One of the best films of all time....

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2003)

Tim Burton and his writers depict the life of the eccentric filmmaker, Edward D. Wood Jr., a man who enjoys his films so much (and the scenes that he shoots, which have obvious mistakes in them) that he is blinded by how ridiculously awful they are. Sure, Ed did make awful films that he considered (and predicted to be) blockbuster hits. But Ed Wood isn't just a simple ordinary filmmaker who makes horrendous pictures, he has so much love for the films he's making, and so much love for filmmaking itself. This film gives you strong insight and depth into Ed Wood.
I watched this movie a couple days ago, but before I watched it, I always wondered why everybody hated Ed's films (I haven't seen any of his movies), but after seeing this, I now know why: Ed Wood had the littlest insight on how to make good movies, because he didn't know what was good in a motion picture, and even worse, he never learned from his mistakes, which was one of his major downfalls. Another major problem in Ed's filmmaking abilities (if you want to call them abilities) is that he loved the scene he would shoot so much, that it overrode the fact that there was major problems in the scene. In one of the movies most memorable scenes, Ed Wood is filming a scene in his film, I which a character walks through a door. The actor who portrayed the character was Tor Johnson. Johnson accidentally bumped into the wall, causing the set to move. Ed Wood liked the take, and didn't bother to do another one, claiming that `In actuality, Lobo would have to struggle with that problem every day.' Ed Wood loved his scenes and his films so much that is resulted in only one take per scene. This movie flat out, and boldly tells you that Edward D. Wood had no filmmaking skill whatsoever.
This film is all in black and white, which at first, I thought would have been a problem for me. I was proven wrong, because the film seems to be better because of the fact that it is in black and white. It bares that 1950's feel to it, and an Ed Wood feel as well. The decision to shoot the film in black and white, I thought, was really creative, and ingenious.
Johnny Depp gives an excellent performance as the film's mains star, Ed Wood. Edward D. Wood (as mentioned earlier) is an eccentric filmmaker, who is blinded by the rancidness of his films. Wood is also a transvestite, who he proudly admits to almost everyone. He also sees the fact that he is a transvestite as the most normal thing in the world. Depp creates a great amount of character for Ed Wood, and gives strong insight on what Ed Wood was like. Martin Landau portrays the burnt out has-been actor, Bela Lugosi. Ladnau delivers an excellent depiction of Lugosi, and bares a strong resemblance. His character Bela Lugosi is an old, burnt out actor, who, in secrecy (for the first half of the movie), is a morphine addict. Lugosi obviously enjoys being apart of Ed's movies, and is practically in them voluntarily. During Ed's picture `Plan 9 From Outer Space,' Lugosi tragically died, thus he was replaced by a man who covered the bottom part of his face with a cloak. Like Johnny Depp, Landau creates a great amount of character for Bela. Landau also creates a vast amount of humor with Lugosi in some scenes, such as in one scene, before filming a part of the movie, he yells out, `Let's shoot this f***er!!' The very hot Sarah Jessica Parker plays as Ed's miserable girlfriend, Dolores, who participates in some of his films. Parker too gives an exhilarating, and inspiring performance as Dolores. She too also gives good insight on how Dolores put up with Ed, hesitantly taking parts in his movies (which they never actually flat out specify if she hated them or not, but in one scene, she says how everyone is working on `s**t.').
I like how the film is comical, such as when Wood continually mentions Lugosi's name to everyone, and they reply `I thought he was dead.' The film always seems to make transition from happy moments, to tragic moments, thus making you think that things are starting to go good.
This film is my fifth favorite film of all time. It has excellent cinematography, a good script, VERY good performances from every single actor, the fact that it is in black and white creates ingenuity, and it really gives the audience strong insight on Ed Wood. Though Ed Wood's films were beyond awful, you cant dismiss the fact that he had so much loyalty to the art of filmmaking. Ed Wood has earned a lot of respect from people for that.
Overall score: 10 out of 10.