Tim Burton enjoyed Ed Wood's work partially because Wood was not actually as bad as critics thought and also to draw attention to what limitations Wood had while making his films. Throughout Burton's biopic, he manages to incorporate scenes from Ed Wood's movies in order to make a point about the creativity of Wood's works. Throughout Burton's film Ed Wood, there are three main scenes in which Burton pays homage to what the real Ed Wood was trying to accomplish in his films.
Many of the scenes within Ed Wood come directly from Ed Wood's movies in order to make a more authentic feel of how Wood's movies were made. The first scene that exemplifies Burton's love of Wood's films is the introduction. The cheap-looking flying saucers that fly around in Wood's movie Plan 9 inspired Burton to place them in his introduction. The introduction is also a good way to foreshadow what the movie will be about. Obviously the movie was not about flying saucers, but the quality of the film is foreshadowed by the spaceships.
The other scene that Burton uses is the one in which Bela Lugosi "battles" the octopus. Here, Burton is trying to explain that the budget of a director proves difficult to make a realistic movie. Because his budget was low, Wood used other worldly looking beings so that they were not only a change from the norm but also so that he could create different beings without being judged on how "normal" they looked compared to how the public thought they should.
The final scene that is an homage to Wood is the one in which Dolores Fuller, Wood's fiancé, rejects him when he comes out as a cross dresser to her by producing a movie about it. Wood's attempt to make other people understand his movies and enjoy the uniqueness of them appealed to Burton. Tim Burton also felt the struggle to make different movies and match what the audience wanted with the individuality and creative liberty that he wanted. This struggle is also one of the main reasons Tim Burton was attracted to Wood's films.
In conclusion, there are three scenes that Tim Burton uses in order to pay homage to Ed Wood. He uses these three scenes in order to show that Wood used what he had on his budget and made unique movies considering how low his budget was. Burton created the scene in which Dolores rejects Wood's movies in order to represent the audience both in Wood's time and Tim Burton's time. Burton also makes the point that Wood made unique and non conformist movies so that audiences could not judge him on how well it adhered to "normal" standards. Through these elements, Burton pays homage to Wood because of their similarities and the fact that Burton feels a certain sense of sympathy towards Wood because they shared the same struggles as directors and film producers.
Your title " The Directors' Struggle" caught me. I like how you listed three scenes in paragraph form that clearly represent Tim Burtons depiction of Ed Wood. It seems that Burton really sheds emphasis on the important people in Ed Woods life during Woods prime time of the filming. Like you wrote in your blog about Bela Lugosi and Delores Fuller, both people played a part in Ed Woods films and his life outside of directing and screenplay writing. Great Blog. -Gabby Buzaid
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