Butler - Ed Wood

Tim Burton’s film Ed Wood pays great homage to Ed Wood’s films. In the film, Burton is trying to convey many aspects of Wood’s films, some of which include the heart and spirit Wood put into his films, how personal the films Wood made were to him, and how Wood created his own little family through his films. Burton does a great job of bringing all of these aspects together to create a wonderful homage to Ed Wood.

            One aspect Burton conveys about Wood’s films is how much heart and spirit Wood put into his films. Wood was always incredibly energetic and spirited while making his films. Wood always believed in his material, and Wood would never give up hope while making a film. This is greatly shown throughout Ed Wood. Throughout the movie, Wood is always finding some way to put his movies together and finish them. Wood comes up with ingenious schemes to bring his movies to completion, such as getting funding for Grave Robbers From Outer Space through the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills in exchange for renaming the film Plan 9 From Outer Space. By going through with these schemes, Wood was able to actually film his movie. This shows how much Wood cared about his projects, and Burton and Johnny Depp are great at showing this care and love to the film.

            A second aspect to Wood’s films that Burton conveys is how personal these films were to Wood. Wood’s first film, Glen or Glenda, was a very deep and personal film to Wood due to the nature of the plot. Just like the character of Glen, Wood was a transvestite. This was something that Wood found to be very personal to him, and Burton does a great job of really showing how personal Wood and his cross-dressing was to Wood. Burton shows the struggle Wood feels towards his cross-dressing in such a great and meaningful way.

            A third aspect Burton conveys about Wood’s films is the family like nature of the cast. Wood would frequently reuse the same group of actors in his films, such as Bela Lugosi and Bunny Breckinridge. By reusing the same group of misfit actors, Wood is able to create a family of sorts that helps support Wood in times of need. This is something that Burton is very familiar with, as Burton also uses the same group of actors when creating his films. Because of this, Burton is able to accurately convey the sense of community and bond that Wood and his team of actors had with one another.