pHo
Oct 2001
pjeer?
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Review: Ed Wood (1994)
strange things happen sometimes. recently i saw for sale a box with Edward D Wood written on it, its one of those boxes that has a book and a video i believe (im not really sure of its content, they do em for films and directors and they're black. maybe uk only. anyway!) and i thought to myself, "i wonder if thats the Ed Wood from the movie?" i hadn't seen the movie at this point, for some unknown reason, as it features probably my favorite team - Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
unfortunately , it had been sold whilst i was contemplating purchasing, and i went home to read up on the movie. a few weeks later i came across a VHS copy of Ed Wood for $1.50. i probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for the previous encounter, but i quickly snapped it up.
last night whilst boiled and bored, i rigged up the vcr for the first time in about a year. the tape inside had been chewed by the heads, which wasn't a good start as finding enough cables to reach it and set it up took a good 15mins. i placed my pristine ed wood video into the player, and et voila after 3 secs decided it would chew that tape too.
luckily! i always carry spares, so i took the spare VCR from under the computer desk, and rigged it up, and started my cinematic happiness  [and also the longest intro i've written for a movie so far]
the first thing that strikes about the movie, is burtons as usual brilliance in setting the atmosphere. filmed in black and white, but not JUST black and white.. it has the write tones and lighting to create the effect of a 50s b&w movie, over a 90s b&w movie. burton even satirises this halfway thru, when one of the characters is asked which dress they prefer, the green or the red. he replies he's colourblind and can't tell them apart, but he likes the dark grey one (we see the red dress as dark grey).
woods character is written in a sympathetic way, and burton has treated him very well, considering other people would have torn him apart. depp's portrayal is of course fantastic, and shocked me at how young he looks (this IS 10 years ago now). landaus portrayal of lugosi is also fantastic, and you love the character from the beginning, even if he is a morphine addict. altogether the story is humorous and full of witty dialog whilst telling a really interesting story, where at least most of the facts (mainly regarding the production of Plan 9 from Outer Space) are real.
burton is supreme at making people want to learn more about lugosi and ed wood after watching the movie. if you don't even have an urge to check out either of their work, or read up on the characters, then maybe you better watch it again. burton seems to have drifted into the land of the remake now, which is a total shame as i still believe he's one of the most creative people in hollywood, and whilst i thought his imagining of Planet of the Apes was wonderful (especially with tim roth's incredible portrayal of general thade) its a shame his next movie after big fish will be a remake of another film people don't think needs to be redone. 99.9% of remakes i'll ignore and ridiculue, but something tells me burton will take the film in new directions.
probably the best biopic i've seen, and i'm just annoyed with myself i didn't see it earlier. now to find that edward d wood jnr black boxset i missed... 9/10
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08-07-2003 03:57 PM
