Failure And Success -- An Unlikely Masterpiece Pt. II

Rating: 9/10 (10 June 2005)

Not only is this bittersweet story of a "failed" Hollywood dreamer by far the best movie of Tim Burton's career, it seems to have inspired more compelling commentary than any other film on IMDb. I would like to focus on the "failure" of Ed Wood as an artist -- as opposed to his success as a human being -- and explore the movie's definition of "sucess."
A few years ago, a very insightful gentleman made a number of brilliant points about why this movie wasn't a hit. (Check the IMDb comment index for "An Unlikely Masterpice.") Basically Ed Wood's failure shows that the American dream is a lie. Do your best, believe in yourself and never quit, and you can still end up with nothing. Unquestionably that is the message the mass audience got, and that is why the movie bombed in theaters. But is that all the movie really says? If Ed Wood's failure as an artist was the only point, this movie would be just another dreary tract of the socialist realist school -- like Rod Serling's "Requiem For A Heavyweight." Ed Wood is just another dreamer betrayed by the system -- he's Willy Loman gone to Hollywood.
If you watch the movie closely there's another story going on. This is the story of Ed Wood's growth as a human being. Even as his movie dreams fail, the movie charts his successful -- I repeat, successful -- efforts to form meaningful relationships with people he cares about.
Notice how the movie quietly records Ed's growth in relationships. At the beginning, he's living with Dolores. He doesn't tell her he likes to wear women's clothes. He's a gentle man, and he tries to be caring, but he lies to her and manipulates her in many ways. And their relationship suffers, not because of his lack of talent, but his inability to trust. (Note the superb performance by Sarah Jessica Parker, who makes the potentially grating character of the "wife who doesn't understand" into a completely compelling and sympathetic figure.) When Dolores leaves him, Ed has the opportunity to retreat, to become more bitter and manipulative. Instead he learns to be more open and honest. When he meets Cathy, (Patricia Arquette's character,) who is completely innocent and trusting, he knows he can lie to her and start another relationship like the one he had with Dolores. Instead he chooses to tell her the truth right away, literally "on the first date." This extraordinary act of courage is in many ways the most compelling moment in the film. And the sweetness of their relationship is a victory many great artists never attain.
The same principle applies to Ed Wood's friendship with Bela Lugosi. On one level, this is indeed supreme pathos -- Lugosi who once made masterpieces is reduced to working for a talentless dreamer. But as men, as opposed to artists, Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi are both redeemed by their special friendship. It becomes very clear that, whatever is failings as an artist, Ed Wood is incapable of failure as a friend. He agonizes over Lugosi's decline and gives everything he has so that the great actor can spend his last days doing what he really loves. The fact that the movies they make together are not great works of art is recorded honestly -- but the emotional value of their friendship is also important. These are two men with nothing who choose to create a family bond, and this too is a great victory.
Watch the scene where Ed Wood is at home with his adoring new girlfriend Cathy and a dying Lugosi calls for help on the phone. It would be so easy to ignore Bela now that Ed has someone new in his life. But Ed Wood is as incapable of cruelty as he is of artistic success. What he is capable of is growth as a person -- a careful study of the picture shows that he is actually a far better man at the end than he was at the beginning. Far from being pessimistic about life, in many ways ED WOOD is an uplifting movie about the values of friendship, trust, and intimacy.