Ed Wood (1994)
Directed by Tim Burton

Film Review

Normally, biopics tend to be reserved for individuals who have some measure of greatness about them, men and women who have made their mark either as important historical figures or as major contributors to man's scientific and cultural achievements.  Edward D. Wood, Jr. was no such person.  He was a third rate exploitation filmmaker whose only claim to fame is that he was once described as the worst film director of all time.  A purveyor of low budget kitsch fantasy B-movies, which combined the worst of the horror and science-fiction genres, Wood's films were reviled whilst the director was alive, but have acquired a sizeable cult following after his death in 1978.  Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls, Plan 9 from Outer Space and Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love are just four of the risible cinematic oddities that bear Ed Wood's distinctive signature, films that are so ineptly written and directed that in any sane world they would have long been forgotten.  Yet the mere fact that Ed Wood directed some of the last films of Bela Lugosi (the horror icon made famous by Universal's Dracula) has conferred on him a kind of accidental immortality, and Tim Burton's affectionate biopic about his early years as a filmmaker will doubtless revive an interest in his work.  You don't have to be great to become a legend.

By the time he came to make this film, Tim Burton had already successfully fashioned himself as a modern stylist with such films as Batman (1989) and Edward Scissorhands (1990), films with both mainstream and art house appeal.  With Ed Wood, Burton was able to indulge his penchant for experimental movie making and decided not to tell Wood's story from an objective, realistic standpoint, but instead to tell it almost as Wood himself would have seen it, as a relentlessly upbeat kind of wacky B-movie.  The darker aspects of Wood's life story are either given a comical slant (for example the director's overt transvestism) or airbrushed out of the picture altogether (his slow descent into depression and alcoholism).  What Burton delivers is a moving and funny portrait of a man who, despite his complete lack of talent, manages to live his dream, driven by a truly staggering level of misplaced self-belief and perseverance.  From a biography of Wood by Rudolph Grey entitled Nightmare of Ecstasy, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski avoid ridiculing Wood but instead portray him as a kind of post-modern hero, someone we should admire not for his achievements but for his persistence and artistic individualism.

Johnny Depp has commented that the role of Ed Wood is the one that restored his interest in acting at a time when he was becoming intensely disillusioned with his career.  Certainly, Depp's performance in this film is one of his most nuanced and memorable, a beguiling portrayal of a complex, morally ambiguous individual whose lack of ability is surpassed by his boundless optimism.  The Ed Wood that Depp portrays is not one any biographer would recognise but rather how Wood may have seen himself, a misunderstood genius who genuinely does believe he can make it big in the movies.  The most poignant ingredient of the film is its depiction of Wood's friendship with the horror icon Bela Lugosi.  Even though the film plays fast and loose with the facts (Lugosi remarried before he died and was not quite so bereft in his final years as the film suggests), it offers a sobering commentary on how Hollywood treats its erstwhile legends, reminding us that showbusiness is the most brutal business there is.

The real star of the film is not Depp, but Martin Landau, who is so convincingly made up as the elderly Bela Lugosi that you'd almost swear the once revered king of horror had agreed to be brought back to life just so that he could feature in a Johnny Depp movie.  Landau not only looks like Lugosi, he sounds like him and gives a near-perfect imitation of his mannerisms and acting style in his declining years.   It is Landau's knockout performance - suitably rewarded with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar - that humanises Depp's flawed character and gives the film its poetry and tenderness, as well as a distinct twang of bitter irony.  The film won a second Oscar for its make up, another tribute to the skill with which it resurrects the spirit of Bela Lugosi.  Ah, children of the night...

Although it was extremely well-received by the critics, Ed Wood proved to be a major box office flop, recouping only five million of its 18 million dollar production cost.  It is easy to attribute the film's failure to find an audience to its downbeat subject matter - who in his right mind would want to sit down and watch the life story of a deluded loser?  Burton's decision to make the film in black-and-white may also have hurt its box office potential, leading Joe Public to think that it was an art film of little relevance to a contemporary audience.  Since its first dismal release, Ed Wood had acquired the status of a modern classic and may well come to be judged as Tim Burton's most important film, as well as a career highpoint for Johnny Depp.

Ed Wood isn't just a biopic about a minor, all-but-forgotten filmmaker.  It is a film that prompts us to question what greatness really is (who is to say what constitutes great art?), as well as serving as a modern fable that encourages us to stick with our dreams, to persevere even if the rest of the world thinks we are deluded and talentless.  We live for ourselves, not for others, and so if we have a burning desire to revive the career of a  faded film star by getting him to jump into a pond in the dead of night and wrestle with an inanimate giant octopus, nothing should dissuade us from doing so.  Ed Wood may not have been Orson Welles but this does not prevent him from connecting with us and inspiring us, through Tim Burton's engrossing and idiosyncratic personal tribute to his life and work.

Film Synopsis

Edward D. Wood, Jr. is a struggling Los Angeles playwright who is determined to make his name in the movies.  When he hears that producer George Weiss is planning to make a film on the life story of Christine Jorgensen, Ed sees his opportunity and tries to convince Weiss that, because he has a fetish about dressing up in women's clothes, he is the ideal man to direct the film.  Weiss is unimpressed by Ed's spiel but gives him one chance to prove himself, by directing a cheap exploitation picture entitled 'I Changed My Sex!'  Whilst preparing the film, Ed runs into his idol Bela Lugosi, a faded horror film star who lives on the brink of poverty as no one wants to hire him these days.  Aware that Lugosi still has crowd-pulling potential, Ed gives him a part in his film, which is now titled 'Glen or Glenda'.  The film proves to be a total disaster and when Ed fails to find a producer willing to back his next project he takes his girlfriend Dolores's advice and decides to go it alone.  Raising money for his next masterpiece, 'Bride of the Atom', is not easy but he finally finds a backer, in the form of meat packing magnate Don McCoy.  Enlisting the help of Bela Lugosi a second time (in what would be the actor's last speaking role), Ed delivers another monster-sized turkey, but the young filmmaker refuses to let his enthusiasm be dented by another failure.  As Ed contemplates his future, Lugosi's health takes a turn for the worse and shortly after Ed has filmed him standing outside his home the actor dies.  Even though his leading man is dead and buried, Ed decides he will be the star of his next film, 'Grave Robbers from Outer Space'.  All he needs to do is to find a Bela Lugosi look-alike and convince a congregation of God fearing Baptists to finance the film and Ed will have earned his place in movie history, alongside his hero, Orson Welles...