Just a man, and his love for movie-making

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2008)

As a B-movie lover, I was attracted to Plan 9 from Outer Space because of it being called the worst movie of all time, and Ed Wood as the worst director of all time. If I remember correctly.
This approach to Ed Wood was wrong, apparently. This movie sure made me reconsider a lot of things about the man and his artistic vision.
Surely enough - he was a pretty incompetent director. His movies are proof of that. Yet - once I watched Glen or Glenda, I began wondering whether I had misjudged the man and his output. Mainly because the love for his craft was perfectly obvious, in spite of all of his technical mistakes.
Leave it to Tim Burton to tell the story about a misfit, surrounded by misfits, who is trying to make a sense of a world that can't understand him at all. Burton's love for movie-making is reflected on Ed Wood's love for movie-making - and it results in an extremely uplifting movie, which makes anyone reconsider their previous stance on Wood. No longer is he the laughingstock of Hollywood - he is, thanks to Johnny Depp, a real human being, with real feelings, fighting for a chance to make his dreams come true.
I never saw Ed Wood the same way after this movie - now, whenever I watch Plan 9 or Glen or Glenda I enjoy it in a different way. No longer do I believe they are the worst movies ever made; far from it. I'm willing to believe many other Hollywood "blockbusters" hold this distinction, if only because the people who made them lost their respect and love for the movie-making art.
Thanks, Mr. Burton, for setting the record straight.