Truly Epitomizes The Art Of Filmmaking

Rating: 10/10 (25 October 2011)

i've always felt that Tim Burton's classic 'Ed Wood' was all about Hollywood and more important about the heart and mind of the filmmaker and artist. his film 'Edward ScissorsHands' was about the artist in general, but 'Ed Wood' is about the artist as a cinema artist and filmmaker in particular.
sure Ed Wood jr. might have been pretty bizarre, but he obviously loved to make movies, was sincere about it and most of all, he's not boring. bad films are boring. Eddie's movies are always so weird and kooky and quaint that they stand out from other bad films and from other films in general. you really remember them.
there has been a lot of quibbling about the accuracy in Tim Burton's movie about EWJ's life accounts. i own and have read Rudolph Grey's book (i bought it for my brother in 1992 and read it before the movie came out), and i would have to say a good percentage of Burton's film is fairly accurate. sure 'Plan 9' never premiered at the Pantages theater in Hollywood, and Wood never met Orson Welles (who incidentally was much older at this time period than depicted here). but some even weirder things, like the Baptist church involvement and Vampira's taking the city bus to the filming in full costume, were absolutely true. Burton did take liberties with the truth here but i would say there is more truth than fiction here which brings to mind the old adage about the truth being stranger than fiction.
whatever the case, this film glorifies not only Hollywood, but the independent filmmaker and THAT is true democracy. i wish more people were truly that fair and democratic when evaluating things in our society. we actually might get somewhere if people practiced more thinking like this.
this is one of Hollywood's greatest classics. certainly one of it's funniest. all the elements here work well and go beyond the call. the performances are just great, especially Landau, who in my opinion gives one of the very best performances in the history of the Academy Awards. the whole film in general is just brilliant.
so many lines in the movie sum the whole like Criswell stating "can your heart stand the terrifying TRUTH...", but sometimes i think it's the dialogue between Weiss and Wood where Weiss yells, "i asked you for a sex change film and you give me some crap about some schmuck who likes angora sweaters!", to where Wood replies, "i don't happen to think he's a schmuck". oh well. time alone and time will tell.