Voted the worst director of all time, Edward D. Wood Jr. created a string of cheesy 1950s monster movies that were so bad that they immortalized the actor-director-writer-producer. Director Tim Burton was raised on a diet of schlock horror films that included such Ed Wood classics as Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls and Plan 9 From Outer Space. It was fitting, then, that Burton would be the director asked to turn the life of Ed Wood into a film.
The movie follows Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) through the most noteworthy part of his career. It opens in 1953 when America is booming and people are hungry for entertainment. Wood convinces a small-time film production house to let him make and star in a movie called, I Changed My Sex. Instead, he produces Glen Or Glenda, about a cross-dresser who has hidden his secret from his girlfriend. In his own way, Wood uses the movie to admit to his real-life girlfriend, Delores Fuller (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), that he too is a cross-dresser. By chance, Wood meets his childhood idol, Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), now a washed-up has been. Wood drafts Lugosi into starring in a string of his B-movies. The road to Hollywood fame is paved with compromises as Ed Wood learns, having to hand out parts to the incompetent relatives of financial backers, and repeatedly needing to beg, borrow and steal to get his pictures made. Before Wood can make his opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Lugosi dies. This doesn’t stop Wood, as he casts a chiropractor to carry out the remainder of Lugosi’s role. The man finishes the movie by stalking the set, his face half covered with a cloak. Pushing aside all the obstacles, Wood proceeds to make the worst string of movies ever put on film.
This movie captures its talent in their peak performances. Landau is commanding in his role as the aged but fiery Lugosi, a man broken by time and by his addiction to morphine; it is no surprise that Landau took an Oscar for his supporting role. Depp disappears into the role of the would-be Orson Welles whose penchant for angora sweaters surfaces when times get tough. The remainder of the cast is also excellent, especially Bill Murray in the role of the flamboyant and mis-gendered Bunny Beckinbridge.
While never criticized for making boring movies, Tim Burton has taken some heat for films with weak narratives and blurry plots; Ed Wood has no problem in that department. It still has the Burton lens of quirkiness, but it’s clearly focussed on Edward D. Wood Jr. during the most interesting period of his career. What really makes this film work is the underlying theme. Ed Wood was a hack; his actions and his work speak to that in volumes, but Burton portrays Wood as someone who put everything he had behind what he was doing. Burton shows admiration for Wood’s drive and energy, while leaving his actual work open to the ridicule it can’t help but earn.
Ed Wood works on several levels – as a period piece, as a comedy, as a biography, and as a tragedy. It’s the finest example of Tim Burton’s work as a director and a role that Johnny Depp will have to go a long way to better.
