Ed Wood was
a film director and actor that produced low-budget science fiction, horror, and
cowboy genre films. During his lifetime he was even voted for worst movie with
his film Planet 9 from Outer Space.
Tim Burton was attracted to this terrible director role Ed Wood had and found a
strange attraction to it. When Tim Burton, ironically known for his extreme
talent in making films, produced his film Ed
Wood to pay homage to him he kept up with the style that Ed Wood created in
his low-budget films. To keep up with the true Ed Wood image, Burton uses
actual scenes in his film Ed Wood from
Ed Wood’s movies. For example, he uses a direct scene Glenn or Glenda when he has told Barbara his biggest secret that he
enjoys dressing up as a woman as well. This scene is particularly important
because not only was it in one of Ed Wood’s films, but it is close to Wood’s
heart as well because it is about his own life. Burton even used similar
costumes in order to keep everything, as Ed Wood would have put it.
As a filmmaker, Ed Wood was known
to never give up on one of his ideas or one of his movies. It did not matter
how impossible the concept for the film may seem. For example, when he did not
have enough money for to create spaceships for his film Planet 9 from Outer Space, he simply got paper plates and painted
them silver. His dedication to projecting his ideas into his works never
ceased. To pay homage to this, Burton kept his film Ed Wood in the complete low-budget style. He did not over glamorize
it just because he had the opportunity to and Ed Wood did not.
A third
aspect that shows the homage to Ed Wood himself is the complete love and
acceptance of the strange. Burton has a natural attraction to people and things
that are different, making him very similar to Ed Wood. This allowed Burton’s
biopic film to be able to create an image for viewers as to how Wood really was
because Burton himself understood it and lived it. Burton, a misfit himself,
chose the groups of misfits in Ed Wood.
This common bond between both Burton and Ed Wood made the film Ed Wood a true homage.
Linsey Shubert
ReplyDeleteThe background information you gave on Ed Wood's films was very helpful especially if someone who did not know about Ed Wood before reading this blog read it. I thought that it was a nice touch. Your three points of reference for how Tim Burton paid homage to Ed Wood in his films were very direct, clear, and insightful. I especially liked your third point about Tim Burton sharing a "complete love and acceptance of the strange" with Ed Wood because that is a good point and one I hadn't thought of when writing my blog. I also really enjoyed your picture of Johnny Depp playing Ed Wood in Ed Wood because I think that it captures the essence of Tim Burton's biopic as well as Ed Wood's life in general. Overall, I think you did a wonderful job and your examples were great! Keep up the good work!