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Ed Wood – Art 2/5 Ent 4/5 Worth 5/5

I’ve always been ambivalent on Tim Burton. Sometimes, he’s really good (Big Fish, Batman Returns). Other times, I can’t wait for the predictable boredom to end (Planet of the Apes). Ed Wood is in my estimation, one of the finest works he’s ever done. Don’t even bother with any of the self-reference of a film about filmmaking, or a film within the film. That’s a dog that won’t hunt here. You’ll exhaust yourself seeing Jesus in your taco if you keep up with that stuff. The only key here is exploring the cult B-movie filmmaker’s happy-go-lucky vision of the universe, and specifically how he saw the art of film: the difference between Ben-Hur and Plan 9 from Outer Space is that you actually had fun at Plan 9. On a perfectly utilitarian level, where everyone was being honest with themselves, they’d readily admit to Plan 9′s greater use and value in their life.

And how could they not? Plan 9 was the most ridiculous filthy piece of shit ever made, and god damn was it hilarious. Audiences were changed from the person they were when entering the theater – they were permitted to let loose and cackle laughter as society’s thin veneer of civilized pretense gave way to absurdity. Audiences who were changed by Ben-Hur were few and far between and their lives probably weren’t altered significantly than if they saw Spartacus or Fall of the Roman Empire. Christian audiences flocked to see Ben-Hur because it confirmed their already entrenched beliefs, and it offered no dissonance or challenge to their senses. Ben-Hur, and most Hollywood productions were part of a long tradition, both proven and placid. But Ed Wood was radical, in an unassumingly nice way. He was part of a radical transformation of Western society when it began to just stop taking itself so fucking seriously. Whenever I hear people complaining about various things as evidence of the decline of Western civilization: hip hop, dub-step, Asian imports to Wal-Mart, Facebook, Twitter etc., all I can think of is the reaction to Ed Wood, and how intolerable life must have been in the 1930s and before.

Ed Wood is one of my favorite movies, cast aside from its merits. Its appeal is simple enough to understand: Johnny Depp at his serious best, Martin Landau delivering one of the finest performances these eyes have ever seen, a little love for Vampira (Maila Nurmi, who of course has lots of Sisu), and a brilliant cameo by Vincent D’Onofrio as Orson Welles (voiced by Maurice LaMarche, from Pinky & the Brain fame). It’s also one of the few movies were Bill Murray is actually funny.

There are two things that I absolutely love about Ed Wood. First, because it’s shot completely in black and white, we the audience are left in stitches when Depp asks one of the stagehands to decide which colored dress is better, to which he responds “I don’t know, I’m colorblind, the dark gray one works”. Second, throughout the movie people are continually surprised that aging film star Bela Lugosi (Landau) isn’t yet deceased, until finally Wood pitches an idea with (freshly deceased) Lugosi as his star and the Christian evangelical financier asks “isn’t he dead?” … “yes, unfortunately he is”. Little things like that just make my day.

As said before, Depp and Landau are excellent here, but the most underrated performer is  Landau’s daughter Juliet. She didn’t go on to big things after this movie, which is unfortunate, but her impeccably ’50s naivete bounced off Johnny’s Ed Wood like a mirror. She sounded like my grandma.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109707/