An Inspiring Story

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 2013)

Ed Wood is often called one of the worst directors of all time, if not THE worst. His films suffered from laughably poor production quality, continuity errors and sub-par acting. Usually, we as the viewers, mock these flaws in films such as these but we rarely ever think about the work that was put into them or what the people behind them are like as individuals.
In this film based on Ed Wood himself, follows the making of his three most infamous films, Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space and shows all the trials and troubles he had to go through to get these films made as well as his relationships with the actors, crew and in his personal life, most notably with famous horror star Bela Lugosi.
Rather than make fun of Ed Wood or his work, the film instead portrays him as an ambitious young film maker who might be a little too ambitious for his own good. It's a more human look at him, almost on a personal level. Ed is played by Johnny Depp, who does a fantastic job as portraying him as both funny and sympathetic. You root for him all the way and feel his sadness and disappointment when things do not turn out as expected for him.
Even though Depp acts well in the film, as do the other actors for that matter, the person who steals the show is Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. Landau plays the part to a tee and, much like Depp, plays him both funny and sympathetically only better in my opinion.
The story alone is inspiring to anyone who is or was ever interested in doing something creative, especially film making. The final scene with Plan 9 playing in the theatre as Ed looks on, his face beaming with such happiness and mouthing the words he wrote and by the end he doesn't even seem to care what other people think about it but rather he is content with seeing his vision come alive.
I should probably also mention that the film is not really entirely accurate to Ed Wood's real life but I feel if it was entirely accurate, the film wouldn't be as good. The only real flaw I can think of off the top of my head is that at the very end the film gives us a slide-show of all the characters and what has become of their real life counterparts and some of them are pretty sad to think about for such an uplifting movie, especially Ed himself, but that's very minor and the rest of the film is so good, I don't really mind.
So, the next time you mock a film for not being up to your standards, think a little of the people behind it and the troubles they all went through to see it come to fruition. Then maybe, just a little, you can begin to appreciate film a whole lot more. I know I did after I saw Ed Wood.