Ed Wood (DVD)

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Oft-announced and oft-delayed, "Ed Wood" has finally made its way on to DVD. Although I don't think that either Tim Burton or Johnny Depp consistently makes good movies (in fact, they've made a number of pretty bad ones), they offer such unique visions that it's important for a cinephile to check out Burton and Depp's movies, just in case something special was created. "Batman", "Batman Returns", and "Sleepy Hollow" are outstanding. "Pirates of the Caribbean" is a long-winded hack job, but Johnny Depp is amazingly hilarious in it. He's even charming in touchy-feely pap like "Chocolat".

"Ed Wood" is an ode to a man responsible for howlers such as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda?", movies universally acknowledged as being so bad that they're worth watching for your disbelief. It makes sense that Tim Burton would direct such a project; he's shown an obvious affection for underdogs, social rejects, and lowlifes. (For example, the Martians were much more interesting than the humans in "Mars Attacks!".) Ed Wood surrounded himself with bottom-feeders like a past-his-prime Bela Lugosi and Vampira the buxom hostess of horror movies when they played on TV (she was the inspiration for Elvira). While they worked in order to support themselves, Ed Wood simply wanted to make pictures.

The movie begins with Wood (Johnny Depp) and his friends putting on a production of a poorly-attended play. The theatre life isn't going well for Wood, so he persuades a scrappy independent company to finance a movie about cross-dressing. Despite the harsh reaction towards "Glen or Glenda?" from Hollywood insiders, he manages to squeeze out pictures through perseverance, dumb luck, and not doing more than one take for each shot. He gives Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau, a legend in his own right who won an Oscar for his performance) a last taste at happiness after the former "Dracula" star has ceased to be useful to Universal Studios.

"Ed Wood" is edited in such a way that, every so often, the movie lingers on an actor mugging towards the camera. This is meant to give audiences time to laugh. That way, laughter won't drown out the next bit of dialogue. However, to me, this was too obvious and too forced to be justifiable. The movie's "intended" funny moments weren't really funny at all. Its best chuckles are found during quiet moments, when the characters realize something about themselves after their travails. Still, most of the movie is really a tragedy about how a dying movie star has to demean himself making movies directed by a hack who doesn't even know that he's terrible. I didn't feel affectionate or protective towards Ed Wood the way that some of the characters do; rather, I wanted either to slap him awake or to look away from the screen.

The large ensemble cast includes Sarah Jessica Parker as one of Wood's girlfriends, Patricia Arquette as Wood's wife, Jeffrey Jones as a TV psychic, Bill Murray as a transvestite, Max Casella (from "Doogie Howser") as one of Wood's loyal assistants/actors, and Juliet Landau, Martin's daughter, as an aspiring actress. (Juliet Landau played Drusilla on TV's "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".) People talk about how funny "Ed Wood" is. I laughed aloud just once, when Sarah Jessica Parker's character wonders if she has a horse face as per a critic's review; I don't care if Sarah Jessica Parker was the star of a TV show called "Sex and the City"--she's not the least bit attractive, and her face is indeed horse-like.