Overall Rating
  Awesome: 73.79%
Worth A Look: 15.17%
Average: 9.66%
Pretty Bad: 0.69%
Total Crap: 0.69%
6 reviews, 109 user ratings
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| Ed Wood |
by Brian McKay
"Wood you believe it?"
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After being thoroughly underwhelmed by Tim Burton's films for years (perhaps with the exception of SLEEPY HOLLOW or NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), I actually stumbled upon two that I rather enjoyed, and within a few weeks of each other.After seeing Big Fish, I discovered a renewed interest in Burton's directorial style (which had mostly annoyed me up until now). So when a coworker decided to get rid of some of his old videotapes by bringing the free grab bag to work (sans porno, mind you), the cover of Burton's tribute to the infamous purveyor of schlock sort of jumped out at me. Here was one of Burton's earlier films that had somehow slipped under my radar (and that of the vast moviegoing public as well, undoubtedly). And yet, from the opening black-and-white shot of the Hollywood sign on a rainy night, the camera pulling slowly back to reveal the streets and rooftops of 1950's tinseltown, I knew that I'd found something I would like.
One has to hand it to Burton - it took balls to make a black and white period film about a cross-dressing director who shot some of the most godawful films since the Lumiere Brothers gave birth to the medium in the basement of a Paris cafe'. If the tripod of commercial and artistic success is talent, inspiration, and perseverance, then Wood's career wobbled along on a unipod of sheer tenacity. Cobbling together films out of stock footage, single takes, and convoluted scripts, Wood (Johnny Depp) somehow kept making movies even though his first should have probably been his last. Laughed at by big studios and distributors, Wood went the indie route before indie was trendy, cranking out film after film and somehow convincing investors that they would be big hits.
Amid this pursuit of craptacular filmmaking, Wood met and befriended washed-up former horror star Bela Lugosi (played impeccably by Martin Landau, who earned every inch of that gold statuette for Best Supporting Actor). Lugosi is shunned by the industry, forgotten by the public, nearly bankrupt and addicted to morphine - but still one of the greatest actors of all time in Wood's eyes. He becomes determined to put Lugosi back on the map by making him the star of his next picture.
Alas, while success continued to elude them, the two gained a friendship that is the heart and soul of Ed Wood. Landau's Lugosi is an alternately amusing and heartbreaking character who is given one last taste of life while in orbit around Wood's infectious mania, before finally slipping into inevitable oblivion.
Unfortunately, the passing of Lugosi is where the emotional core drops out of Ed Wood, with the film's final act focusing on the making of Plan Nine from Outer Space, that infamous piece of celluloid often hailed in critic's circles as "the worst film ever" (although I beg to differ. Don't get me wrong, it's bad . . . really bad - but I've seen worse). Of course, it's not really Burton's fault. He obviously had to touch upon Plan 9's creation, since it is the milestone (or perhaps tombstone) of Wood's career. But the final act, although funny, seems empty in the wake of Lugosi's departure.Burton, Depp, and Landau have breathed life into two of Hollywood's most famous entities (at least in certain cult enclaves). After all, Wood's films are more popular now than they ever could have been in their day, flying high on pure camp value alone. And Lugosi, of course, went on to be the poster boy for "Goth" kids everywhere. I don't give a damn what Bauhaus says, Bela Lugosi Lives!
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=763&reviewer=258
originally posted: 03/03/04 15:42:42
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USA
28-Sep-1994 (R)
DVD: 19-Oct-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
N/A
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