"Outstanding."

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2005)

ED WOOD tells the story of the world's worst movie director. He was the man behind a number of inept American b-pictures such as GLEN OR GLENDA, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER and the infamous PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, which was officially voted as the worst movie of all time. Wood had an incompetent directorial style, which included casting non actors that included a group of dope addicts, transvestites, a struggling TV horror queen and the fading Hollywood legend Bela Lugosi. He was content to botch scenes by allowing his actors to muff their lines and he also mixed day and night shots together disregarding continuity. As well as depicting the way he made his movies, ED WOOD also focuses on the way his erratic career and behaviour affected his relationships with his girlfriends and his friendship with Lugosi.
ED WOOD is an outstanding achievement from director Tim Burton who has to be one of the greatest fantasy film makers of the contemporary cinema. Check out SLEEPY HOLLOW! Here he gets fine performances especially from Johnny Depp as Wood while Martin Landau's Oscar winning portrayal of Bela Lugosi is standout. Landau not only bares an uncanny resemblance to the actor, but the way he and Depp portray the friendship between the two struggling film makers is heart rending and also offers a few laughs along the way. For example, it's Halloween night and a group of trick or treaters come to Lugosi's door. He throws on his Dracula cape and goes to the door throwing his arms upward with the phrase "I want to suck your blood". This sends the little girls screaming and running away while the little boy among their number isn't afraid and says "those fangs don't frighten me." Then Wood appears and says "how about these" and pulls his false dentures out, which has the little boy scurrying off in fright. However, there are moments which almost brought this reviewer to tears. Lugosi was addicted to morphine and was penniless in the last years of his life. Wood was a huge fan of Lugosi and his horror movies such as Dracula (1931) and hires him in his movies partly out of admiration and in a naive attempt to make him a star again and also through sympathy at the poverty which now dominates his life. Before Lugosi died he thanked Ed for all that he had done for him by casting him in his pictures. This almost brings one to tears as in the film he never actually sees the films and therefore had no idea how bad they were as when they go to the premiere of BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, they have to leave as the audience is tearing the picture house apart. Burton has expertly recreated key scenes from some of Wood's pictures which have the audience roaring with laughter. For instance, the scene where they are shooting the climax of BRIDE OF THE MONSTER where Lugosi's character is attacked by an octopus in a lake. Wood's crew pinch a rubber octopus from a film studio but forget to pick up the motor that drives it and Lugosi ended up doing battle with a lifeless octopus. The film also accurately depicts the fact that when Wood made PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, Lugosi died before the film was finished and he had to bring in a double (who was a good foot taller than Lugosi) to replace him and he had to keep his face covered so that hopefully the audience wouldn't notice. Another classic scene in the film is when Wood storms out of the studio during the making of the film because the producers were questioning his competence as a director. Wood hops in a taxi and goes to the nearest bar where Orson Welles (another of his idols) happens to be drinking. Welles is brilliantly portrayed here by Vincent D' Oriofrio. Wood manages to meet him and tells him about how unhappy he is with the interference from the money men. Welles tells him that he has the same trouble all of the time and that CITIZEN KANE was the only film where he had complete control over the project and that the studio hated it. He then tells ED that "dreams are worth fighting for". This restores Ed's courage and he races off back to the studio to make the film his way or not at all.
In summary, ED WOOD must be a milestone in cinema history as it is lovingly crafted by Burton and Landau's portrayal of Lugosi truly deserved the Oscar. Burton and D' Oriofrio are both exemplary and really there isn't a bad performance in the film right down to the smallest part. It was one of those great movie moments where everything just clicked and if fine acting isn't enough, the film also deserves full marks for delivering a fair amount of laughs as well of it's share of tears.