I know it's not like anyone here ever knew Ed Wood, but from everything you've seen and heard about him, is the movie Ed Wood regarded as an accurate portrayal of him? When I watched it, I got the impression that he was kind of a goofy guy, a completely incompetent director (ok, you can tell that from his movies), but also a caring person who really believed in what he was doing. The best part of the movie for me were his scenes with Martin Landau.
No.
Read the book the was supposed to be the movie inspiration - Nightmare of Ectasy by Rudoplh Grey...
Wood was a self-destructive drunk that, despite have more than one chance to actually make something of his work, completely fumbled. The book, like most drunk stories you would here in AA, starts off goofy and fun (i.e. Tor Johnson getting wasted and passing out in the front doorway - his dead weight far too heavy for Ed and Kathy to move) and then sinking into a nightmare of gutter level life. Most people who saw what Wood was doing to himself just fell away as he sank lower and lower, but the movie Ed is a completely fictional character that resembles the real Ed Wood very little.
I wondered about that myself. In the movie, he's portrayed as this chirpy, idealistic and totally naive goofball. Didn't think that was true.
Did he really believe Plan 9 to be the movie that would make him as a director, or was that just added because it was the movie that eventually brought him fame (or rather infamy)?
Andy Campbell wrote:
>
>Did he really believe Plan 9 to be the movie that would make
> him as a director, or was that just added because it was the
> movie that eventually brought him fame (or rather infamy)?
>
That ending was complete and utter fantasy. Plan 9 NEVER played in that kind of premiere venue. Wood was constantly struggling to work. Towards the end, he was writing and making porn to get by. Eventually he lost that as well.
When Wood died he was a homeless wreck long forgotten, just another piece of trash in the Hollywood gutter. THAT is the bitter truth. If Ed Wood had been played as a straight and honest biopic, then it would have been as spiritually uplifting as, say, Midnight Cowboy was.
No, the movie's ending was just a chance to let the fictional Wood get his shining Moment of Triumph. Ironically, the funders of Grave Robbers from Space (the movie that became Plan 9) were actually quite fond of the movie. One of them has a 16mm reel print he enjoys pulling out and watching to this day (or at least at the time of Nightmare's publication).
I was somewhat aware of Wood's sorry fate. Read about the drinking and the porn somewhere, but didn't realize just how low he sank.
Just wondered if he had any of the hopes or ambitions of the fictional Wood, or if he was just out to produce cheap crap to make a buck. Did he actually believe there was any value in what he was doing? I mean, he seemed to be making a statement with Glen or Glenda, and the dialogue in Plan 9, silly as it is, does touch on some pretty lofty subjects.
Andy Campbell wrote:
>
>Just wondered if he had any of the hopes or ambitions of the
> fictional Wood, or if he was just out to produce cheap crap
> to make a buck. Did he actually believe there was any value
> in what he was doing? I mean, he seemed to be making a
> statement with Glen or Glenda, and the dialogue in Plan 9,
> silly as it is, does touch on some pretty lofty subjects.
>
Judging from the interviews in the book, yes. Wood was passionate and his movies were intensely personal. Handing over one garbled Plan 9 speech he mentioned to the actor that he had slaved over it again and again to get it right. The actor sighed and said to the interviewer, "but it was just gibberish. It made no sense at all."
Some have pointed out that Wood cast the government as a heavy and put forth conspiracy theories (i.e. the UFO cover-up) long before it became a cliche to do so. He also predicted the folly of the arms race (granted the exploding sunlight concept makes your head explode, but his heart was in the right place).
My theory is that, like Andy Milligan, Wood was a driven yet utterly self-destructive individual. It's his passion and personality that give his movies their oomph, but he was his own worse enemy. On more than one occassion (like Milligan) he had the chance to break out and move on and up, but his destructive streak just tripped him up every time.
And if you think that Wood's demise was heart wrenching and sad, go out and read Jame McDonough's The Ghastly One. What happened to Andy Milligan, as sadistic as he was, you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. I was almost crying and I don't particularly care for Milligan's out put.
Comparing the ED WOOD of the movie to the image I have of Ed Wood the director, I'd like to think that's exactly what Ed Wood was like during his youth. We all know that Mr. Edward D. Wood Jr. slipped into quite a depression after a number of years making his beloved sci-fi movies, and began making his nudie-monster flicks and writing dull romance novels. But it is the Ed Wood in the movie that we all know and love best, and I personally would like to believe that the Ed Wood in the movies is like the Ed Wood behind the movies.
Speaking of Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, he did an INCREDIBLE job portraying the out of work film legend. I felt the deepest sympathies for Lugosi when he called 'Eddie' late at night, begging him to come over because he had overdosed on what ever was in those needles. And the scenes where Landau played a character in one of Wood's movies made the portrayed character ten levels better than anything Wood could ever make. Such a powerful voice Landau has during the movie. I would even go so far as to say that he outdoes the performances of the original Bela Lugosi himself. I never thought I'd say something like that.
-Scottie*
Thanks for all the info. I kind of figured that the truth wasn't quite as rosy as the movie made it out to be.
There is an hour long show devoted to Ed Wood in the Very Strange films series and it has some revealing interviews. Several people say that Ed was extremely proud of Plan 9 and would cal around anytime it showed up on TV. On the DVD version of Plan 9 that I have there is an interview with Delores Fuller who is asked how close the movie came to the real charactor. She states that the movie shows his up side rather well. But he would also get depressed for long periods of time. I don't think she saw much of him in the later years. I read a lengthy article on the movie before it came out. The writer spoke with a number of people involved with the film. They took some libertys but tried to stay close to the truth. Loretta King really did believe herself to be allergic to liquids. The octopus was really stolen and Bela did have to shake it around. I still think the best source of information is Nightmare of Ecstacy. It was not a pleasnant experiance to read.