FILM TITLE: ED WOOD DIRECTOR: TIM BURTON COUNTRY: USA 1995 CINEMATOGRAPHY: STEFAN CZAPSKY MUSIC: HOWARD SHORE CAST: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, G.D. Spradling, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lisa Marie, Bill Murray SUPER FEATURES: The black and white.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The emotional trauma that one goes through to make a film..... specially when one is new, and does not have a record to go with the resume. This is really what this film is about.
And this film is as much a tribute to those efforts, as much as it is for a man who tried to get into film, but eventually, he could only find his way into an area, that in years to come, Hollywood would finally learn to use to its advantage. Ed Wood, unfortunately, became synonymous with the worst films ever made, not so much because of the subject matter ( total surrealism, Hollywood style ), but because he ended up being stuck in his own image. And in those days, one never left it, or so it seemed.
This film, is a kind, loving, and caring look at the trials and tribulations of a film maker. In the process he has the fortune of making the acquaintance of one famous actor in the decline, Bela Lugosi, who is terribly addicted and confused. And the question is how to get the old actor into a costume for another story, something which even Bela, might have hoped would bring his star back to life.
And, what makes this film so nice, is without any doubt, the exceptional performances all around. Martin Landau won an Oscar in March of 1995 for this film, and deservedly so. The great Bela Lugosi could never get that much attention, but the legacy he left behind was his mark, and this is probably as close as he will ever get to the Oscar. And Johnny Depp, tends to look like a fifties kid just trying to make it through the 30's and 40's and make a film. Sad to say, that the demise of Bela Lugosi had a lot to do with the depression and how no one could afford to go to see a film, and thus, support an industry. All of the film's attention is on the inside story, and how some people are trying desperately to make a living, in an era, when it was virtually impossible to do so.
And the only material that was trying to break the Hollywood traditions of the time ( already in place ), were the ones that did something different. And Ed Wood personifies them all.
With a few bit parts here and there, like Bill Murray as Bunny ( eventually Myra ) Breckinridge, the film plods along. Ed Wood couldn't afford real actors, so anyone who wanted to be in a film was going to have the honors. Many did, to help develop the oddest collection of characters in any film, to come up with some unusual surrealistic material Hollywood style, which this stuff really is.
Good film. Worth seeing. A great look at the film business as well.
4 GIBLOONS Copyright (c) Pedro Sena 1995. All Rights Reserved. Member of the Internet Movie Critics Association
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