Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

For those of you who don’t know, Edward D. Wood, Jr. was an eccentric filmmaker from the fifties who, like Van Gogh, only achieved fame after his death, when he was crowned the worst director of all time in the early eighties.

Before this notoriety, a friend of a member of the Ed Wood circle wrote a screenplay titled Edward Ford. Unfortunately, the lead role of Edward Ford was too difficult to cast, and the movie was never made, though the writer, Lem Dobbs, went on to make a career out of this script. At one point even Steven Soderbergh (director of THE LIMEY, TRAFFIC, and SOLARIS) considered making it, but the plans fell through.

Anyway, Ed Wood was genius who never quite mastered his craft and was never recognized for his eye for social satire. His emotions about his own transvestitism were channeled into GLEN OR GLENDA? and his brilliant observations about human nature and war were stuffed into the awkward PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Both films had cameo appearances by the great Bela Legosi, who was befriended by Ed Wood in the final stages of his life.

After you’ve read this brief background and watched at least PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, you're ready for Tim Burton’s ED WOOD.

~~~~~

We open in a typical Ed Wood manner, with Jeffrey Jones coming out from a coffin, speaking in that melodramatic Ed Wood fashion, practically stealing phrases from the beginning of PLAN 9. Again, I can’t emphasize enough how much more you will appreciate this movie if you are familiar with Ed Wood’s work.

The casting in this film couldn’t be better, with much credit due to the director, the great Tim Burton. Johnny Depp plays the title role and he no doubt appears in the film because of his previous relationship with Burton. Jeffrey Jones was probably cast in the same manner, as he had a main role in Burton’s BEETLEJUICE, and is also a good friend of Paul Reubens, whose film debut, PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, was Burton’s first chance to helm a feature film. I actually don’t mind Sarah Jessica Parker as Dolores Fuller, Ed’s first and less-understanding girlfriend, but, after she leaves him, we are left with the much more charming, much more talented Patricia Arquette. Vincent D’Onofrio has a cameo as Orson Welles, who of course directed CITIZEN KANE, and Bill Murray has the small part of Bunny Breckinridge, who is one of the few members of the Ed Wood gang who is still alive today (he lives in New Jersey). You may recognize Max Casella - who plays Paul Marco - as he has appeared in seventeen episodes of The Sopranos. Last, and certainly not least, we see Martin Landau in his Oscar-winning performance an old Bela Legosi; a washed-up hasbin, rejected by major studios as a drug addict.

The greatest part about ED WOOD is its tribute to the man and his madness. Staying true to its source, it’s shot in black and white and with similar lighting as the B-movies of the fifties. We see Ed Wood as a young, energetic, proud transvestite who just wants to bring his vision to celluloid. Unfortunately, he was never given the time or money to learn or develop his craft, and thus lived in poverty and obscurity for the remainder of his life.

Which brings me to my biggest problem with the movie. Unlike Edward Ford, ED WOOD only manages to cover the beginning stages of his career. No doubt the making of GLEN OR GLENDA?, BRIDE OF THE BEAST, and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE - along with his relationship with the late Bela Legosi - are interesting, but nonetheless screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski seem to ignore the fact that Ed Wood lived a sad existence. He was rejected by studios, critics, his audience, and society (for the way he dressed), and died an alcoholic. His wife, Kathy O’Hara, stayed faithfully by him through the bad and the even worse, making her life even bitterer than his. Glamorizing the life a man whose only press was bad press that came after he died is absolutely absurd. I don’t doubt that he was happy in the beginning, but ED WOOD leaves us with the two lovers, Wood and O’Hara, driving off into the night to get married. With the exception of a brief “what happened to everybody” scene before the credits roll, the entire movie seems to reject his pitiful life and replace it with this joyous image in a typical Hollywood ending. I expected as much from Hollywood, but I had more faith in Tim Burton.

To its credit, the movie was much more accurate than I had anticipated. Many Ed Wood misconceptions - one example being that many people think Legosi died two days into shooting PLAN 9, when he really died years before production began - are not included, and, while misleading, there are no lies about his life.

But, if ED WOOD gets two dozen people to see PLAN 9 or GLEN OR GLENDA? or BRIDE OF THE BEAST, then I’m pleased. If it gets people to understand that Ed Wood was not an idiot, just a poor filmmaker, than I’m really happy. I think every aspiring director and/or screenwriter should study Ed Wood’s films, along with this one. It’s a very important lesson in how Hollywood screws even the smartest of people, and an inspirational story about bringing your vision, however weak, to the silver screen.

~~~~~

To read Edward Ford, go to:

http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/0603/edford.pdf

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS