Everyone has that one film they consider to be underrated. In fact, I wrote an article about underrated animated films myself not too long ago. However, for me, the most underrated film of all time is Tim Burton’s 1994 masterpiece, “Ed Wood”. There have been many great movies about movie making, showing insight to how a movie is made and what goes into it, but this is my favorite film in that genre. In fact, this is not only my favorite of all Tim Burton’s films, but my second favorite film of all time.
The story is about a filmmaker in the 1950s, Edward D. Wood, Jr. (played by Johnny Depp). He’s a young writer/director in Hollywood struggling to get off the ground. In the opening scene, he premieres his new play, which has little press, and the press he does get gives scathing reviews. However, as luck would have it, he comes across his film idol, Bela Lugosi (played brilliantly by Martin Landau), who, at this point, has no career anymore, and has a drug addiction. They become friends quite quickly, to the point where Bela agrees to be in Wood’s first movie, the cult classic, “Glen or Glenda”. After that film failed in the eyes of the public, he keeps trying to get his next movie made. Along the way, he makes a bunch of new friends, including Swedish wrestler, Tor Johnson (played by George “The Animal” Steele), and TV psychic Criswell (played by Jeffrey Jones), who he later recruits in his next movies. While doing all this, he tends to Bela, whose drug addiction gets more and more noticeable. The rest of the movie is Ed Wood trying to get his movies made despite all the obstacles put in front of him.
The main reason I love this movie so much is its main character, Ed Wood. Even if he’s one of the worst filmmakers of all time, it’s impossible not to like this guy simply because of how much he loves what he does. Of course, he makes stuff a lot of people don’t consider good, but the fact that there’s a story that focuses on how much he loves making his movies is really quite touching. To me, he’s a reminder as to why artists do what they do. There’s always the risk that what you’re doing will not succeed. For some, it may never succeed, or at least the way they had in mind. But Ed Wood reminds us that you have to keep going simply because you want to do it, or even need to do it. Even if it turns out that no one likes your work, that’s not the reason you did it to begin with; you did it because that passion is burning and won’t be settled until you do something with it. Yes, we’ll all make fun of his work and even get a good laugh analyzing how terrible his movies are, but the constant passion and joy he has for his work, and how much he will never give up just to get out what he wants to get out is not only inspiring, it’s contagious. I can say easily that I get a lot of my passion from this character. What makes him so special is that even though his films were awful, the passion he had for his work was truly admirable. Film wasn’t just a job for him, it was his life, it was his love. And it didn’t matter to him what came out of it; he was just so happy to make movies. Whether a lifetime of fans came out of it or absolutely nothing ever came out of it, he would keep doing it regardless. And I would even make the argument, that’s the sign of a true artist. Not all artists have to be great, but I’ve heard of plenty who consider themselves the best, but constantly complain about what they do, and don’t appreciate the incredible gift they have to explore this creative realm. When you think of all those people who aren’t able to find the creative means to do that, Ed Wood really serves as a creative inspiration. I love how happy he is, I love how weird he is, I love how he kept nothing hidden, and most of all, I love how he just embraces everything that comes toward him with a big smile.
Of course, Johnny Depp does a wonderful job portraying the bright-eyed, slightly eccentric Ed Wood, but by far, the best performance in this movie, as well as one of the best I’ve ever seen is Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. Landau does a wonderful job in not only capturing Lugosi’s presence, but also in showing the fragile, vulnerable side of Lugosi. A lot of times when you see a celebrity portraying another celebrity in a movie, the actor can be easily recognizable. It’s kind of that feeling of “Yeah, they’re acting, but you know they’re acting”. You can almost see the actor in the costume. With Martin Landau, I never felt that. Every second he’s on screen, he’s in the role. It feels like you’re watching the actual Bela Lugosi. Watching his performance, as well as listening to what he says about his past works in the movie, is something that as an actor, I always look up to. There’s one line where he says, “When I play Dracula, I put myself into a trance. It takes me much time to re-emerge”. That line shows me what an actor needs to do to give a great performance; he doesn’t just have to know the role, he has to really get into the role. And that’s exactly what Martin Landau does here. So much so, that even the monologues he reads for Ed Wood’s movies sound great coming from him. Keep in mind, the original monologues that Ed Wood wrote for Bela were horribly written, and even in the original movies, Bela has a tough time making them sound good, but the way Martin Landau does it, he even makes those bad monologues sound compelling. That’s the sign of an incredible actor. Landau eventually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this movie, beating out Gary Sinese in “Forrest Gump”, and with good reason.
The film is also shot gorgeously in black and white, paying homage to the 50s, and the black and white movies Ed Wood made. The cinematography is wonderful, too. For example, there’s a really great scene where Ed finds out that Lugosi is about to kill himself, and the way the camera moves to show his house, as well as the angles and movement, do a great job conveying how out of it Lugosi is. There’s even a point where the camera shakes as Lugosi slips into his chair.
Also, my favorite scene in the entire movie is when Ed leaves the studio because his producers are taking too much control of his film. He then goes to Musso & Frank’s Grill for a whiskey. There, he meets another one of his idols, Orson Welles. They then have a discussion about the problems they’re both having on their movies, which are quite similar, actually. It’s intriguing to see how both the best and the worst filmmakers have the exact same problems, and the message Welles gives Ed is inspiring; “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dream?” Even though this scene never really happened in real life, it really leaves you with a lot to think about.
With wonderful cinematography, writing, directing, and two of my absolute favorite performances in all of cinema, Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” is a masterwork of filmmaking, showing that even one of the worst filmmakers ever can still inspire something amazing. Ed Wood would always comment and every scene he shot, “It’s Perfect!”, and there is no other word I can use to describe this movie than perfect. It’s not as well known as most Burton films, but those who love it really love it. And it still continues to be one of my favorites.
