Ed Wood (1994)

This IS a great film. And as much as people complain about the Burton/Depp team ups, you have to admit he's never played a role the same in any of their collaborations. From Edward to Ed Wood to Ichabod Crane to Willy Wonka to Sweeney Todd.. they're all played pretty far apart from each other.

One of my all time favorite movies, and a movie I try to show to just about everyone I meet. Without a doubt Depp's best performance (and one I still quote constantly). Filled with funny moments, my favorite probably being when Wood is at the Brown Derby trying to convince Vampira to star in his movie and he gets down on one knee, begging. The subsequent reaction of his would-be investors is priceless.

A wonderful and wonderfully polarizing film - people tend to either love it or hate it. It's my favorite of Burton's efforts, and my favorite film about Hollywood and the love of making movies. Nobody is bad (though some are merely mediocre), but many - Depp, Landau, Murray, Jones - are splendid. Very quotable, too. A great film for separating the wheat from the chaff among your acquaintances.

I've been curious over the years...

Why the hell did this great film bomb at the box-office?

A) It's in black and white
B) Depp hadn't been Jack Sparrow yet
C) Burton isn't really a draw
D) Too "insider" Hollywood(aka films about films)
E) The Elfman hardcore boycotted it
F) Gay Bill Murray?
G) It's in black and white (but look at Schindler's List, goddammit!)

Feel free to add H-whatever.

Bill Murray steals the entire movie. Definitely high up in my top movies list.

Landau's meltdown over being referred to as Karloff's sidekick, as well as his rant when he gets into the cold water is comedy gold.

LOVE the bit with the cold water/octopus/bottle of liquor shenanigans.

"Let's shoot this fucker!"

All my favorite Tim Burton movies (Batman, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, Big Fish) work because of supporting characters. Usually that's a weak point of Burton's films. Movies like Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all suffer from less than compelling performances. That's why Ed Wood is the best Burton movie: it has the best performances.

Both Martin Landeau and Bill Murray give the performances of a lifetime. And it's the first movie I saw that convinced me that Depp had more skill than just brooding and being utterly attractive.

It's got a theremin in the score. Automatically escalates it to my kind of flick.

The performances ARE great and I can't help but think Burton would have hung out with these weirdos had he been old enough.

"PULL THE STRINGS!"

Wasn't he up against Jules Winfield? If Sam Jackson had gotten it maybe he would have be in fewer B movies today.

To me this movie is all about the look on Johnny Depp's face. Even when his lack of ability, not resources, is the problem and even he doesn't believe his own bullshit, that smile is still plastered there, and he's still spitting out positive hokum and selling somebody something. It helps that the character's goal is art, otherwise he'd be slimy and not inspirational.

I've never sat down and watched Plan 9, and I know little about Ed Wood's biography, as it's alluded to here and elsewhere, aside from the note about alcoholism at the end of the film. I don't plan to, as I think it would make recalling this film less of a pleasure.

I love this movie to a million tiny pieces, and it's a gem that plenty of Burton fans don't even know exists, let alone Depp fans. And when I show it to people I always tell them my favorite performance is Landau by far. He's just superb.

Definitely my favourite Burton Film but I want to spread some love to Jeffrey Jones and Max Casella - as well as vincent d'onofrio in that fantastic (but dubbed) cameo as orson welles. Although Bunny's mariachi band were fucking brilliant.
It was also the only time I didn't want to kill Sarah Jessica Parker.

"You people are insane! You're wasting your lives making shit! Nobody cares! These movies are terrible!"

Agreed about Parker, something about her fits perfectly in this movie, in a way that I haven't really seen her fit any other film.

"Do I really have a face like a horse?"

Burton must have been inspired to cast her, due to a subliminal onscreen character symmetry in 1993 (year before ED WOOD).

That makes me laugh every time.

"Bevare......Take......care...."

"Mr. Bunny, what's wrong? I heard you were becoming a lady."

"Oh, that. Mexico... was a nightmare. We got into a car accident... he was killed. Our luggage... was stolen. The surgeon... turned out to be... a quack. If it hadn't been for these men...I don't know... how I would have... survived."

Friggin' awesome, and kills me every time I see the flick.

The mexico bit is made so much better, by being said to George "The Animal" Steele.

My favorite Burton movie by about eighteen miles.

Even though it didn't happen in real life. I love the meeting between Wood and Wells.

"They got me doing a picture with Charlton Heston as a mexican."

And for full disclosure, I won this movie in a CHUD dvd contest a few years ago. Thanks CHUD!

"Kaaaarloff...? Siiiiiide-keeck....? FUCK-UH YOU!!!!"

Also, am I remembering right that the soundtrack for the film featured the "Pull the string!" bit? I loved that.

"Karloff did not deserve to smell my shit!"

Just saw this, and I have to agree with everyone here: It's Burton's best aside from the not-directed-by-him Nightmare Before Christmas. Laundry list time!:

-The thing I like the most about Johnny Depp's performance is how cheerful it is, although there are a few well-done moments of sadness. I don't think I've ever seen Depp this energetic, even in stuff like Pirates, and it helps the portrait of Wood as a man deeply devoted to his terrible movies.

-Landau is godly here, and one of the subtler things I appreciate about his performance is that he never treats Ed poorly, even when they first meet, although that can be chalked up to the writing as well. It's just a wonderful performance, funny and moving in equal measure.

-The supporting cast is equally good, although it proves once again that Bill Murray can damn near steal an entire movie even if he's only in it for a few scenes. And man, it's weird to see Juliet "Drusilla from Buffy/Angel" Landau as an essentially nice character in Loretta King.

-This is some seriously gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, which is ironic when you consider the subject matter. And Howard Shore manages to knock yet another score out of the park, complete with great use of the theremin.

-I think this might be Burton's best film because, in addition to everything else that's awesome about it, it's so clear in its storytelling, whereas some of his other films can be kind of aimless and muddled.

So yeah, great stuff. I'm considering watching the commentary since Burton's not the only participant, and that man's commentaries are a freaking cure for insomnia. Should I?

What I love most about this film is it never feels as if it is mocking Ed Wood. It would have been so easy to make a comedy that ridicules the man but this film never goes there. There is something amazing about a man who has so much love for an art that he is willing to sacrifice everything even if he doesn't have any talent. It is almost the ultimate love letter to film.

It's not a movie about a quirky guy who makes terrible movies; it's a movie about a man who loves cinema. I think Ed Wood is, undisputedly, Burton's strongest work. It shows nothing but tenderness for its flawed, sad characters. And it's also fucking hilarious. Landou gives one of my favorite performances and blows comedy gold, throughout.

"Throw me dat vwiski!"

I can remember coming out of the screening for this and honestly believing it was to be a permanent direction shift for Tim Burton, from 'goth fairytale' teller to a director who could use his sensibilities and style to tackle broader subject matter. I think it's what got him the credit that makes me consider both 'Mars Attacks' and 'Sleepy Hollow' as better movies than they probably are. In fact, I thought that Mars Attacks was his oblique 'homage part 2' to Ed Wood.

This is true, and part of the reason it's so funny at times is because they don't go for the easy laugh. The screenplay manages to balance affectionately poking fun at Ed's lack of talent and letting the laughs come out of the characters and situations. Sure, other characters within the movie recognize the awfulness of Ed's pictures, but it's generally an outright negative reaction rather than an affectionate one, and a lot of the humor comes from Ed deflecting or just shrugging off criticisms.

Also, as a voice actor geek, I have to point out that while Vincent D'Onofrio's appearance as Orson Welles is dubbed, it's dubbed by voice acting deity Maurice LaMarche, who's well-known for his creepily dead-on Welles impersonation. It served the basis as his voice for The Brain from "Pinky and The Brain", for instance, and there was a great segment/sketch called "Yes, Always" where they practically re-enacted Welles' infamous "Frozen Peas" outtakes with only some slight censorship in places. He's also been in God knows how many other shows/movies, including roughly half the supporting cast and one-shot characters of Futurama.

And that's your geeky trivia for the day.

Yeah, I'm not generally a big fan of commentaries, but I love the way they did it on this DVD. I remember that the commentary with the writers of the movie has Martin Landau introducing them using his Bela Lugosi voice.

It's always great to see a lot of love for this movie. I remember when the DVD first came out in 2004, I was obsessed with it, trying to show it to everyone I know and constantly quoting it. In particular, "that was perfect!" and "don't get goofy on me!". It's such a quotable movie and I love Depp's Ronald Reagan/Casey Kasem/Wizard of Oz Scarecrow voice/characterization. I had a lot of fun copying it back then.

Also, I think it's sweet how this movie helped the real Ed Wood get a cult following. It's cool how even though his movies were awful, he has achieved some sincere reverence for them. I think it was this movie and his being named 'Worst Director of all time' a few years before it that saved him from fading into obscurity. The movie definitely helped make "Plan Nine from Outer Space" watchable for me. Taken on its own, it's hard to watch with how poor the acting, directing, editing (pretty much everything about it) is, but I could watch it with sympathy and appreciation of the effort (however inept and misguided) as I thought of "Ed Wood" as sort of a key to understanding it. I think it's basically a retarded version of the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still", but god bless Eddie for trying his best to emulate that masterpiece with his limited skill.

"I want to suck your blood"

"I wanna hear him call Karloff a cocksucker"