Ed Wood

As a big fan of Ed Wood's work, (more specifically: as a BAD movie buff), I must say it is great to see Edward D Wood, Jr. get some recognition for his hard (bad) work.

The movie has many inaccuracies, things such as the sequence of Wood's films, and other details of the movies. But in my mind the real life of Wood would not have made for a very good movie, so Tim Burton took some liberties. For a change this does not destroy a historical representation, but rather makes it easier to follow.

Last of all, the cast was excellent. Johnny Depp is one of the finest character actors in Hollywood today, and he managed to bring a warmth to a man who was, in real life, deeply, deeply disturbed. Depp was surrounded by many other fine actors, and the cameos by some of Wood's real life friends were a delight!

It's sort of embarrassing to admit it took me ten years to see this film. I'm not really a big fan of Tim Burton, and while I never had anything against him, I've only recently started to enjoy Johnny Depp's work. Given the subject matter, this just wasn't a movie I was interested in for a long time. But sometimes good things really are worth the wait.

Ed Wood, of course, chronicles the Hollywood career of its eponymous subject, truly one screwed up individual; a cross-dresser with a fetish for angora, Wood churned out one horrifically bad film after another, culminating with Plan Nine From Outer Space, before descending into crappy porn films toward the end of his life. It isn't necessarily a happy story, and Burton wisely only tells a small sliver of it, from Ed's first movie, Glen or Glenda, through the premiere of Plan Nine.

But the love that Burton has for Wood and his movies shines through in every frame. Though I find Burton needlessly artsy as a director, here that tendency serves him frightfully well, as he manages to do the near-impossible; make a film about someone that plays like one of their films (the abysmal Dragon is a shining example of how NOT to do this). Shot entirely in black and white, we see all of Wood's weirdos not as they were, but rather as Ed probably saw them, through the bizarre filter he must have viewed life with.

Depp is simply brilliant here, probably even better than he was in Pirates of the Caribbean. He captures Wood's enthusiasm and slanted viewpoint, but he does so in a loving, positive way. Wood accepts, as we must, that he was a screwed-up hack, but it never drags him down; in fact, Depp has him reveling in it, and it is that very passion that buoys up the movie. It doesn't hurt that nearly everyone else is very strong too, from Jeffrey Jones' crank 'psychic' Criswell to Bill Murray's Bunny Breckenridge, who often talks about having a sex change but never goes through with it. George 'The Animal' Steele captures Tor Johnson perfectly, and even Lisa Marie is excellent as Vampira. But the true great performance of the film, outshining even Depp, is Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. He won the Oscar for this, and deservedly so; he presents Lugosi at the end of his life, a washed-up has been, a shell of a man who was once a great star but is now no more than an addict. Landau virtually disappears in the role, and all you get is Lugosi, every tragic inch of him. Again, we see him not only as he was, but how Wood and even Burton see him, and the effect is masterful. One speech in particular, where Lugosi repeats a speech that Wood wrote for him about once being the master of the world but now on the verge of coming back is particularly haunting, and Landau is simply riveting.

Ed Wood is a rare beast – it's a Tim Burton film that doesn't go overboard, it's a movie about Hollywood (sort of) that isn't self-indulgent, it's a nostalgia trip that manages not to be sappy but is still very warm and caring, and overall it's just a strikingly well-done film. I was impressed on many levels, most particularly with Depp and Landau, but really with the whole movie, that such a truly screwed-up human being could be shown in such a positive, indeed, loving way. Ed Wood is nothing less than a tribute to its subject, and in that, as in many other ways, it succeeds marvelously. If somehow you've missed this film, as I had until recently, you owe it to yourself to see it. It's simply a wonderful piece of film-making that should not be missed.

Without question it's Tim Burton's best, most complete work and Johnny Depp is superb. Perhaps it's the total understanding of his subject that allows Tim Burton to fly so high here. The beautifully tailored script gives room for some exquisite character drawings, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, Vincent D'Onofrio as Orson Wells. "When you re-write a script it gets better and better" tells Ed/Johnny to his girlfriend with a smile full of innocence. What a performance! Johnny Depp is a unique kind of actor, we never had anyone quite like him. How can he manage to disappear behind a character and still bring with him his full bag of tricks, I don't know, but he does. I only wish he wouldn't get lost in mediocrities like "Nick of Time" "The Astronaut's Wife" and "Secret Window" He belongs to the world of real, great filmmakers. Better to risk with an original idea by Emir Kusturica than a "safe", tired, Stephen King thing. Johnny, remember, we're looking at you for clues about ourselves. More Ed Woods , please!

Ed Wood is a frustrated actor and director who's small theatre productions barely can get a good word said about them. When a cheap little production company advertises a project about sex change, Wood jumps at the chance and uses his personal fetish for women's clothing as the hook to get the job. Despite his final project being laughed out of the major studios, Wood now has the taste for it and starts to try and get funding to make his own films - aided by the ailing star Bela Lugosi who is desperate for work to help fund his habits. With a collection of freaks and oddballs, Wood made what are now considered to be some of the worst films ever made.

Some things in life are depressing and it is often the case that we try to look on the bright side and make jokes about the situation as an attempt to deal with it. I'm from Northern Ireland and my humour is quite dark and gallows style simply because that is the kind of comedy I grew up with was draw from the background of murder and violence - gallows humour is an appropriate term. This film may not be based on gallows humour but it is such a potentially depressing story that the only way to do it and make it enjoyable is to tell it with humour. Burton treats his subject with a great deal of affection and thus makes this film a funny tale of a dreamer who we know will never see his dreams fulfilled in the way he would like. The story is funny but not in the cruel mocking way that it could have been but in a fanciful way that is amusing and all the better for being based on truth. This strand continues all the way through the film and helps us to like Wood even if it is impossible to defend his films - the ending is perfectly upbeat considering that Wood then ended his life an alcoholic making cheap nude pictures. The characters are exaggerated but still quite true to the real life people they represent (I take this from comments made in documentaries).

As director, Burton is excellent. He gives the whole film an otherworldly feel that is very fitting for a tale that involves characters that are very weird indeed. The affectionate approach that Burton has for Wood really helps - I wonder does he relate to the guy just trying to make the films that appeal to him or what it is that makes him feel this way towards him? Either way the end result is very good and it stands out as a film that is pretty much without flaw. I questioned the film's inclusion in the imdb top 250 but then I thought well, what is wrong with it? I had to admit that almost nothing is wrong - the only thing would be that the story may not be to everyone's tastes and not everyone will buy into Burton's affectionate look at Wood.

The cast is led by a magnificent performance by Depp who I have long maintained is one of the finest actors (or at least bravest) of my generation. Here he continues Burton's affectionate approach by portraying Wood as a man filled with hope and dreams - even doing a good job of turning cross dressing into an amusing quirk. The cast is truly all star but they all do a great job playing their characters. Landau's Oscar may have had a touch of sentimentality about it but it was still deserved - he plays Lugosi really well and manages the difficulties of his drug addiction really well to make him both amusing but deeply sympathetic. The support cast includes good turns from Parker, Arquette (quite interchangeable really!), Jones, Murray, Starr, D'Onofrio and Spradlin. All the cast do well but it is those that play Wood's wooden cast members that do the best job - managing to do both natural performances outside of Wood's movie but also doing justice to just how bad their characters really were!

Overall this is a great movie but the tale of a rubbish movie director who enjoys cross-dressing and hangs out with a group of weirdoes is likely not to be to everyone's taste. Regardless of this, if it interests you then you should be pleased with a slick movie that takes an amusing and affectionate look at what is a fairly depressing story.

I hear that ED WOOD took just $6,000,000 on its initial cinematic release in the USA. I'm not surprised. The extraordinary thing is that the film was financed and released at all. Had it not been for the prestige that Tim Burton had already earned from his previous projects, ED WOOD would no doubt have foundered long before the cameras began to roll. The result could have been another 1941 – but it wasn't. What came out of Tim Burton's fascination with the `Worst Director of All Time' was something very rich and strange – perhaps the most un-Hollywood Hollywood picture of the 90s.

I see two main themes in ED WOOD. The first is the dreadful fear that hovers over everyone who enters the creative arts – `Am I any good?' `Is my work any good?' `How do I know if it's any good?' `What if I think it's good, but everybody else thinks it's rubbish?' Artists use all kinds of strategies to deal with these fears – some become eccentric, others arrogant, others diffident. Without the right to fail, no artist is likely to take the sort of risk that sometimes, just sometimes, leads to great work. Tim Burton knew this.

Edward D Wood Jnr believed himself to be a creative artist. Oh, how he believed. But he still failed to create anything worthwhile. And this leads to what I believe to be the second theme of the movie, and the reason why I think it failed commercially.

Look at all the things Ed did right. He believed in himself. He followed his dream. He worked hard. He was an entrepreneur – he did his best to make others believe in his dream and help him to turn it into reality. In short, he did all the things that the self-help books, the daytime TV shows, the junk ballads and the feel-good movies tell us will give you success. Just wish upon a star, work all the hours there are to turn your vision into reality and you will succeed. Ed did all of these things. And still he failed. He died short of his 60th birthday, living in a crime-riddled apartment building, drunk, broke, supporting himself and his loyal wife Kathy by writing formula pornography and making sex instruction flicks on 8mm.

America doesn't want to hear this. Hollywood doesn't want to tell America this – that you can try and try and try and still get nothing but heartbreak. This is why ED WOOD is such an un-Hollywood film – and why it's one of the best Hollywood films of the 90s.