” Steele just has so much characters in his face alone. And then there's Bill Murray. While it's a fairly minor role that he has Murray makes every second of it count, delivering laughs with pretty much every single line he has. It may sound strange to say (it even sounds strange to me!
) when you consider some of his leading roles in films like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, but this is damn near close to my favourite Bill Murray performance/character.
Film trivia – One of the things that really drew Tim Burton to the project was the relationship between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi, and the parallels he saw with his own friendship with Vincent Price late in Price's life.
The film is fairly minimal when it comes to plot, meandering through Wood's resume of films one after the other; culminating with Wood's opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space. What breaks this up and greatly adds to the film's heart are the three relationships that Wood found himself in at this time. There's his strained and ultimately failed romance with his actress muse Dolores Fuller, portrayed by Parker. It's Wood's revelation of his penchant for cross dressing that seems to put the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. And then there's his romance with Patricia Arquette's Kathy O'Hara, a relationship that seems to be his saving grace. However without a doubt the film's most satisfying and touching relationship is the friendship that develops between Wood and legendary horror star, Bela Lugosi. As a man he grew up idolising Wood is clearly heartbroken to see the predicament that Lugosi now finds himself in. As a result he does all he can to resurrect both his career and his life in general.
So all in all a wonderful piece of film making. Although I do have one note of caution. This is a touching tribute to the man considered the worst director of his, and perhaps, all time! So does that mean in about 30 years time some visionary director is going to create a film of appreciation to the new worst director ever, Uwe Boll? *shudder* Now there's a scary thought!!!
Conclusion – I love this film. While I probably wouldn't call it my favourite Tim Burton film (I believe Edward Scissorhands may still hold that accolade) I do believe it's his personal masterpiece, a lovingly crafted film. A film for anyone who has ever had a dream that they just can't quite attain. Indeed if I wasn't so reticent at handing out perfect ratings this would be a prime contender for a five star rating as it's just about perfect in what it sets out to accomplish. It's so good that not even the involvement of Sarah Jessica Parker can ruin it!