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When Harry and Michael Medved proclaimed Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s Plan 9 from Outer Space to be the Worst Movie Ever Made in their 1980 book, The Golden Turkey Awards, the eccentric director attained instant icon status: the Grand Fromage of Cinematic Cheese. The stories behind his movies -- shoestring budgets, stolen props, cross-dressing -- were usually more interesting than the finished product, so it was no real surprise that someone would make a movie about him. Still, while one still wonders how director Tim Burton talked Walt Disney's Touchstone Pictures into producing this black-and-white, R-rated, impossible-to-categorize biographical film, we remain glad he did. Johnny Depp portrays Wood, a wannabe filmmaker whose lack of talent is nearly made up for by his boundless enthusiasm. He also has a penchant for cross-dressing and angora sweaters -- obsessions that will feature prominently in his movies. After spending the early '50s getting rejected by every producer in town, Wood happens on a bit of luck when he meets and befriends onetime horror icon Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), now a drug addict living in a dingy prefab house on the outskirts of Los Angeles. With a known star onboard, he finally gets backing, and he and his entourage of transsexuals, mentalists, professional wrestlers, and other denizens of the Hollywood fringe go about making such classic schlock as Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and the aforementioned Plan 9. Depp jumps in with both feet, playing Wood as a wide-eyed, gee-whiz dreamer who sees every production setback as an opportunity. As Lugosi, Landau is both profanely funny and profoundly sad, and the performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The casting is pitch-perfect, down to the smallest parts: Bill Murray as the flamboyant Bunny Breckinridge; Jeffrey Jones as the psychic Criswell; and Vincent D'Onofrio as Orson Welles. Burton, meanwhile, obviously had a blast re-creating some of the most infamous moments in Wood's films; but it is the relationship between Depp and Landau that really make this film worth watching. Ed Wood may ultimately be a cult film about a cult director, but it is a near-perfect one that you don't have to be a Midnight Movie fan to love. Bill Pearis

All Movie Guide

Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. Jeremy Beday

Product Details

• UPC: 786936212501
• Source: TOUCHSTONE / DISNEY
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: B&W, Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 2:07:00
• Sales Rank: 7,768

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