Tim Burton’s personal attachment to Ed Wood and his own
parallels to Wood’s life caused him to make this movie out of homage to the
famously bad director. Burton did this by sticking to what Wood did and indeed
paying homage to him. Tim Burton uses many of Ed Wood’s actual scenes from his
terrible movies in order to do this. For example, Burton uses the end of Glenn or Glenda almost exactly with the
Barbara character leaning back in the chair after Wood’s character Glenn/Glenda
has told Barbara his secret of dressing in woman’s clothes and her taking her
top off and handing it to Glenn. The costumes are even identical to those used
in Wood’s own film. Sarah Jessica Parker as Barbara moves in the same way as
the original Barbara did and ends with her back to the audience mimicking the
original. Burton uses these exact references to Ed Wood’s films to pay homage
to the man behind the movies.
Another way that
Tim Burton pays homage to Ed Wood in his biopic is by making the film in black
and white just like Wood’s films were. Although the studios instructed and
urged Burton to make them in color because no one wants to see black and white
films anymore, Burton continued with this idea to replicate the feeling of
watching Ed Wood’s films. If the film had been in color it would not have felt
like Ed Wood and it would have had a very different connotation. Wood’s films
were science fiction and horror based and in order to get that feeling and pay
homage to Wood and his directing style, Burton had to make this film in black
and white no matter what the studio said.
Tim Burton also,
using his own personal feelings about Vincent Price, illuminates the
relationship between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi and pays homage to that part of
Wood’s life and his films in turn. Burton’s script pays a lot of attention to
the mentor-student relationship that grows between Wood and Lugosi and it is a
very endearing part of the movie. It also makes audiences understand the role
of Lugosi in Wood’s movies such as in Glenn
or Glenda. Lugosi’s character may seem to not fit in this movie but Burton
makes watcher’s understand the need Wood felt to put Lugosi in the movie and to
create a role for him that he would want to play and would be good at.
I like the layout of this blog a lot. I also liked the fact that you referred to the fact that Burton used black and white to pay homage to the director. I had not really thought about the color aspect before. You're right, if the film had color, it would give it a completely different feel and I personally think that it would have made it seem more cheesy and typical. The "mentor-student" relationship that you talked about is also reflected from not only Lugosi to Wood but from Wood to Burton. I'm glad someone discovered the director and appreciated him if the people of his time couldn't.
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