90s Movie Review - Ed Wood

Director: Tim Burton
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 121 minutes
Year: 1994
Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lisa Marie

Description: Ambitious but troubled movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. (Johnny Depp) tries his best to fulfill his dreams, despite his lack of talent.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2021 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 19: A MOVIE BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

Review: With the film “Ed Wood”, director Tim Burton pays a wonderful tribute to a colleague who went down in history as “the worst filmmaker of all time”.  Edward D. Wood Jr. owes his reputation to three B-movies he made in the 1950s. the director operated on the fringes of Hollywood, surrounded himself with a bizarre ensemble of actors and preferred to dress in pink angora sweaters.
At first glance it seems an odd combination: one of the most successful directors of the last decades, responsible for a bunch of fantastic movies, is making a film about the ultimate loser in Hollywood history. On closer inspection, however, the life and work of Tim Burton and Ed Wood appear to have striking similarities. For example, both grew up with a strong love for horror films and later both worked with the horror idols of their youth. Burton worked three times with the horror star Vincent Price, who died in 1993. Wood called on his childhood idol Bela Lugosi three times in the 1950s, the Hungarian actor who celebrated triumphs in Dracul in 1931, but never managed to pull off his mot famous role thanks in part to his Eastern European accents. Both directors became close friends with their elderly film stars, and the friendship between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi occupies a central place in Burton’s film.  
Ed Wood had, besides his passion for film, a love for dressing up in woman’s clothes. In 1953, Wood had the opportunity to combine these two passions. That’s how the movie “Glen & Glenda” was born. His directorial debut was laughed at an not taken seriously at all. But he still manages to stay positive and makes the horror film “Bride of the Monster”, again with Bela Lugosi.
Thanks to Wood’s engaging personality and indestructible optimism, the incompetent director managed to scrape together money again and again. In addition, he worked like a magnet on all sorts of notable figures. His entourage included, in addition to Lugosi, the 100-pound Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, TV-presenter Vampira and pseudo-psychic Criswell, the eccentric cousin Bunny Breckinridge and the color-blind cameraman Bill Thompson. The while bunch eventually starred in Ed Wood’s ‘masterpiece’ “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, the film Wood would eventually be remembered by.
Tim Burton shows himself to be a compassionate biographer with “Ed Wood”. He focuses on Wood’s boundless optimism, he ends his film with the premiere of “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. Through moody black-and-white photography, beautiful art direction and a few visual and verbal quotes, Burton manages to excellently capture the atmosphere of Wood’s heyday. As for the actors, there is a minor miracle: with Martin Landau leading the way, the company in “Ed Wood” seems straight out of Wood’s original film.
Landau’s performance as Bela Lugosi is truly amazing. And Johnny Depp, who plays the titular character, gives away a great performance as well. A small role for Vincent D’Onofrio as Orson Welles is really memorable and Bill Murray is fantastic as ever.
“Ed Wood” is a great film, in my opinion a very overlooked and underrated film by Tim Burton.

Rating: 4 / 5