Ed Wood has historically been considered the worst director of all time and his film Plan 9 From Outer Space the worst movie ever. This past Halloween, I finally got to see the evidence. I can't honestly say Plan 9 is the worst movie I've ever seen (that would be Wise Guys, I paid a dollar to see it and still walked out of the theatre) but can see where the suggestion comes from. If this movie is to be taken seriously, it's horrible. But, if viewed as something made with honest intentions and failing so badly it becomes a joke, then it's pretty entertaining!
Plan 9 has to do with aliens resurrecting the dead to kill the living to keep mankind from creating a weapon powerful enough to destroy the universe...someday. The acting is uniformly bad and amateurish. The sets are made of cardboard and are reused repeatedly with very little redecoration. Bela Lugosi died before the movie was made and a blatant stand in is used to fill in for most of the movie.
On top of this, the flying saucers are plates on visible strings. The scenes switch from day to night and back to day in seconds. The pacing is leaden. The whole concept of the movie is ridiculous. So, what makes this movie watchable?
Two things. One is you keep waiting to see what will go wrong next. It's great to view this and tally all the errors in the movie. And secondly, appreciation of the moxie it took to get this movie made. It's not made with the intent of being bad, there's no self referential irony in this film. This lack of self awareness makes Plan 9 both funnier and more respectable at the same time. You've gotta appreciate the will to do something big acted upon, even if the result is disasterous.
This appreciation infuses Tim Burton's film Ed Wood, a biography of sorts about the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space. The movie is a fitting tribute, telling the story of Ed Wood's life with all of the trappings of Wood's movies. Johnny Depp plays Ed Wood, a cross dressing Hollywood studio grunt trying to become a director. Depp plays Wood as a nieve dreamer with an opportunistic streak. The Ed Wood depicted here wants his movies to be made, no matter what the cost in both finances and the quality of his own filmmaking.
Wood befrends an aging, dope addicted Bela Lugosi and is able to wheel and deal his way into making a few films. Through it all, Wood and his group of outsider friends ranging from wrestlers to psychics to drag queens band together to make his movies. If you see Plan 9, then see this movie to gain a better understanding of the whole thing. Tim Burton excels at making sensitive, whimsical movies about sociatal pariahs and Ed Wood is a great addition to his canon.
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