Tim Burton’s film Ed Wood is considered to be one of his worst movies to date. It is a very intriguing topic of a movie, in that a director made a movie about another director and his movies. Ed Wood’s movies were considered very bad, mostly because of the lack of budget and major film studios. Also, bad actors did not help his case in making a great movie. Ed Wood is considered to be “the world’s worst film director” and also won an award for that infamous achievement. Ed Wood created his movies from his own passion and imagination. Despite his lack of budget and experienced actors, his movies had a sense of beauty that can only be seen with a better understanding of the director.
In Burton’s movie Ed Wood, Wood meets his idol and hero Bela Lugosi in a coffin store. He is a bit star struck at first at the sight of the actor he ad so much respect for, but Bela Lugosi didn’t want to be bothered. Ed Wood, who is played by Johnny Depp, becomes upset because of the fact that Bela Lugosi is done making movies and acting.
Tim Burton was very interested in Ed Wood in his movies. He understood Wood and what he was trying to accomplish with his movies. Tim Burton shared the same interests and secrets as Ed. They were both extremely into the dark element of movies and horror films. Tim Burton, being a director, wanted to make a movie about directing movies. Like most directors, he is fascinated by his own life and didn’t understand how the audience would actually react to this movie. It is a different type of movie than Tim Burton normally directs. Yes, it has the dark side that most of his movies have, but it’s a movie about movies. One fact that people don’t recognize as much is that Johnny Depp plays an awesome role of an amateur actor. For example, his eagerness when meeting his idol who shares the same type of interest as him or when Sarah Jessica Parker opens the door and sees him as a cross-dresser. This also brings up the haunting acts of Ed Wood’s childhood. His mother would dress him as a woman because she wanted a daughter. He says this is what calm him down. This is a secret he kept with him his whole life. Tim Burton also has haunting childhood stories that affected his adulthood.
Personally, I definitely believe that this is one of Tim Burton’s worst movie, and perhaps even the worst. I definitely see the parallel between Wood's movies, which were famous for being low budget and horrible, and this movie, which was also low budget and not a great piece of work. To be fair, after watching this movie, I understand that there is a fair amount of passion and heart that Wood put into his movies as you pointed out, and you may have to be a director to fully understand their beauty, but not being a director, the beautiful vision of Ed's movies as well as this movie seemed rather dull and inane. I definitely agree with the point you make that Burton understands what Wood was trying to accomplish with his movies and that he shares some of Wood's interests such as dark elements and horror, but I disagree with the idea that he shares the same secrets as Wood. For example, I'm pretty sure Burton isn't a transvestite, but I could definitely be wrong there. I think your point about the parallel between both directors incorporating ideas from their life, Burton using his awful relationship to his parents and Wood using his past and present as a transvestite, is very well made. I must say, solid blog dude. Noah Feltes
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