Tim Burton has been one of the most famous movie directors in the world for decades. His distinctively gloomy, expressionistic visual style is unmistakable and his films are adored by millions of viewers.
But, while Ed Wood. While the movie received almost universally positive reviews, it stumbled at the box office and remains the director’s most underappreciated work to this day.
It’s A Love Letter To Burton’s Favorite Era Of Movies
From creature features to gothic horror stories transplanted into a suburban setting, Tim Burton has used his idiosyncratic filmmaking voice to tell all kinds of stories, evoking the genres and cinematic stylings that influenced him as a kid.
With Ed Wood, he set out to make a movie about the movies themselves. It’s a love letter to one of his favorite (and most homaged) eras of movies: schlocky sci-fi B-movies from the ‘50s.
Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski’s Script Tells Wood’s Story With A Refreshing Sense Of Humor
Biopics have a tendency to be very dry. Being told the entire life story of a celebrity or historical figure can feel like being back in school as opposed to a fun night at the movies.
Thankfully, Ed Wood doesn’t have that problem, because screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski told Wood’s story with a refreshing sense of humor.
It Doesn’t Take Any Cheap Shots
It would’ve been easy to make a mean-spirited Ed Wood biopic that takes a bunch of jabs at the director’s infamous career, but Burton wasn’t interested in making fun of Wood or taking cheap shots.
Instead, Burton endears the audience to Wood by depicting him as a real human being and encourages them to laugh with him, not at him.
Wood’s Optimism Is Infectious
No matter how many times he fails, Johnny Depp’s Ed Wood always manages to put a positive spin on things and always keeps looking into what he hopes will be a bright future.
That optimism is infectious, not to mention inspirational. Like the plucky spirit of the titular band in the rockumentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Wood’s refusal to give up in the face of failure is universally identifiable and easy for the audience to get behind.
Martin Landau’s Turn As A Past-His-Prime Bela Lugosi Captures The Tragedy Of Fading Stardom
Ed Wood managed to keep making movies because he could get a just about able star well past their heyday to appear in enough of a ing role to place them prominently on the poster. The forgotten star that Burton’s movie focused on was Bela Lugosi, played by the brilliant Martin Landau.
Lugosi is a horror legend, having played Dracula in the old Universal classics, but late in his career, as he’s depicted in the film, he was an out-of-work drug addict. Landau’s performance brilliantly captures the tragedy of fading stardom and the inevitable fall that follows a stratospheric rise.
Burton Presents The Bleak Reality Of Hollywood Instead Of Indulging In The Fantasy
A lot of movies about the film industry, despite being made by people in that industry, peddle the same fantasy that Tinseltown is a place where dreams come true and anybody can be a star.
In Ed Wood, Tim Burton instead explores the bleak realities of Hollywood. Wood has a tough time getting every single one of his movies made, the producers don’t sugar-coat their thoughts on his writing, and the critics line up to lambast everything he creates.
The Fictional Orson Welles Encounter Encapsulates The Movie’s Message About Creativity
One of the most crucial scenes in Ed Wood is a fictional encounter with Orson Welles. Burned out from repeated failure and incessant studio notes, Wood goes to a bar to knock back a couple of drinks, where he meets Welles by chance. Vincent D’Onofrio played Welles’ physical appearance, while an uncredited Maurice LaMarche provided his voice.
Welles encourages Wood to stick with his artistic vision and not bow down to pressure from the studio, similar to his own approach to groundbreaking masterpieces like Citizen Kane. This scene perfectly encapsulates the movie’s message about creativity and the ion of artists.
It Perfectly Recreates The Old-School Look Of Wood’s Movies
David Fincher’s recent Netflix movie Mank set out to tell the story of the writing of Citizen Kane in the style of Citizen Kane, but its digital cameras, modern lighting techniques, and super-wide aspect ratio failed to really evoke the iconic aesthetic of the Orson Welles classic.
In Ed Wood, on the other hand, Burton perfectly recreates the rough, old-school look of Wood’s notorious B-movies. Using Panavision Panaflex Gold II Cameras and spherical lenses, cinematographer Stefan Czapsky beautifully recaptured Wood’s filmmaking style.
Johnny Depp Gives One Of His Most Nuanced Performances
Over the years, Johnny Depp has played all kinds of characters for Tim Burton, appearing in almost all of the director’s movies, but he’s usually relegated to portraying the same eccentric weirdo, essentially.
In Ed Wood, the movie that reinvigorated Depp’s ion for acting, he was given the chance to play a real person as opposed to a one-note archetype – and he seized that opportunity, giving one of the most nuanced and compelling performances of his career.
It’s A Classic Underdog Story
The central conflict of Ed Wood’s life as a filmmaker that Burton’s movie set out to capture was the fact that he truly believed he was a great artist creating high cinematic art, despite critics and audiences constantly telling him otherwise.
In this sense, Ed Wood is a classic underdog story. He’s chased out of theaters by angry mobs of moviegoers and has to struggle to get funding for each subsequent movie because his works always bomb. But he doesn’t let that discourage him.
