Ed Wood (DVD, 2004, Special Edition)

If you've seen "worst movie director of all time," Ed Wood's, "Glen or Glenda" (1953), "Bride of the Monster" (1955), or "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1959), you'll doubtlessly agree with Wood's critics: Wood's movies are such calamities that they're now enjoyed as camp films! Fortunately & much to his credit, director Tim Burton used a great cast of character actors to make an insightful, sensitive motion picture about the over-ambitious, gender-ambiguous master of Hollywood flops, Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Johnny Depp). [Aside: when does Johnny Depp have time off set to sleep?] Depp is fast becoming my all time favorite actor.

Some 50 plus years after his monstrosities were produced, why are we still watching Wood's films? is a question that "Ed Wood" strives to answer. Chronicling events of the 1950's through productions of the aforementioned, Tim Burton's biopic achieves what's unseeming: his audience empathizes with Ed Wood.

Alternating between sensitive & humorous, Burton's masterpiece sides with Wood & Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau). The strangest caricatures crop up: Tor Johnson (George 'The Animal' Steele), a near hirsute; Bunny Breckinridge (Bill Murray) all but a transsexual; Vampira (Lisa Marie), an over-busty faux vampiress; Criswell (Jeffrey Jones) an infamous soothsayer & Orson Welles (Vincent D'Onofrio) who is besieged. In short, an atypical variety of avante garde 'fringe outcasts'.

Regardless of how strange it seems, "Ed Wood" is a true classic that will be legendary. With it's wry humor & stirs of sympathy, the movie literally moves human emotions from one extreme to another. That's inevitable since the true story of Ed Wood's early 'career' is stranger than science fiction.

Burton elected to profile Wood when he was making both under-funded disasters, "Glen or Glenda" (1953) & "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1959).
Martin Landau definitively earned an Oscar for Best Supporting actor for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. His riveting characterization of Lugosi as Wood's friend, the star of his mishaps & a has-been, drug-addict stands among the best in film history. Johnny Depp delivers a riveting performance of Wood as a charismatic figure who inspired his socially exiled company of peers.

Ironically, Burton's "Ed Wood" celebrates awful movie-making. Depp goes well beyond his Pirate Jack Sparrow character to convey Wood's transvestism, cross-dressed in women's pumps, tight skirts & angora sweaters. Thus, Depp achieves a gathering of audience empathy for Wood as the penultimate outsider. I'll save the ultimate irony for this film itself becoming one of the all time best loved~

GREAT/INTERESTING/TRUE STORY!!! I LOVE JOHNNY DEPP, HE CAN PULL OFF ANY ACTING GIG!!!! HE DID IT AGAIN IN THIS "BASED ON FACT" STORY OF QUIRKY DIRECTOR ED WOOD. OF COURSE THE BELLA LAGOSI PART OF THE STORY WAS VERY SAD, YOU KNOW, DRUG USE/ADDICTION, ETC... BUT, THAT WAS BACK IN THE 50'S, SO YOU THINK WITH ALL THE MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE THEY HAVE NOW A DAYS, THERE WOULDN'T BE ALL THAT PROBLEM, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE OLDER, WITH DRUG ADDICTION/WITHDRAWAL/ETC....
ANYWHO, I LOVE JOHNNY DEPP, HIS REAL LIFE CHARACTER SEEMS TO BE THE MOST INTERESTING TO ME, I LIKE HIS ATTITUDE ON MOST THINGS!!! I HOPE HE AND HIS FAMILY ARE DOING WELL!!! LAF

One of the best movies ever made with one of the best prices out there! I love watching it and people think that I am very weird for quoting it. Ed Wood had such a sad life, but you can't help at laugh at him in his struggles. Depp plays him very well and Martin Landau is at his best while playing Bela Lugoisi.

dvd was excellent/crsp, clear, no glitches/story was well-told/character make-ups were ecellent/mostly factual/a real eye-opener int the life of this unusual man/I wanted to have this in my collection bcuz of its unique qualities & content/the utimate irony, of course, is that someone will "colorize" it at some time in the future - which would be OK, as long as the original B&W is not destroyed/compromised...over all, a fun viewing experience....

I needed to watch a biofilm and am a big fan of Ed Wood. So it was a natural that I bought this DVD. I had seen the movie when it first came out and it was as funny and sweet as I remembered. I got an A in the class. Thank you for sending the DVD to me promptly.