Why would anyone want to watch a film about the world’s worst director/writer, let alone make that film? Leave it to Tim Burton to give us the answer.
After his adventures into the weird with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands, it was impossible for me to not love Tim Burton. Here was a director who not only spotlighted the strange and unusual, the weirdos and the outcasts, but he got you to fall in love with them as well. You cheered when Pee Wee got his bike back. You couldn’t help but grin when Lydia finally felt so at home that she broke out into a Harry Belafonte song. Odds are you even shed a tear when Edward was unfortunately driven away from suburbia and back to his darkened castle. Burton was able to bring characters to the screen that were unlike anything we’d seen but by the end of the runtime they were bound to be favorites. But how could he do the same with someone that actually existed?
Going into this film on my first viewing I knew nothing of Ed Wood. I hadn’t heard of Plan 9 from Outer Space, Tor Johnson, and I would’ve easily confused Vampira for Elvira. Other than Bela Lugosi it could’ve all been fictional and I would’ve been none the wiser. At times much of what happens in Ed Wood feels like fiction. How could this man, blessed with an endless supply of pluck and optimism but minimal recognition for talent or story manage to make not just one film, but many? Armed with more ideas than money and motivated by his unlikely friendship with Dracula, Ed did the best he could with what he had and sadly that combination was never enough to lift him to the heights of his idol Orson Welles.
Working from a grounded and earnest script from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Burton leaned into the talent of his collaborator Johnny Depp. At this point in his career, Depp was still mostly known as a teen idol thanks to his turn on 21 Jump St, but his best silver screen work had been in the aforementioned Edward Scissorhands. While he was able to plaster himself in makeup, prosthetics and costumes in that film, for Ed Wood Depp had to create an entire persona that was at once affable, motivated, and energetic. Not only that but he had to be brave enough to dress in women’s clothing, something that I’m sure most young leading men wannabes weren’t excited to do in the early 90’s. But Depp gave us a well rounded and surprisingly deep turn as a man who put forth his heart and soul into everything he did. Alongside a winning turn from Patricia Arquette as his soon to be wife, they showed the importance of kindness, acceptance, and human connection when it comes to the art of creation.
And what better muse could he have had then the man who once scared the world, Bela Lugosi? Played by Martin Landau, we are able to see that there was a deeply wounded man behind that cape and mesmerizing stare. Now, at the end of his career, he needed something to keep him from the waiting arms of death and somehow Wood was able to give him that, for at least a little while. Landau rightfully won the Oscar for his portrayal.
“All I want to do is tell stories, the kind I find interesting,” Wood tells his wife towards the end of the picture and one can’t help but think that Burton has been lucky enough to build the majority of his career doing the same thing. He’s best known for his outlandish and colorful forays into fancy, but I’m always excited when he dives into something a little more real.
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars.
